About three weeks ago, my husband and I flew out to Arizona to visit family. We’ve been to the Phoenix area before, but for this trip, we wanted to do a bit more exploring.
My sister-in-law found an awesome deal on Groupon for horseback riding the weekend we were there. We booked our tickets for a 1 1/2 hour trail ride at Macdonald’s Ranch in Scottsdale. This was my first time getting on a horse and riding. I was slightly nervous prior to going because I had no idea what to expect. But, I figured since I was able to get on a camel and ride on it for an hour, I should be able to ride a horse. LOL! After I got on the horse and was given instructions on how to use the reins, I was ready to go! Surprisingly, this level of horseback riding is super easy. Since the horses do these trails all the time, they basically memorize it, so I didn’t have to do much steering. The only time I really had to do anything was when my horse was “tailgating” the horse in front of it or when it stopped to eat a plant or two and I had to stop it or pull it away.
It was so much fun, but my butt and upper thighs started to hurt halfway through the ride, so I was very glad when we finished up. I ended up being sore for a day or two. Haha! 🙂
Another spot we visited was Hole In The Rock. The name pretty much says it all. There is a parking lot at the bottom of the formation. If you are lucky, you’ll be able to get a spot. Otherwise, there are other parking lots, however they are a bit further away.
The “hike”, if you even want to call it that, is very easy if you follow the path. It takes about 10 minutes to get up to the hole. When you get there, there are steps that take you into the inner part of the hole, so you don’t have to worry about climbing down or anything.
If you are feeling a little bit more adventurous, you can go up to the hole by hiking/climbing up from the front side. Several people took this path to get up. I wasn’t adventurous enough, but my sister-in-law was. 🙂
I highly recommend going here around sunset. I made sure my family and I got there about an hour before sunset to enjoy the views and to get some neat looking pictures.
The Arizona sunset did not disappoint.
We had a wonderful time in Arizona. It was a quick trip and we are looking forward to coming back again. There are still a ton of places on my list that we would like to check out.
-Gretch
