First time ever up bear Mountain!

Will it is being Sunday over Memorial Day weekend, the crowds near Sedona were RIDICULOUS.  Sadly, Devil’s Bridge (trailhead just up the road from our own trailhead) has become Instagram-famous and is a short enough jaunt that non-hikers with a lot of makeup, no water, and the wrong shoes can get there.  There must have been 150 cars parked on the side of the road near there, so I am glad we were going elsewhere.

Our own trailhead shares parking with Doe Mountain (a short uphill to a view) so it had it share of people as well, but since we were going across the street to Bear Mountain, a much harder hike with 2000 feet of elevation gain, we immediately dropped the crowd.  We saw perhaps four people on the way up and 12 on the way down.

My thanks to Social Hiker for picking REAL hikes up REAL mountains that are challenging enough to keep the Instagram crowd away!  Seriously; these are no joke!