Devils Bridge Hike

Sedona is a beautiful place in Arizona. It is famous for its fall colors and red rocks. I did this hike during Thanksgiving and the weather was very pleasant. This belongs to "Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness".
There are 2 ways to get to the trailhead.
I followed the below link for directions-
http://www.greatsedonahikes.com/devilsbr/devilsbr.htm
1) We went to the end of Dry Creek Road and turned right on FR152D and ended up at the beginning of chuck wagon Trailhead (opposite to Mescal trail).

We ventured into this trail keeping right as the map showed and dint find any proper trails. It had lot of shrubs and it seemed like it is pretty easy to lose the way. Am guessing there was an important turn we missed and there was not any fellow hiker on this trail. This would eventually lead up to Devils bridge trailhead after a mile.







2) We decided to headback seeking the other more popular trailhead. On the Dry Creek Road, if we turn right onto the first FR152 marked road, it leads to the path used by the majority. If we have a 4x4 or ATV, we can go till the trailhead which cuts down a mile in our hike.

It is a rugged terrain to begin with. It is dusty due to the Jeeps and ATVs zooming past the hikers.



There is no tree cover for this one mile.

It gets better and more steeper once we hit the Devils bridge trailhead!

The views from here are just spectacular. One can see the vast expanse of the red rocks.

There are some steps to climb up and this paves way for the first look at devils bridge. People look like ants and I wondered how a mere 0.8 mile can lead up to the high point being seen!







There are 3 vista points on the way which gives nicer views of the land below.

And the final bridge and the arch is totally worth it!!

It is about 400ft high, but the bridge is not too narrow to get scared!  A moderate hike of 4 miles roundtrip with great views at the end. Dont miss this one! :)

Pyles peak through Cowles summit

Cowles mountain is the most popular hiking trail in San Diego. In-fact the amount of people on the summit can totally kill your hiking-high at times. Hence, we decided to spruce up the hike by adding the lesser known devil- Pyles peak!

This peak is special because it can be accessed only through the Cowles summit! We started the hike from the big Rock trailhead.
https://www.mtrp.org/directions.asp?idno=25

This trail head is less explored compared to the other ways which lead up to the summit. It has tree cover for about a mile which gives you a nice head-start.

This joins the trail from Barker way after a mile and you might see lot of bikers. The 1592' ft Cowles mountain summit gives you a nice look of lake Murray, the ocean, downtown and all the remaining peaks of mission trails.

On the summit you see the Pyles peak trailhead.  It steers down instead of going up which might be confusing.

Follow the signs which leads you to a series of switchbacks.
It is not easy to see the peak right away.
Thankfully we had a cloud cover and it made the hike even better.
This rarely happens in San Diego :)


You might hardly find anyone on this trail. I found some beautiful shrubs on my way.

As this trail seems to be in the shadow of Cowles, you might be guaranteed a nice respite from the sun for half the distance. After about 0.8 mile, the trail forks. One seemed to be going down and the other less marked trail lead up to the peak.

The one to the left which seems to be descending leads to a viewpoint. The peak with the radio towers is Cowles summit! You realize the distance you have come from this view point.









Hurray! We made it to the top. Conquering two peaks on a single hike leaves you fascinated for a longer time :)
Took us around 3 hours and we logged approximately 6 miles with lot of elevation gain.
Go one step further on your next Cowles-mountain hike! :)

Los-Penasquitos

One would not believe such a trail exists amidst the busy streets of San Diego surrounded by the highways. Although I had heard about it for a while now, I never explored it until recently. It is a beautifully laid out trail with so many different species of trees. You encounter a quiet little creek and hear it flowing at different places.

This trail leads to a sign board showing waterfall. I could not see the water falling from a height to qualify it  as one. The water meanders in between big boulders, which might have appeared as a waterfall at some point. Nevertheless, a perfect picnic spot.

The elevation gain is almost nil and it is a flat terrain. It is great for biking and running as well. I am talking about the ranch house trail. It is fairly around 6 miles roundtrip.

The crossing seen in the below picture looks like one right out of a fairy tale. The bridges and the horse-riders make for a movie scene.

This might not be the best hike, but it certainly is a breather compared to the exposed fire trails in San Diego. And the fact that it is right where I live leaves me with no excuses to explore this area more :)