When You Wish Upon a Star

Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Sedona, Arizona, United States
Since we decided to try one last time for the West Fork Oak Creek Hike, we left at 8:00, figuring it was pretty early and that there was a good chance we would be able to get into the parking lot while people were still eating breakfast. It was about 60 degrees, so we dressed in layers knowing that it would warm up eventually.
We drove up to the hiking trail and discovered that there were only about 4 cars in the lot, so parking in the lot wasn’t an issue. We planned on doing the entire 3.5 mile hike (one way) and had the entire morning to do it. As I said in my last blog, this is THE most popular hike in the area and for good reason. The trail is said to be one of the best trails in Arizona and one of the top 10 trails in the United States. It is relatively easy, although there are a few areas with short uphill stepping stones.  There are also numerous stream crossings (at least 13) which are done with stepping stones and logs which was fun. At the end of the trail is a pool of water surrounded by cliffs. The leaves were turning, so parts were very colorful. It was a bit chilly to start, but we warmed up as we went along. The trail meanders through the woods and was sometimes confusing to follow. There weren’t many people on the trail this early, which made it very serene. I had decided not to bring the camera as I didn’t want to carry it 7 miles. Instead, I used my phone. It took us longer to walk in than walk out, since we were taking photos and just looking around. I slipped a couple of times fording the creek on the way back and got my shoes wet. All part of the experience. If you are ever in Sedona and can only do one hike, make it this one. It was well worth the 7 mile, 4 hour hike. As we left, there were at least 10 cars waiting for someone to exit the parking lot so they could go in.
It was about 12:30, so we drove back to Sedona and lunch at Chipotle. It isn’t my favorite place to eat, but it was fast, which is what we wanted. We sat outside with a nice view of the Snoopy rock and surrounding red rocks. After lunch, we needed to get some gas and I needed a couple of things at the store for tonight’s dinner, so we went to the store. We spotted a nearby barber, so Keith went in for a haircut while I got the items in the store.
We returned to the condo for the afternoon. Keith took care of some emails while I did a load of laundry, worked on my blog and started packing. While packing, I found our missing key card. I had misplaced mine on Sunday and had looked everywhere for it. It turns out mine wasn’t missing at all. Keith had left his in his shorts pocket, so we were using mine the whole time.
The internet is very slow here, which makes it difficult to do things. Keith has some trouble with his connection and I had to email myself my pictures from my phone, which took forever to download due to the poor connection, so I worked on packing while waiting.
After dinner, we drove out to Oak Canyon to the Verde Valley school for a Stargazing event. We gazed up at the Milky Way while our guide told us about his telescope and some other things. We saw Andromeda, the Pleiades, what the call the E-T cluster, a star nursery, a nebula and a twin star. I saw 4 shooting stars. It was amazing and I am glad we went.

Comments

Waha
2017-10-13

Thank you for the beautiful photos.

2025-02-15

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