Road Trip - June 2025 - Hiking near Five Springs

Weather permitting, Andrew paraglided in the morning and late afternoon as it can often get too windy by mid-day. This gives me time to do a workout and for us to meander elsewhere during the afternoons. 

We hiked the Stateline Trail which denotes the border between Montana and Wyoming and overlooks part of the Big Horn Canyon and Big Horn River. Thankfully, it's not a very long trail and we made quick time on it as it was very cold and windy that day and trying desperately to rain. 

Another day we discovered Cottonwood Canyon and checked out a few of the back roads in the area. 

The waterfall that was described as a highlight of the canyon was totally dry but you could see where it was supposed to be, pretty much centre of the photo. 

These cactus, and the lizard, were near a boat launch by the river. 

There was another spot along the highway towards Sheridan that Andrew wanted to check out and, after stopping for lunch at a nice viewpoint, we found lots of great flowers. 

And before we left, we also checked out Rainbow Canyon which was very nice! I just love this landscape and all the colors.

Andrew hiked a couple other trails close to the campground (including a new one we hadn't known about before) while I was working out. 

I managed to sneak a photo of this butterfly while Andrew was in the air flying one day. 

Fall Road Trip 2023 - Sedona to Prescott

By the time we arrived in Sedona, I’d had enough of this hacking cough for the past two weeks and decided something had to be done about it. We stopped for coffee while I googled for a medi-clinic. There was one nearby with supposedly no one in line. Hmmm...I'm skeptical.  I called the insurance company and spent about 20 minutes on the phone to get a claim number. So many questions! 

Amazingly, I was the only one in the waiting room when we got to the medi-clinc and, including time needed to fill out forms, I was in and out in 50 minutes. Diagnosed with acute bronchitis (the doctor said he could hear me coughing from across the clinic!) and given a handful of prescriptions. A stop at Safeway to fill them and, fingers crossed, feeling better in about 5 days. 

 

Canadians always seem to be bragging about what a great medical system we have but I know that in BC I wouldn’t have been able to get into a medi-clinic without an appointment days/weeks in advance and it would have taken at least a day or more to get a tele-health appointment. So I was pretty happy with how this all went. And yes, I fully realized I’m speaking from a perspective of great privilege. 

Nice sculpture near the medi-clinic.

Anyway, all this was settled by midafternoon and we went for a short hike on Lower Chimney Rock loop trail. With me being sick, all our hikes have been relatively short and not too much elevation involved. But wherever you are, the views around Sedona never seem to disappoint. I love the shapes and colors of the rocks. 

We found a really nice hotel, Los Abrigados Resort and Spa, for a great last-minute deal, browsed the nearby shops in an artsy district called Tlaquepaque, and had supper at a fancy restaurant called Rene. 

Tiramisu in a clay flower pot

The next day we hiked the Broken Arrow Trail via Hog Wash and got almost to Chicken Point when we saw a pink jeep tour ahead of us. Definitely not our style so we turned back early. It was a nice loop, and we really didn’t see too many other people until we got closer to the end. 

We also stopped for a short walk at Sedona Wetlands Preserve before having a very late lunch and wine tasting at Paige Springs Cellars. Very nice! 

Wine tasting and lunch at Paige Springs Cellars

We decided we had enough time left in the day to get to Prescott and find a campground before dark. The route goes through the old historic mining town of Jerome which is basically built into the hillside with one main road going through it. We decided to stop and pick up coffee which took forever! 

Sun setting as we leave the town of Jerome

This put us arriving in Prescott after dark, frustratingly couldn’t find a campground that had space and was open. But we lucked out by again getting a last-minute deal at the very nice Forest Villas Hotel. We spent the evening having a glass of wine in the very comfortable lobby and continued the never-ending process of trying to catch up on photos and blog posts! 

East Sooke Coast Trail

How long is the East Sooke Coast Trail?  It seems to depend on what you read, which app you use, which trails you actually take, and so on, and so on. Anywhere between 10 - 17 km but, according to all our devices, for us it was about 14 km of lots of up and down, in and out from the coast, casual hiking to hands on scrambling. But always beautiful! Taking our time and enjoying the views along the way, it took us about 7 hours to complete. 

Andrew and I met Rebecca, Ian and John at Aylard Farms at the east end of Sooke Regional Park. We then carpooled to Pike Road trailhead at the west end of the trail where we started. 

Map courtesy of Capital Regional District

We found slugs, spiders, birds and many plants; what we think was a seal popping it's head out of the water a few times; we kept a close watch for whales but all we saw were the whale watching boats along with various other water craft from canoes to barges, a cruise ship and a sail boat. 

The weather was perfect! Sun and cloud, a few minor spits of rain which thankfully wasn't enough to make the rocks slippery. This would not be a fun trail with slippery rocks! 

All in all, a fabulous day with good friends!