Red Rock Everywhere
~Wednesday, November 18, 2020~
Day 157
Another shorts/t-shirt day in Sedona, AZ. A few days ago when we arrived in this incredible area, we drove by a few tempting trails that we put on the to do list. Slide Rock State Park and West Fork Trail in the Red Rock Secret Wilderness. Today was a perfect day to do at least one of them. It’s easy to have the temptation to explore here with the many jaw dropping views. One of the first things we wanted to know when we arrived in Sedona was what the median price of a home was. The answer: $550,000 and after about 10 minutes of perusing Realtor.com, I quickly realized we’d need to spend $700,000 or more to get something decent. So I guess Sedona will be seen through the eyes of tourists, not homeowners. 😢
Our boondocking neighbor, Heather, said her goodbyes as she was trying to get to Los Angeles for the Thanksgiving Holiday. It didn’t take long for another newcomer to fill her shoes. But instead of a sprinter van, this one was a Class C and again, a traveling solo woman.
After filling up what was left of our potable water, into our freshwater tank, we hit the road, in awe of the scenery that lay before us. Everywhere you turn, the scenery is incredible with the Sycamore and Alder trees mixed in with the Fall foliage of Cottonwoods. The backdrop….crimson red rock buttes, monoliths, and spires that Sedona is known for. We stopped at Slide Rock first but decided to spend our day on the West Fork Trail instead after we found out Sadie wouldn’t be able to join us and has very limited hiking trails but is mainly known for their natural water slides. Just down the road we first pulled over to let Sadie get some ball chasing in the Oak Creek. Little did we know she’d have plenty of water time on our West Fork Trail hike. We ended up finding a parking spot in the main parking lot. Wow, even on a weekday, this place was crowded. As we started the trail, we already thought it was beautiful, but with every step deeper into the canyon, it became astonishing.
I sure hope the pictures do it justice.
The trail is 6-½ miles with not much elevation gain, but is challenging in some spots as you have to rock hop on at least 13 river crossings which this time of year is not a problem, other than the occasional slippery rocks. It’s also interesting that we’d feel varying degrees of temperature..sometimes cool with residual snow on the ground, to warm breezy air blowing through the canyon. At the end of the box canyon, we came to a pool of water surrounded by cliffs. Many of the cliff rocks looked like they’re barely hanging on, as we kept hoping today was not the day they would decide to fall.
We ran into many hikers and other friendly, furry friends. Poor Jeff though. He was such a trooper today, dealing with a little sciatic pain so I guess it was good this wasn’t too strenuous of a hike. Hope he didn’t over do it. 😩