Having the entire week off for Thanksgiving, Jacqueline, Zyla and I went down
to Sedona to have Thanksgiving with Jacqueline's aunt Kris. It is a close enough drive so as not to put the baby in the car for too long. We arrived on Tuesday and on Wednesday we went for our first hike. We took the Boynton Canyon trail that left from the end of the Dr
y Creek Road. The weather was not looking too hot, in fact it was looking cold. We bundled up the baby and ventured out. It followed a resort community for a while and then we got away from it. Along the way we talked to a couple on the trail. There were a lot of people out on the trail for such a chilly day. It began to hail or snow or sleet, we couldn't tell, so we high tailed it out of there to make sure the baby didn't get too cold. The big hike of the trip, though, was Wilson Mountain. I looked through the guidebooks for the most strenuous hike and found that one, which also happened to be the highest mountain in Sedona. I got up super early on Saturday to make the 30 minute drive from Jacqueline's aunt's house in Cornville to the trailhead, just across the bridge going up Oak Creek Canyon. There was one other car at the trailhead as I started up the trail. The weather was chilly. The trail climbed steadily above Wilson Canyon named after a man who was killed by a grizzly bear
there in the late 1800s. The views were great and while I was going uphill, it was nowhere near difficult. This was definitely one that could be called a mountain hike instead of a mountain climb. I could see where the trail was going but sometimes in Arizona it seems there are too many options for where to put a trail. Eventually though I got to where the trail came up to a plateau. From there I could choose which way to go and I continued to climb up. The trail was in its worst condition here, a little muddy and grown over with a few trees down, but eventually I came up to where I was close to the top of the mountain. I saw some white tail deer running away to one summit, but the other one said
Sedona view, so I took that one. As I was heading there, I saw another hiker, first of the day, coming back from the summit. He was running and looked a little younger than me. Good for him as I continued to the summit and got a few pictures before I started back down the way I came. I was hustling because we still had to drive all the wa
y home to Norwood, because we were trying to beat a storm. It is a little funny to hike so far and still be able to see where you started as the bridge was always in my view on the hike. The hike was somewhere around eleven miles, but I was able to get to the top before ten
and back to the car before noon. When I was leaving the trailhead, there was major competition for a parking spot. It made me glad that I did rise and shine so early, so we could get back and avoid the long drive through winter weather. I really enjoyed the hike as Sedona has puzzled me in the past for a spot for recreation, but this was a great choice for a Saturday in late November.
to Sedona to have Thanksgiving with Jacqueline's aunt Kris. It is a close enough drive so as not to put the baby in the car for too long. We arrived on Tuesday and on Wednesday we went for our first hike. We took the Boynton Canyon trail that left from the end of the Dr
y Creek Road. The weather was not looking too hot, in fact it was looking cold. We bundled up the baby and ventured out. It followed a resort community for a while and then we got away from it. Along the way we talked to a couple on the trail. There were a lot of people out on the trail for such a chilly day. It began to hail or snow or sleet, we couldn't tell, so we high tailed it out of there to make sure the baby didn't get too cold. The big hike of the trip, though, was Wilson Mountain. I looked through the guidebooks for the most strenuous hike and found that one, which also happened to be the highest mountain in Sedona. I got up super early on Saturday to make the 30 minute drive from Jacqueline's aunt's house in Cornville to the trailhead, just across the bridge going up Oak Creek Canyon. There was one other car at the trailhead as I started up the trail. The weather was chilly. The trail climbed steadily above Wilson Canyon named after a man who was killed by a grizzly bear
there in the late 1800s. The views were great and while I was going uphill, it was nowhere near difficult. This was definitely one that could be called a mountain hike instead of a mountain climb. I could see where the trail was going but sometimes in Arizona it seems there are too many options for where to put a trail. Eventually though I got to where the trail came up to a plateau. From there I could choose which way to go and I continued to climb up. The trail was in its worst condition here, a little muddy and grown over with a few trees down, but eventually I came up to where I was close to the top of the mountain. I saw some white tail deer running away to one summit, but the other one said
Sedona view, so I took that one. As I was heading there, I saw another hiker, first of the day, coming back from the summit. He was running and looked a little younger than me. Good for him as I continued to the summit and got a few pictures before I started back down the way I came. I was hustling because we still had to drive all the wa
y home to Norwood, because we were trying to beat a storm. It is a little funny to hike so far and still be able to see where you started as the bridge was always in my view on the hike. The hike was somewhere around eleven miles, but I was able to get to the top before ten
and back to the car before noon. When I was leaving the trailhead, there was major competition for a parking spot. It made me glad that I did rise and shine so early, so we could get back and avoid the long drive through winter weather. I really enjoyed the hike as Sedona has puzzled me in the past for a spot for recreation, but this was a great choice for a Saturday in late November.
