Red rocks and dirty socks.

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That's what you get when you hike in Sedona. Today was another day of "hard" work driving people around and just generally having fun. It was a private trip, so for once the occupants of the good ol' rec van were not at my mercy. Rather, I was at theirs. But a merciful bunch they were. We were on the hunt for food, so we stopped at a shopping center on the outskirts of Sedona, only to find that eveything edible cost as much as your average college education. So the members of the party had to content themselves with molesting a nearby collection of nude statues, which they did with a disturbing relish.
After picking up some picnicky goods at Basha's, we proceeded to search for Cathedral Rock, which my patrons wanted to hike up and have a picnic on. After wandering aimlessly on a dirt road that was as close to off-roading as I would ever like to come in a fifteen-passenger van, we finally meandered into what I honestly remember being Red Rock State Park. After paying the entrance fee and poking around for a few minutes, however, we came to realize that this particular park didn't offer access to Cathedral Rock. So we went down another, slightly more civilized road to another location which was ALSO NAMED Red Rock State Park, paid yet another entrance fee, and took a quick dip in Cottonwood Creek to cool off. After our swim, we hit the trail. Or so I thought. I hit something, but it definitely wasn't the trail. To make a 2-hour story short, I lost the trail and tried unsuccessfully to blaze my own route to the top, finally scrambling, climbing, crawling and falling back to the real trail. Most unfortunately, my tour group misplaced trust in my navigational skills and tried to follow me on my errant route, which had them all thinking that they were going to die that day. Really. They told me.
Once I was back on the trail, it was up to the top of Cathedral Rock for me. One girl from the group made it as well. The rest sat at the foot of the climb in abject misery. After summitting, I went back to the van and took a nap. An urgent knocking on the van windows woke me up, and I looked through puffy eyelids to see the group standing outside in a steady drizzle. Woops. It's a democracy inside the van, and Taco Bell's imitation Mexican food won the dinner break election by a majority vote. And I have to say, I don't care if a Spicy Chicken Crunchwrap Supreme is about as un-authentic as you can get, it still tastes damn good.

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Photos

Cathedral Rock
The elusive object of our desires.

Crossing Cottonwood Creek
Watch that last step! It's a doozy!

Creepy Crawler
It may look small in the picture, but this centipede was at least 8 inches long. We came across it on the trail to Cathedral Rock.

Gnarly Tree
Nuf said.

Cairn
I made this cool ass trail marker for my group, which was lagging behind me after I got them lost. Too bad I pointed it in the wrong direction. Just kidding!

Una arcoiris mas bonita!
While I was looking at this rainbow, gay people were having sex somewhere.