Upon arriving, we got information from the visitor center that the Airport Trail would be a nice first stop. It is higher up than all the other trails and has great views of Sedona.
We find the trial head and start our adventure. This loop trail gives you panoramic views of Sedona's best-known red rock landmarks (plus the occasional thrill of getting buzzed by vintage aircraft). Little did we know this was going to take us much longer than we thought. We were doing great till we let Sema take the lead. haha (she will get a chuckle of of that) Actually I think that it was Chad that said "Let's go up the side of this mountain and see whats at the top". We all followed like puppies.
Through brush, cactus, prickly bushes, & large rocks....did I mention they were very loose? I was concentrating on my step so I don't have any pictures of us off the beaten path. There was lots of rock climbing going on and for some reason I could not get good footing. Scott was behind me & caught the fall of the rocks with his legs. He has some nice bruises to show for it.
Chad and Scott got stabbed in the knee by a very sharp plant..same knee, same spot, probably same bush. They are twins so they try to keep it the same. It was very warm out and we weren't sure how long we were going to be "lost". All I could think about were the kids and what would we do if we didn't make it back in time to pick them up. Like a dummy, I decided to leave my cell phone in the car...great spot!
We were hoping that when we made it to the top we would find a trail. Nope, nothing up there...except for the airport runway! Yeah, we can go to the airport, get to the main road, and walk down to our car...easier said than done. It was surrounded by a fence and barbed wire. We continued to follow it all the way to the end, that seemed to take forever. Miles and miles it felt like when your on foot. That let us back down the mountain. Not somewhere we wanted to go. That was our only option. Down we went and it was not easy. Planes and helicopters flew overhead, we tried to wave them down. Chad fell a couple of times, we were still getting all scratched up and running out of water.
(here we are lost somewhere at the top of the mountain)
(made it back to the trail, thought we were going to be stuck out here forever!)
We went to have lunch and replenish our bodies before we went on our next hike. West Fork Trail in Oak Creek Canyon was also suggested. I made sure that we stayed on the trail this time!
Majestic views soon took our breath away as we looked ahead to the red rock canyon walls that rose sharply hundreds of feet above the creek. The path is wide black dirt that takes you past ancient ponderosa pines (smell their bark... its like vanilla!), maples, oaks, ferns, reeds, all manner of wildflowers, and other vegetation. I would highly suggest this hike.
(having a little fun on the hike)
(our cover albums)
Despite the fact that we were lost for about an hour in Sedona, Scott and Sema still had a great time and would go back again and do it all over!
