Thursday Afternoon

 Thursday afternoon. We have been driving all day to get to Sedona, where we want to stay for the night and then be able to get up and spend the morning at Slide Rock. We went down 179 south from Flagstaff to Sedona. This was a very scenic route with different places you could stop and sightsee or picnic. We stopped at Griffith’s Spring. It was a one mile hike through the woods, but on a trail. Jake and Ryan found a Gecko, but were unsuccessful catching it. To get down to the spring, we had to climb down a rock wall that was about 50-60 feet high. Jake showed Ryan a lizard he found, but Ryan didn’t think it really looked like a lizard. Jake continued looking for lizards, and Ryan waited for me so he could show me the lizard. Upon closer look, it was a snake, a baby snake. It looked like something was wrong with its tail. I got a stick and started to poke the snake and the tail started to shake. It was a baby rattlesnake!!!!!! I kept touching it with the stick until it started to slither down between some rocks. I decided it was time to move on, so it wouldn’t come around and bite me, or it’s mom wouldn’t come out of hiding. When we got to the bottom of the rock wall, Amaya and Scott screamed. Amaya saw a full, grown rattlesnake, and Scott could hear the rattle! On this hike, we saw many huge Elk tracks! There were different flowers and even some wild Iris. So, enough time at the spring…..We kept going up the trail and back to our car to continue to venture on to Sedona, where we are staying for the night.