Hiking in a Spiritual Place

Man, do I miss having a bathroom right down the hall. The mornings are always hard for me as I am a riser who always, always, always needs to use the bathroom right away. I swear Chad absorbs all of his liquid because he never rushes to leave in the morning. Merry Christmas to me, a full bladder. To my horror, I realized it was Christmas and that means that there will be hardly any places open for me to relieve myself. We drove for what seemed like hours (maybe 20 minutes) until we found a Walgreens that was buzzing with people. THANK GOODNESS. We tried to find a coffee shop, and with veracity, scoured the city. There was nothing open, and I don’t blame them, so there was no blogging happening this morning. After discussion, we road tripped on to Sedona, AZ. The car wove in and out of mountain caverns and gradually made it down the inclines. The snow from last night’s storm shown bright on the trees and rocks that dotted the mountain sides. We took pictures on road and Chad urged for pristine pictures, especially of a natural branch archway over the top of the road glittered in snow. Sedona popped out of nowhere and we explored the tourist trap by foot. Chit chatted with a map guy, learned where the vortex locations where in the surrounding rock formations and moved on. I stepped into a rock shop and the cashier David invited us in for a long chat. We learned about his world travels and earned a brief synopsis of his life. He shared his love for energy, healing and details about the land. Giving us tips for the hiking, where and where not to eat and advising to try a local yummy we left. Having lunch at alien burger joint, we planned our hiking adventure. I tried to get Chad to go to the church built into the rock but the amount of people traveling there and the little parking said otherwise. Chad parked in another church parking lot and we hiked towards Bell Rock. I saw twisted trees caused by the crazy vortex energy. The energy was caused because of the close placement of the iron in the rocks. The information guy explained it like putting two refrigerator magnates together and feeling repletion. A very merry Christmas hike for sure.

It was truly peaceful as we jogged the trail and climbed the rocks. After the hike we literally restaurant hopped all of the open restaurants in Sedona looking for food. Each one packed with people and the lines out the door. Not finding a place to eat, I settled on my left over Subway sandwich and Chad went to work on finding a place to camp out. Chad, following the suggestions of a mountain bike forum, found places to sleep in the nation parks for free. Upon arrival we were greeted by the welcoming site of car campers strung out in the U-shaped parking lot.

Slept. Woke. Then hunted for a coffee shop.