The Creek With Red Walls

During one of the hottest weeks of the year, I decided to take another trip up north.  I was hoping that the crowds would be home instead of out in the wilderness with me, since school has now started here (not necessarily in person yet, but still).  I decided to try to go to my favorite trailhead and see if the parking lot was full - and it WAS NOT!  FINALLY!  It's been a couple of years since I've been able to get to this specific spot because the trails up north are just so busy lately.  The summers are getting hotter, and 200 people move to the Phoenix metro area every day (I just looked it up!)  It's nice to get out of the heat, of course, so the tiny places up north get overwhelmed.  

Here's me as I was getting ready to leave!

Mask up, Arizona!

(We're doing much better as far as COVID-19, by the way - hooray!)

The fire burned everything to the east of the freeway

(this is near Sunset Point):

This is how street signs respond to fire:

The black is burned.  The golden is how it should look:

I saw a strip of burned area along the west side of the freeway, but it looked fine from Sunset Point.  It was as beautiful as always!

Back on the road . . . 

some of the place names in Arizona are a bit crazy:

like Bloody Basin Rd!

There's also Horsethief Road and a town called Bumblebee.

Ah!  The red hills of Sedona!

"BRAKE FOR SNAKES

EVEN IN WATER

NON VENOMOUS PROTECTED SPECIES"

I always assume this says "Alien's Bend".

The road from Sedona to Flagstaff goes along the canyon and the creek is in the bottom of the canyon.  There are pieces of cars along the path that show us how important it is to keep our eyes on the road and drive safely along that ridge!

There's the river!

Here's the path down to the river:

Raspberry bushes!

There were rose petals on the path.

I was feeling very happy.

The colors and smells were wonderful.

I smelled juniper pine, creosote, and river.

And then soft sand appeared!

There's the river!

It's called Oak Creek.

HAPPY!

I enjoyed a bit of the closest area, then trekked some more upstream.

If I go far enough, I know there's an area with a sandy bottom and red rock walls

(spoiler: I didn't make it that far this time).

Raspberries!

A beautiful butterfly:

A sweet (and angry-looking) lizard:

I found a bridge over the river.

The first time I didn't trust my ankle and my balance because of my injuries and I sat down and scooted across on my bum.  But I walked right across on the way back and did great!

On the other side was a pebbly beach.

I sat down and played in the water a bit.

It was 101 degrees that day in Sedona; better than the 114 or so it was in the Phoenix metro, but still quite hot, so the water felt great even though it's always cold.

Here's my little beach:

This rock had little shells stuck to it.

One time many years ago, Cindy and I enjoyed this spot and took naps on top of this big rock.

The view is beautiful:

Can you see a tiny tree growing on this rock in the middle of the river?

I decided to venture upstream a bit farther:

And then it was time to head home.

I wanted to hike in more, but my ankle was starting to get wobbly, telling me that it had had enough adventure for the day.  It did great, though, and I didn't have a lot of repercussions even though I did a lot of barefoot rock hopping.  The improvement and healing continue!

What a wonderful day!