After the previous day when we avoided the rain mostly successfully it starts to rain in the evening and then it rains throughout the night. We can hear it as it hits the roof of the motel and how it thunders and we have no real hope for the morning. However there is a break in the rain after we eat breakfast that gives us hope and we decide to explore the nearby Farmers Market first before deciding what to do during the day.
As we explore the market the sun comes out so it is actually hot as we find some produce to buy and explore the small but busy market.
As the weather is still ok we decide to explore the nearby National Forest and see if the luck from yesterday continues today. First we want to check on an old cache of ours and we park on the main road and then it is time for a short hike while keeping an eye out for the rain. Which is very visibly coming in our opinion.
We start with a walk to an abandoned campsite where we find a miniature car, a very interesting find as it is nowhere near the cache.
And then we go searching for the cache and this is where it starts to rain. Not seriously but just enough that we cannot spend a lot of time at the cache site and decide to return to the car to avoid the more serious rain that we think might be coming.
But the rain stops and there is even a patch of sun when the birds come out and we enjoy this brief respite before the rain returns with a vengeance.
We now start searching for any section where it does not rain but search as we might it seems that the rain has taken over the entire forest.
Our last hope is the lava cave because we think we might be able to enter it and escape the rain. However here it is pouring and there is no hope of exiting the car so we decide to slowly make our way to the paved highway.
As we reach the paved highway the rain stops again so we decide for one more stop to look for mushrooms. And then when we stop there it starts to hail so after hiding out the hail we have enough and decide to escape to Sedona and explore the stores there.
