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| Hiking | 5.60 Miles |
1,341 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.60 Miles | 2 Hrs 36 Mns | | 2.67 mph |
| 1,341 ft AEG | 30 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Was going down to Sedona today to camp with my family and since they weren't going to arrive till 6pm, I decided to go hiking. Goal of today was to find two geocaches, one located at the East end of the Thomas Point Trail and the other at the East end of the Harding Spring Trail. Parked at the Call of the Canyon parking area and was lucky as I got one of the last few spots. What was not fun was learning that my America the Beautiful pass was not accepted here and had to pay $15 for parking. Well, it was labor day weekend, so the area was much more crowded than usual, at least I know for future hikes that I shouldn't park there.
Walked North along the 89a till I found the trailhead. Had to search for it, as it isn't that well marked where the starting point is. Once I found it I started heading up. Lower section of the trail was nice as it was shaded with the ponderosa pines, upper section was not was exposed to the sun. I forgot to apply sunscreen before I started the hike. Oops. Continued up around the white rock mountains and was greeted to some scenic views of the area and 89a. Had to check the route once as there was some confusion on where the trail was supposed to lead, but otherwise no pathfinding issues. After some hiking and a few short breaks I made it to the top of the rim. Found a strange rock wall at the top, not sure what the purpose of it was, did not add or remove any rocks from it. Then I found the geocache, which was two years lonely (that means the last finder was over two years ago).
Started hiking towards the Harding Springs trail. Followed a few forest roads, but mostly bushwhacked. I was hoping to pick up the Cookstove Trail that ran along one of the forest roads, but failed to find it. The road that ran parallel to Cookstove can't really be called a road anymore. So many trees and debris were in the way. So instead I mostly stuck near the rim's edge. I did come across a trail that was maintained, (not cookstove though) and followed it all the way to the Harding Springs Trail. Saw a big elk along this trail, but wasn't able to take a photo before it ran off.
Found the geocache at the top of the Harding Springs trail and headed down. Going down was much easier than going up. A few log fences were along this trail, though half of them had fallen over. Made it down back to the 89a and walked back to my truck. The 89a walk was my least favorite part of the hike due to the loud vehicles and just how many there were. (Remember, this was labor day weekend) Though it was interesting to see what I can only assume to be part of an older alignment, below the current asphalt of the 89a. The old asphalt was red colored, just some sections of Old Route 66. I've heard that before the 89a was constructed, this stretch of road between Sedona and Flagstaff was called State Route 79. Though the current State Route 79 now belongs to a stretch of road Between Florence Junction and Oracle Junction.
Was an enjoyable hike. Though I was ready to get down into Sedona and get some lunch as I hadn't had much for breakfast that morning. |
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