The Chin's Adventure Across America: Sedona: Rapid fire. Three hikes in one day!

Day 5 - Stops: Sedona, Arizona

Hikes:
West Fork (3.2 miles + 2 miles to campsite)

Little Horse (2.8 miles, Elevation gain: 311 feet)

Devil’s Bridge (4 miles, Elevation gain: 400 feet)

I love camping because you go to bed at 9pm and wake up at 6am. I managed to get Jeremy on the road for an early morning run to West Fork. As it turns out I accidentally chose one of the most popular hikes in Oak Creek Canyon. A 1.5 mile run down to the trail head, and then we started running through this gorgeous canyon. We ran about halfway before turning back, wanting to leave some time for Sedona. A 5 mile run in all. Then we hit Sedona.

West Fork Trail through Oak Canyon

The city of Sedona is irritating to say the least. The scenery is absolutely worth the trip but the number of tourist shops and the traffic is not my cup of tea. We hit the visitor’s center and identified some potential hikes. We first went to check out this chapel built into the base of the canyon. It was kind of strange. We started Little Horse. The Little Horse trail out to Chicken Point leaves a lot to be desired. It’s basically hiking through desert. There’s no shade and there’s little to look at, but then you reach Chicken Point and it's really quite special. Not a difficult hike and a little frustrating to see that people take these pink jeeps up to the same spot that you put your own sweat and work into reaching on your own two legs. There were also these 10 year old climbing down the face of the cliff without parental supervision. It looked pretty dicey. I would not have let my child do that, but when we turned back they were on safe ground.

Little Horse Trail

Chicken Point at the end of Little Horse Trail. Sedona.

Our last hike of the day was supposed to be a short mile out and back, but we apparently took the long route via Dry Creek trail which led us a bit astray, but we met up with three other lost hikers on this poorly marked trail and found our way back to the main trailhead leading us up a cliff to the spectacular viewpoint in which some rocks form a walkable bridge high above the trail below. One of the best hikes I've done anywhere. This one is a must do.