Trail Report: Sedona

[FishPOET]

I was really bummed about missing the "Dark Side" trip to Moab. When I asked Tracy what she wanted for her birthday she said she wanted to visit her friend Gigi in Sedona. OK by me. Work has been real busy the last couple weeks, but I got my stuff done (or so I thought) and we left Norco Thursday night at 7:30pm. We drove as far as Quartsite and pulled over off Dome Rock Rd











We left Quartzsite at 8am and we were in Sedona by noon. We offloaded the Black Pearl and headed for Soldier Pass.



Devil's Kitchen (sinkhole)


Playing on the slick rock




Apache's Seven Pools






After Soldier Pass we headed over to Greasy Spoon. Not many pictures but it was a fun drive.

Corral




to be continued......

[Black & Tan TJ]

All right. The girl's got ideas.

Great pictures, Tom

[Mitch]

Doug,

Great pictures of an awesome place. One of my all time favorites. Tracy, good choice!

[RAT]

Nice pics. Love Sedona, there is nowhere else like it.

[FishPOET]

5 minutes from being back to Gigi's house last night we had a blowout


We woke up this morning to a fresh blanket of snow.




Drove over to Cottonwood this morning and picked up a used tire to get us through the weekend. Plans are to run Broken Arrow this afternoon.

[TipsE-Z]

Looks like a great trip thus far! I'm planning on Sedona next month, good to see some preview pictures.

[ironbelle]

That tire is toast! Never seen a blown tire like that.

[FishPOET]

We tried to get on the trails today at 5 different trail heads and all were blocked off.

Seems the Coconino National Forest closes the OHV roads & trails in inclement weather
http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coconino/con...-weather.shtml

But they leave the bicycle, horse and walking trails open?



So we mostly stayed on paved roads. We did find one red dirt road to play on and get the Jeep dirty

[RAT]

Doug,
Man how great is that to get snowed on in Sedona? To Hell with the trails, look at that scenery. I miss Sedona. Thanks for the pics, and tell Gigi her smile made my day!

[Mike]

Dude! You need to get some pics of Cathedral Rock in the snow! The paved roads should be open, I would hope. It is a short hike to some great photos.

Plus, you just gotta wait until they re-open Broken Arrow. The views from that trail are the best.

Can I tell you how JEALOUS I am right now? Just sayin'.

[dirtman13]

Great shots Doug. Thanks for sharing.

[brokenujoint]

I remember back in late 96/early 97 when I first bought my TJ sport. I took a road trip to Carlsbad Caverns and on the way we stopped in Sedona. A gorgeous day and then mid day we got flash flood warnings and it indeed dumped H20. We woke up the next morning and we were in about 1 1/2 ft of red mud..... Saw a Mt Goat and got to check out some super cool Indian ruins.... Awesome place if any of you guys havent been there yet.
I burnt the crap out of my arm while trying to isolate a clunk.... teraflex control arm(the very 1st batch of teracrap's pivoting control arms... clunked like a horse going down main street...

[FishPOET]

Sunday morning sun and snow pictures




Sunday morning Scnebly parking lot pics




We met up with a real bitch of a USFS ranger at the closed trail head to Scnebly Hill. Because I had red mud on my Jeep she felt it was her job to inform me that I deserved a citation for resource damage. Once I informed her that the mud came from an open and legally traversed road near Gigi's house in Oak Creek and when I asked her if all the hikers with red shoes deserved citations for resource damage she decided she didn't want to talk with me any more.

Sunday morning run North of 89A off the loop of routes 761 and 525C










At 1pm as we headed back to Gigi's house I took one last chance on the Broken Arrow trail and it was open. No doubt the 15 Pink Jeeps full of passengers we passed on the trail had some influence on the decision.

Submarine Rock




Chicken Point






The playground


The staircase


The whole album can be viewed at http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d1.../April%202011/

We left Sedona at 6pm. We spent the night off I-10 at Summit Road. Back in Norco at 10am this morning. Back at work at 11:30am

It was a fantastic adventure.

[Mike]

Freaking awesome pics! I love the Sedona area. The snow really sets the colors off too.
It doesn't look like the Staircase has changed too much from when I ran it in April of 2006:

[FishPOET]

We ran it in 2006 as well. The Black Pearl looked a bit different back then :O