We set off for another morning of hiking. We decided to try Soldiers Pass to see the seven sacred pools, Devil's Kitchen Sinkhole and a secret cave. The day started out a little rough. We waited about 45 minutes for a parking spot and never found one. We had to hire a service to take us from a parking lot at a middle school to the trailhead so we could hike the trail. There is a lady who shuttles people back and forth for tips only. She was very kind and very busy! This was a very popular trail!
We easily made it to Devil's Kitchen Sinkhole and took a quick peek inside.
Next were the seven sacred pools. They are always filled with water no matter how hot the desert becomes. I could only get three in the picture, but there are four more down below.
We decided to try and hike to the secret cave. The total hike including the cave is about 3.5 miles. There is no pathway and just a tree that is marked cave. The hike upwards to the cave is more like climbing straight up a mountain with no trail! It was definitely more of a climb/scramble to get up there. Many people we passed on the hike were very surprised that our young children were able to finish it. Patrick and Peyton did okay, but Conor and Caitie struggled. I had to carry Caitie on my hip while trying to climb up myself. It was quite the challenge!
We finally made it to the cave! It was so hard to climb up into the cave that we weren't able to get Caitie up there. Michael and I took turns going into the cave with the boys. Numerous other bystanders looked at the kids in awe and commented that they barely made it up themselves and were impressed by them. The kids were pretty happy about their compliments!
Peyton climbing to the opening inside the cave.
Here's a picture of the inside of the cave. It made us a little nervous that one of the kids could fall straight down!
Waiting on brothers in the cave
The boys were really proud of making it to the cave!
Going back down the mountain was almost more challenging then going up. We all pretty much slid down and tried to avoid sharp rocks and cactus'. We took a family selfie at the bottom to celebrate! Phew we made it!
We walked around downtown Sedona after our hike trying to find somewhere to eat. Everywhere we tried was over an hour wait at 3pm! We finally found Beaver Creek Brewery and had a nice delicious meal!
We closed our our last day in Sedona by swimming at the pool and roasting s'mores by the fire. The next morning we packed up all of our things and headed to one last meal before heading to the airport. We went to Mesa Grill for brunch. It's a cute little restaurant right next to the Sedona airport. It has really great views and also has planes arriving and taking off right outside the restaurant. It was fun for the kids to watch.
It was an amazing trip! We were all sad to leave Arizona!
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