Moving on to Sedona

Moving on to Sedona

Mon 24th April - Thursday 27th April

Leaving Aravaipa was really hard. We had been looking forward to the weekend with Tasha and Mac so much, and it had turned out to be really special. I felt sad, like a child at Christmas with so much expectation and then the realization on Christmas evening that it was over. We will see Tasha and Mac in Spokane in about 4 weeks, so that’s not so long. The other aspect that was difficult is that we spent the previous 7 nights in deluxe accommodation. We had turned soft and were out of the habit of camping. All in all, it was going to take a little while to get re-adjusted.

As we drove past Phoenix the temperatures topped out at 91oF. In the following two hours, as we drove north towards Flagstaff and gained elevation the temperatures dropped to 56oF. It also started to rain and through the clouds we could see a large snow capped mountain. From Flagstaff we turned south-west and descended through Oak Creek Canyon to arrive at the National Forest Service campsite at Pine Flats. It was mild-afternoon and we were lucky that the rain eased up and then stopped. We got the tent pitched and decided to drive down into Sedona. The whole area is absolutely spectacular with incredible red and white towers of rock all around. We have never been here before, but a friend of ours had said they thought it was fantastic, and at first sight it seemed amazing. To be honest, we felt a little overwhelmed. We planned to spend 4 nights in the area but didn’t know where to start exploring. Thankfully our friend Evan replied to my text with some hiking suggestions and we were also aware of a couple of State Parks that we wanted to visit. As a photographer, I also felt a little pressured because I wanted to capture the beauty of the surrounding, but didn’t know where the good view points were or at what time of day that might be at their best. We saw some great photos for sale in town that set a very high bar!

The campsite at Pine Flats is pleasant enough, but jammed in by the side of the road. This is somewhat unavoidable in the steep sided canyon, but our specific site was the closest to the road, and whilst earplugs diminished the noise, headlights would light up the tent with great regularity. When trying to book 4 nights I was actually only able to get 1 night at Pine Flats and 3 nights at Cave Creek about 1 mile down the road. So on Tuesday morning, rather than wait for our new site to become available, we simply packed up everything and went on with our plans. We checked into our second campground later on Tuesday evening and found that to be a lot quieter and pleasant to hang around. I should add that when we were with Tasha we were laughing about how much warm clothes we had brought with us that now seemed redundant. Whilst hot during the day, temperatures here in Oak Creek Canyon have been dropping below 40oF at night and we have been using all the warm gear that we brought with us!

Over the following three days we hiked in Red Rocks State Park and visited the chapel of the Holy Cross, where we also did a small walk. We hiked in Boynton Canyon and Wilson Canyon. Then this morning we did a lovely walk in the West Fork trail off Oak Creek Canyon. All of these were excellent and over the past three days we feel like we have hit some real highlights of the Sedona area. The truth is that you could come here for three months and hike a different trail everyday, without repeating yourself. There is no way that you can see everything, but we started to feel happy with the idea of seeing just some beautiful places. The town is extremely busy and very touristy, and the trails are heavily used. If you don’t arrive early in the morning it’s likely that there won’t be parking available at the trailhead. From Thursday through Sunday the town runs a shuttle bus service to the various trailheads. We were impressed with much effort the town has gone to facilitate access to the trails and wilderness area. 

I will let the photos speak for themselves, but say a little more about our hike up the West Forks trail. We chose this one for our final day partly because it was close to our campsite and also in a different area than we had walked previously. When we arrived at the entrance to the parking area, (you need to pay to park and enter this wilderness area), the attendant informed us that this was one of the top 12 walks in the country and to expect 13 river crossings during the outward leg of the hike. The whole trail is just over 3 miles each way and we had to wade the river 12 times in each direction. We eventually opted for flip-flops and water shoes and ended up carrying our boots on the outside of my backpack. The water was absolutely frigid! (We saw a couple of snow  banks further upstream). It took us 4.5 hours to do the round trip, taking lots of breaks for photos and to listen for birds. The trail was fairly straightforward but the river crossing required a little care. It was an outstanding experience! Highly recommended.

Tomorrow we move on again, this time up towards Petrified Forest National Park 

Mike

Red Rocks State Park. The trail we followed took us along the river and then up onto an escarpment with great views.

The Chapel of the Holy Cross. A stunning piece of architecture built into the rock. However, it was an extremely popular site to visit and was very crowded

We took a short walk from the Chapel and within minutes were in splendid isolation. We passed just one person during the hour we were on the trail and enjoyed spectacular views.

The road from Flagstaff crosses Wilson Canyon on the Midgley Bridge, just north of Sedona. 

A pleasant hike of a mile or two up Wilson Canyon brought us to spectacular views of the surrounding mountains

The Boynton Canyon trail is also very popular and takes you underneath some amazing red cliffs

Gloria traversing one of the stream crossing towards the upper end of the West Fork trail. Some of the crossings were easy shallow paddles across smooth rock, others were through more bouldery sections. We decided that it was safer to wade and accept our feet getting wet, rather than try to boulder-hop.

The views throughout the West Fork trail were unbelievable 

Oak Creek just upstream of our campground. The photo was taken after dark using a flashlight to illuminate the scene. It was about a 2 minute exposure.