Sedona, Arizona - Devil's Bridge

We're back at it again in Sedona! Today we are taking Devil's Bridge!

We both had a decent night's sleep at the campsite. The cool weather at night, which was around 40-45 degrees, made it feel like air conditioning inside the tent. We made our breakfast right at the campsite, with our jetfuel burning stove. It uses propane fuel and takes a very short time to boil water. It's basically what it says it is. When it's lit, it looks like a jet engine. We both had scrambled eggs and bacon to fuel ourselves up for a day of hiking!

Our first stop was at Devil's Bridge. Devil's Bridge is the largest natural sandstone arch in the Sedona area. It is also one of the most popular hikes in Sedona. It's a very easy hike that's only around 4 miles long with very little elevation gain involved. On the way to the trailhead, you can see Devil's Bridge from a long distance away!! I circled it in the photo below.

We got there early, but not early enough. Both parking lots were completely full and the road was already starting to line up with cars. This is one of the easier hikes in Sedona and it is definitely popular. You can also take jeep tours to the trail head which cuts off around 2 miles of hiking. Only the lazy and boring people do that ;-)

This is from the start of the trail. The Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness is over 43,000 acres and is basically all in Sedona. Now, the Coconino National forest is a different story. It totals over 1.8 MILLION acres!! It spans across the middle of Arizona, from Flagstaff to southern Sedona.

Along the jeep trail, you occasionally rise above the trees and shrubs and are able to see some of the magnificent colors, mountains and interesting rock designs of Sedona.

The colors were just stunning. By late morning, the thin clouds gave way and the sun was out in full power.

And so were the crowds....

The first mile is the jeep road and the last mile is an actual hiking trail. When we got to the trail, there was way to many people to enjoy the hike. Idiots wearing sandals while climbing the difficult areas, no water, wondering all over the place, yelling at others up the trail. One guy was playing music from his backpack. Jessica talked me out of confronting him to shut it off and enjoy nature. It was, for lack of better words,a shit show. On the way up, people were coming down with buckets of soap, gloves and scrubbing utensils. Being curious, I asked what were they doing? A guy said that they were cleaning off graffiti that someone had spray painted on the rocks up by Devil's Bridge. I was like 'ARE YOU FRICKEN SERIOUS?" They sadfully said yes, but it is removed now. I thanked them for their help and we kept going up the trail.

While hiking, there is some etiquette while you're out on the trail. Leave No Trace, don't be a dick, and let the people who are coming down, well, come down. They should also let you go up too at times, making it a back and forth effort so people can keep moving on the trail. Well, that didn't happen here. When we were at the bottom of a steeper part, no one was letting the hikers that were coming up go. We spent at least 3-5 minutes just waiting for people to come down. I said "screw this", grabbed Jessica and started going up(I at least said excuse me). It was out of line, but so were the people who didn't have the decency to let other hikers advance up the trail.

All in all, it felt like an amusement park. If you want to go here and have solidarity, I would suggest going in the winter, when no one is there. Other than that, you'll be stuck with that crap that we had to deal with.

We finally reached Devil's Bridge and while it was cool and beautiful, it was definitely an amusement park. There was a line to wait to get onto the bridge to take pictures, which was ok, but some people didn't get the point that others were there, and just kept staying there.

The photo above is looking down on Devil's Bridge. Look closely on the bottom of the photo and you'll see the arch and the gap in the bridge.

Yes, that's me enjoying my 5 seconds on the bridge!!

Jessica didn't join me on the bridge because she was nervous with how high it was. A lady near us was freaking out because her son was on the bridge. This didn't help Jessica and it gave her a mild scare of the consequences of being on the bridge(which is very minimal). The bridge does rise around 200 feet, so I understand. It also has an area where it is not connected to the part of the mountain, so you had to jump over a little crack to advance onto the bridge. Plus, how would I of gotten these cool pictures if she went with me!

On the way back down it was the same situation as before. There was a long line going up and down the steeper part of the trail and not many were letting each other through. When it was our turn to go down, I let a good amount of people come up, then I sneaked us through and got us to the flat area. We saw a little path to the right and decided to check it out so we could get away from the crowd. What a good idea that was!!

It opened up into this beautiful view of the valley.

We had a little snack here and soaked in the views for a couple minutes. After that, we headed back onto the trail and found one more viewpoint on the way back.

The picture above shows the plateau of Doe Mountain. Doe Mountain is one of the places on our list of hikes!

We got back to the trailhead at around noon and headed out for lunch. Both the trailhead and the road was jam packed with cars. I'm betting some people parked over a mile from the trail head. Devil's Bridge was beautiful and unique, but next time we will go off the beaten path.