Sedona Hiking

A fair number of the C Group of the Payson Packers took the opportunity to meet in Sedona for a couple of days of hiking on October 11th and 12th. The trip organizer was Bonnie and she did a wonderful job!

We met at the Sedona Day's Inn at 1215 and carpooled to the trail head for the West Fork hike. As a note; the many hiking trails around Sedona are called the Red Rock trails. The West Fork hike follows the west fork of Oak Creek thru a canyon. Anyway, we carpooled a few miles north of Sedona to the trail head but had a bit of a delay in getting started. This was because the park parking lot was full. We hadn't considered that it was a holiday or how busy this obviously popular trail would be. After some delay we got all the cars parked and entry fees paid and began the hike with 25 people in our group.

This was originally a homestead and after a short stroll thru the old apple orchard, we came to the remains of the homestead. This was apparently a pretty well to do homesteader as the remains of the walls were well built and with some architectural style. The front of the home looked down on the creek where the remains of a mill and some lovely brick and stone trellis' remain. Also, the homesteader had carved out a small smokehouse in the sandstone cliff wall face.


Moving on, we hiked thru the canyon, following the creek. The limited sunlight and moist environment made it feel much like hiking in the Adirondacks.
The trail crosses the stream several times along the hike. There were lots of other hikers and at one point, a family was having a great time in the pools of the stream.

We hiked about 2 miles into the canyon and stopped for our snack break at the point of the trail where it begins to run thru the stream instead of beside it.
The hike back out was uneventful and no one slipped and fell into the steam!

Back at the hotel, we met at the pool for drinks then car pooled to the vacation villa where Bonnie and her husband Forrest were staying.
Bonnie put on a chili dinner with contributions from the rest of us. We had a great time eating and visiting with each other. The chili was great!

Tuesday, we checked out of the Day's Inn and met the group for the morning's hike. We again carpooled and went south of Sedona a couple of miles to the trail head for Broken Arrow Trail. This is a totally different environment from the West Fork trail. This hike is totally desert.
Since several people had to be elsewhere, only 17 of us attended this hike.

The views started out as stupendous and only got better. The trail is very well marked with stone cairns contained in wire baskets and very easy to follow. Also, given the mountains all around us, it wasn't too hilly or steep either. We stopped for views of the local famous church at a place called Chicken Point (don't you just love Arizona place names!) and had a group photo taken by two young women from Mississippi. Unfortunately, Randy's camera wasn't used for this photo so I can't share it here.

Then, well rested, we continued on to a halfway point. This location is used by the Pink Jeep tours too and we met a few groups while here.
Standing on a bare point, we had great views of the cliff faces and valley below us. Again, a couple people got group photos, and we took a snack and water break here.

Moving on, about the 3/4 point, the trail passes a sink hole. Signage at this location noted that the sink hole is used by bats and gave some info both on how a sink hole forms and on the bats that now live there. I think it is at this point that the Broken Arrow trail ends and the Little Horse Trail picks up.

So, following the Little Horse Trail, about 1130, about 2 1/2 hours after starting, we reached the trail head where Forrest and Dick were waiting to take the carpool drivers back to the cars. What a great hike. Many thanks to Bonnie for organizing the trip.