Red Rock State Park in Sedona, AZ

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Happy Thursday (and Thanksgiving Day, all, technically as it is just after midnight here in my corner of Minnesota, US). I am almost done with my Arizona posts, I promise! (I have never really had a "series" of my own, so I guess maybe I will start reviewing/chronicle-ing my travel adventures, just for fun!). Red Rock State Park was one of those parks that was on my list but wasn't sure if we would make it to it. After a few exhausting canyon hikes, we all decided we wanted something easier and different, not exhausting, but with cool scenery. Red Rock State Park cost $7 per person to enter for all day, and had probably somewhere near 7 miles of hiking total through some of their orange-sandy paths through their woods Lots of rocks, cactus plants, greenery, and beautiful overlooks of the scenic red rock formations of course. One thing I will not fail to mention is.....right when we walked in to their visitor center, they had a white board of all reported critters and animals seen. I couldn't help but notice that mountain lions and cougars were all over the list, and over all different parts of the trail. I think one of my biggest fears is running into these predatory animals, as I have probably talked about in excess while here. Once we got to the hiking part, we actually saw SEVERAL signs that we were now in "Mountain Lion Country" and instructions on what to do if we DID see one. I think we got pretty psyched out from that, and only ended up doing about 3/4 of the trails available. And boy, were we walking fast as a result. The funny thing is how much signage and literature can totally add to one's paranoia. While we were hiking and doing our own thing in other canyon trails, the possibility of seeing predatory wildlife like mountain lions didn't occur to us, until it was acknowledged by park rangers at this state park, in which case we became paranoid. The trails overall, were beautiful and a nice change of pace from the steep slopes of some of the other trails we had done. And also, both eerie and nice, was that it was basically just us out on the trails, not crowded and we all got some excellent photos in. I would suggest this trail to anyone in the area. Thinking back about all this hiking, it's really getting me pumped up to go to Utah and do some more hiking. I can't wait. I just love being out in nature. As long as I don't have to fight natural predators! Are you a hiker? Been to any cool trails or to this one?