Ten years previous to this trip, we had climbed a mesa, a little over a mile up on a trail of switchbacks with some hand over hand climbing. We had made it to the top and walked around looking at the views on a beautiful Sedona morning. The top was also a little over a mile around. I thought it would be a great idea to try it again ten years later. We were awake and on the road by 6 AM searching for our Mesa (Bear Mountain). We found the road and after a short while, I saw it right in front of us.
When we reached it, we parked and looked up to where we were planning on climbing: to the very top!!!
As I looked at it, three questions came to my mind:1) Can a mountain grow taller in ten years?????2) Am I crazy??3) What the hell is Phyllis doing here with me, after all she is the college educated one of the two of us???But I'm a guy, so naturally I do not share any of these thoughts with Phyllis. Instead I ask in a confident, strong voice (OK, I'm writing this, that's how I remember it) "Okay, lets go, before we loose the light." We started out not seeing anyone on the mountain. We would seemingly be the first ones on it today. The climb can be dangerous and there are some areas where you need to be careful. One misstep and you could have a pretty nasty fall. We would stop and rest every so often. You need to focus on each step. There were areas when I would put my equipment down, (camera, vest with extra lenses, assorted equipment and a tripod) weighing about fifteen pounds and climb a five ft trail going pretty much straight up. When I was up and had a steady foothold, Phyllis would hand me all of our equipment and I would then be ready for Phyllis, when she reached a point that I could help her up. We stopped right before the very top and rested. We were tired but pretty happy that we did it; ten years later we climbed the same mesa and made it to the top!!
You can see Phyllis is happy to be able to rest after we made it to the top. You can also ee all the equipment we were carrying. That vest has many pockets and it is packed with lenses and other equipment. You can see Phyllis' tripod tucked in her vest.This was the view we saw when we reached the very top and looked out.
From the top, you can see where we started. We then started walking around on top of the mesa, seeing the view from different areas, and seeing the valley below us and the mountains in the distance. In the upper right hand corner you can see a little bit of the roads we drove to reach here.
The actual top looks like any other area of the desert in Sedona. Trees and other plants are growing out of the red rock.
In the background you can see another mesa, an even taller one.
It amazes me that there is so much growth on the top of this giant rock mountain.We spent about an hour walking around enjoying the view, solitude and the wonderful clean air, always being aware of where we were and the danger that not being careful could bring! You must be very careful in an environment like this. No matter how beautiful it is, you cannot be lulled into a false sense of security. You could easily fall to your death.
We decided to start our trek back down the mesa before it became late morning, remember this is Sedona, Arizona in July, the air heats up pretty fast.We took a last look around at nature's majesty, soaking in all the beauty. Truth be told, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. We had climbed this mesa as a challenge and we made it. Just before we started our climb down, I looked and saw where our car was parked. That white SUV is our rental!
Again, I asked myself those same three questions????????
