Spring Break Trip Day 4

After coming down from a night in Flagstaff, our main goal for the day was to get in some awesome hiking on the way down to Scottsdale later that evening.  We quickly settled on Soldiers Pass Trail.  It is described as a moderate hike with beautiful views and it did not disappoint!  The views from where we parked we already amazing.

As you can see the kids were quite happy to be out on the trails and free to explore.  The red dirt was amazing and things were warm and dry. 

The hike featured a couple different interesting things to look at.  First, though not pictured, was something called Devil's Sinkhole that was up from the trailhead about a quarter of a mile.  It was a sinkhole the size of a large house that some rocks had fallen down into but was otherwise less impressive than anticipated.  One funny footnote was that there apparently is some sort of jeep tour that drives people up to the sinkhole to look at.  I am thinking the short distance is probably better walked than driven.

Second up on the trail was the "Seven Sacred Pools".  The kids got quite a kick out of these pools as you can see above in the picture.  During the rainy months these pools naturally flow together, but when we were there they simply had water in each of the pools.

After visiting the pools, we continued up a few miles to the top of Brins Mesa which offered pretty amazing views of the valley below.  The kids took a few breaks but did great on the hike that turned out to be close to six miles well we finished the full circle.

Here is another picture from the back side of the hike.  I love these amazing colors and landscapes in this area.  Apparently many others do as well, because it's super pricey to live in this area.  After the hike and some Chipotle burritos in town to refuel us, we headed down further south to Scottsdale to meet Tara's Dad and Sandra for a few days.