Sedona 2

 Todays hike was a short one.  Fay Canyon trail is only 1.3 for a 2.6 round trip.  It is also popular so there were a lot of people.  Probably because it is short and flat.  “Everyone “ can do it.  I felt a little silly with a pack and a walking stick.  But Skye loved it, easy on her feet (they might have been a bit sore last night) plus lots and lots of people who wanted to pet the pretty dog!

The scenery was mighty fine!  Towering red rock formations on 3 sides.  The canyon might be 1/4 mile wide at the beginning and narrowing constantly as you go.  The trail is the natural water course when there is enough rain, so it is all red sand when it’s dry.  You can see where it runs but cannot tell how long it has been.

After the hike we went to the Chamber of Commerce for more trail info and some dispersed camping info.  The only such camping is in Forest Road 525, and she gave us a map.  I heard of that road from one of the hikers we met yesterday.  So we headed out to see that, especially since it was on the way back to Cottonwood.  Sadly this is what the Forest Service calls Designated Dispersed Camping.  They have eliminated all the true dispersed camping and left 7 sand pits as designated camping.  They are pretty full, crowded and a free for all of parking.  It is park-anywhere, which is OK in theory, but is a jumble in practice.  We only saw a couple of possible places to put a trailer our size and it’s 5 miles up a gravel road that took 23 minutes with just the truck.  I’m afraid that we are stuck with campgrounds.  This one is nice since it has a creek for Skye.

Next we wanted to check out “historic old Cottonwood “, and then found ourselves in Clarkdale for a few minutes.  All I know of Clarkdale was in a blog comment the other day.  We also made a quick stop at the Cottonwood Riverfront Park, hoping for something interesting.  It had 4 ball fields, picnic areas, probably other sports sites and bike trails.  But nothing that excited us so a quick grocery stop and back to camp.  

But when you add it all up it was a busy day.

This slightly converted ambulance was in one of the boondock campgrounds 

I say slightly converted, I saw inside through the side door, it was still the standard cabinets on the left side.  Outside it only had the service ID removed.

Sedona, AZ

 Carlene found a trail we wanted to hike in Sedona so up we went.  It got slightly confusing because it starts in the high school parking lot, and there were “no Dog” etc signs.  We found someone to ask and then parked in the gravel across the street and went to an adjacent lot (through the school lot) to find the trail.  But there were three different trail type paths going out of that lot and of course we picked the wrong two.  Didn’t really matter because we just took a round about route to got onto the trail we wanted.  We had started on a trail named “Extra Credit” since it was just a tich farther.

It was a nice trail going out on Scheurman Mountain.  Not a huge climb and it did not actually go up the mountain, rather it went out on the ridge with a spur trail to the summit.  We met 2 separate hikers on the way who each told us about a “social trail” that crossed from this trail to the next trail.  I found it on my Topo + app.  One said it was a long hike and the other said it was a lot of uphill going back.  But we took it anyway.  It sure was worth it!!!  The views on that Catwalk Social Trail we the best!  It was only a total of 5.6 miles and a gradual up hill on the return leg.  Social trail appears to mean that it is not an official Forest Service trail, probably made by individuals without prior approval.  But USFS seems to ignore that.  Once on the Catwalk we followed a contour up into a canyon where it crossed a smooth rock dry creek.  But Skye found a couple of water holes to get wet!  Gong up from that we found another contour that led us across the top of a big ledge.  That offered outstanding views all around.  Once we joined back onto main trails it was a gradual ascent back to the high school.

We met a few other people on the trail.  A trio of mountain bikers and another pair of bikers.  All on the social trail.  When we got back to the regular trail we met several others.  Some with dogs that wanted to meet Skye and a couple with kids that wanted to meet Skye.

That called for some ice cream!  We found Rocky road Ice Cream in W. Sedona.  It’s home made, lots of flavors and delicious.

Back to camp for Skye to get a swim in the Verde River.  We met a few other neighbors as we sat around in camp for some late afternoon relaxation.

We have so many photos I don’t know how I will sort them out to post.

Common Storks- Stem

The early look at the views we would be seeing

Blue Dicks

Paintbrush

Apricot Mallow

The trail on Schuerman was in a wooded area

And it opened up along the way

The social trail ran along the top of that cliff, but well back from the edge

California Poppy

Lots of bare red rock

It looks slippery but was not at all

Skye and her water holes

The dirty dog

Two mountain bikers

Two more bikers

How about this house?

Blackfoot Daisy

Found on the Verde River at camp

Henbit Deadnettle