West Fork Trail in Sedona, Arizona

Finally, we reached the campsite around 8pm and was greeted by drunken friends stuffing their faces with overly large marshmallows. We grabbed a drink, sat around the campfire, and started away with games and stories. The elevation was nice since it didn’t take much to start feeling the buzz of the night.

The next morning we decided to head out for a lovely 6 mile hike. We took the West Fork Trail which was easy and was shaded the whole time. I wish all trails were as nice! The directions of the trail, however, were very vague as you can see from the sign. It states to cross over 13 creek passings and you have arrived. We were like alright, let’s do this.

The beginning of the trail had these cool little cave homes so to speak, though I would consider them more like hideouts to get away from the everyday. However, I guess because I’m claustrophobic that wouldn’t work out well for me back then. Moving on. There was actually a tiny cluster of hostels near the cave hideout as well that had been abandoned. The furniture was still there standing as strong as its little brittle legs could hold. I always find beauty in abandoned places.

Slowly the numbers are climbing up and up until we eventually reached number 13. To say it shortly, we were disappointed when we reach the end of the west fork trail. We were hoping that we working towards some grand scene to end the trail that would be just beautiful but that site never came. We were just like “alright….guess that’s it” so we popped a squat on a fallen tree and enjoyed a granola bar. We were all starving and had a 3 mile hike back before we could eat lunch so the snack was much appreciated.

We were situated around all the scenery when a couple made it to the end and had the same expression we did. We laughed and responded, yes, this is the end. The hike back was just as easy as it was coming but in my mind seemed faster of course. It’s so weird how going one way over another always feels different when in fact it’s the exact same.

That night we laid low and swapped a couple of funny stories from the night before. It did rain for about almost an hour so we played Uno in the biggest tent then roasted hot dogs, beans, and more smores over the fire. We coined ourselves the Sedona Seven and headed out the next morning. I had a great time even though it was just a weekend trip. Nothing is more relaxing and refreshing than getting off the grid for a little while and breathing fresh air.