Fourteen Trailblazer hikers met at the usual I-17 and Bell Road Fry’s shopping center. After a few organizational/carpooling minutes we started our hour and a half drive to Sedona. At Camp Verde we stopped for a quick break and soon thereafter pushed on to Sedona.

The weather forecast was 40% chance of showers or afternoon thunderstorms and only 60% partly sunny. You do not want to get caught in a thunderstorm while on a hike. It is dangerous on many levels, the worst of which is getting hit by lightning. Trees are a poor shelter and our aluminum hiking poles could very well attract the electrical charge.

We took our chances and the trailblazers won over Mother Nature: 60 to 40. It was a lovely and delightful hike with a refreshing breeze blowing every so often and, with partly cloudy skies the intensity of the sun was reduced. Starting temperature was 66 degrees and 76 for the afternoon finishing temperature.

Woods Canyon is an “in and out” trail and parallels the creek (see GPS maps, above).

Our starting time at the trailhead was 9:15 AM and our starting elevation was 3,841 feet at Jacks Canyon and the highest point we reached on the hike was 4,129 feet. At the trailhead we saddled up our backpacks and within a couple hundred feet arrived at the Jacks Canyon creek where we stopped at the water crossing for our traditional group picture.

There was very little water running in the creek. We had a draught year in Arizona but nevertheless, even with a trickle of water flora flourishes.

At that moment five of us, the fast hikers, decided to launch ahead of the rest of us and hike as far as they could before returning to the trailhead. Let the trekking begin. We blazed through the free ranger fence and gate with Michael leading the charge and into the openness of the Canyon.

At first, the trail was sparse with trees and car width wide, but as the hike progressed the vegetation thickened, which gave us relief from the intermittent sun.

Within half an hour from the trailhead, we reach the intersection of Hot Lopp Trail and Woods Canyon. There was no need for directions (we had several hikers with GPS’s and trail maps). The sign was clear enough and we proceeded straight ahead following the Woods Canyon directional arrow.

In the meantime the five fast hikers were nowhere to be seen. But they did pose and had their picture taken for us to remind us of their adventure (see Bill’s Supplemental Report).

Contrary to certain beliefs, the high plateau desert is full of flora. In the Dry Beaver Creek and along its banks one will see cottonwood and sycamore trees, prickly pear cactus, mesquite and ironwood trees, yucca and catclaw acacia, Agave, cactus, and many flowering plants:

At the 3.5 miles mark we decided to stop and have lunch before we returned to the trailhead. We found a rocky crossing which would direct us to a large sycamore tree that provided us with shade. The creek was practically dry except for a trickle of water.

Two of our distinguished hikers found relief to cool their feet off in this trickling water. There were no blistered feet to report.

The spot was refreshing with a light breeze blowing over us; the view of the red rocks in front of us, polished boulders and remnant ponds of past flowing creek was picture perfect.

Is this a hawk’s eye looking at you? This was created by a whirlpool of water erosion over thousands of years. Sandstone is rather soft rock.

After about half an hour of lunch break, we proceeded to return to the trailhead.

Our five fast hikers were nowhere to be seen, however, with our two-way radios we were in constant contact with them. By 1:30 PM the first batch of hikers reached the trailhead and soon the rest of us arrived except for the five fast hikers who rejoined us a little later on at the restaurant. We decided to head on to the Wildflower Bread Bakery where we had our dinner before returning to Phoenix.

The view from the restaurant was breathtaking. Sedona is Red Rock country.

With permission from the hike leader, Bill talked four other hikers into a longer hike. Bill had pre-plotted waypoints for the side canyons (Rattlesnake and Pine) with the ambition of some sort of loop. We eyed the south walls of Woods Canyon for the possible return route. Walls looked steep. Rattlesnake looked choked with vegetation. Plan “B”: we stayed on the trail until it just faded away.

On our return we meet backpackers who were off to explore some ruins. To my best understanding they were west of our end point “E”. We almost caught up to the short group, but a beer in the parking lot and the long line to order meant diner was a simultaneous hello and good-bye.

John Richa led a fine hike to Woods Canyon along Dry Beaver Creek in Sedona. The weather was pleasant, and I got some wildflower pictures along the way.