A Mountain Named Doe

Big Daddy and mama popped out of bed promptly at 5:45 am with ample time to get ready for the 6:30 hotel breakfast. It's handy when your hotel has the little free breakfast room. There are plenty of choices, both healthy and not so much. We ate and were on the road around 7:15 headed for Doe Mountain, a moderate rated hike to the top of a sweet little mesa. Incredible views from all sides of Doe. The trail has plenty of switchbacks to mitigate the elevation but there were a few technical areas and exposed sections that gave mama a little angst.

Trail head and on the way up.

From the top.

We spent the afternoon on a 4 hour wilderness train ride on the Verde Canyon Railroad. As they say in their brochure, it's not the destination, it's the journey. The view of this section of the canyon is only accessible by rail. The train had both closed in and open air cars. You were assigned to a closed car with access to the open car. The temperature was very mild today and the train only goes approximately 10 miles per hour so we spent most of the time outside. Very relaxing afternoon after the Doe. (If you are following along, we said yesterday we were hiking Broken Arrow today. We haven't hiked that trail previously and didn't want to miss the train ride. We plan on hiking it on Thursday.)

Signing off now - mama's going to bed.