Red Rock State Park, Sedona, Arizona

Red Rock Canyon State Park, Sedona, Arizona

With ugly weather swirling through the Grand Canyon and snow covering the roadways in Flagstaff, Arizona, I had decided to travel down the Oak Creek Canyon along 89A to Sedona, Arizona.  Dropping down over 2000 feet in elevation in the 23 mile distance from Flagstaff to Sedona included negotiating a few tight hairpin curves where dry condition speeds would be only 15 mph but, of necessity, under the slippery conditions of this trip, 15 mph would have been considered speeding!

I stayed overnight at the Sedona Motel, a basic, comfortable family-run motel close to uptown Sedona.  They got to put up the No Vacancy sign when I arrived :-). The owners were pleasant and offered plenty of suggestions for day hikes in the area. One of the places suggested was the Red Rock Canyon State Park only a few miles away off 89A south. Sedona was staging a marathon and family running event in the morning so, to get to the park, all I had to do was get past the runners/walkers!

This state park offers a number of interesting hiking trails of varying difficulty from those that follow along the creek bed through riparian habitat to those trails that require a bit of climbing to higher look-out points where the surrounding red rock geology can be viewed from many angles. I was able to watch out for the spines of the many cacti along the way and take the time to enjoy the many plays of light and shadow as I joined a small group out on a guided bird walk.

Of course, once I stopped focusing on the different colours, shapes and lighting opportunities and looked around I was able to see the reason that so many people come each year to Sedona – those beautiful red mountains and unusual shapes

 

Although not plentiful, the wildlife that were willing to pose for a shot or two were pretty good at the posing bit especially a group of Mule Deer that were grazing quietly by one of the trails.

I hiked all of those available trails today and saw a number of birds new to me such as the Spotted Towhee and the Abert’s Towhee. Some of the birds were easier to see than others.

As usual, I was carrying too much camera equipment (heavy!!!) but what’s new about that :-).