PrincessInOz
Thanks for my avatar, Mary Jo!
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2010
- Messages
- 108,006
(Continued from Previous Post)
The Call of the Canyon
Zane Grey was one of the first millionaire American authors. He wrote over 90 books and many of them formed the basis of the Hollywood Western movie and shaped many of the myths of the Wild West. One of them The Call of the Canyon was written about a returning Veteran being nursed back to health by an Arizona girl; is reputed to be set along the West Fork Trail (No 108) of the Oak Creek Canyon. Certainly the Hollywood version was filmed not far away from our house. If you've never heard of it, don't worry. I learnt about it from my mother when I mentioned Sedona. I've subsequently googled it....I hadn't realised my mother was quite that old! The movie was filmed in 1923 in the days of silent movies!!!
(Actually....she talked about the book; not the movie. But creative license seems to fit in the post right now).
When I was researching things to do in Sedona, I came across the West Fork Trail. It is listed as one of the Top 10 walks to do in the US and naturally, we were going to walk it. Afterall, a walk along a canyon floor with awesome cliffs, gentle babbling stream red rock, solitude, lush greenery just sounded like music to my ears. This trail was supposed to be an easy, flat, 3.2 miles in and 3.2 miles out hike. About 3.5 hours to complete.
DH needed no convincing at all. DS? I'd convinced DS to try this trail; but he did try every trick in the book to weasel out of this walk before we got here. There was never any doubt about it at all....he was going! To his credit, he realised he up against an immovable wall very quickly and after that, he didn't whine (much at all). But he did tell me that this was the part of the trip he was looking forward to the least.
With that kind of encouragement, we got to the parking lot by 9.15 am. The trailhead is about 18 miles north of Sedona along the 89A. It really isn't signposted at all....rather you keep an eye out for a parking sign and make that turning when you see it. I had read that this was a popular trail to walk and parking could be difficult to get; so the advice was to get there early. I figured we were fairly safe mid-week.
The scenery was spectacular right off the bat!
I was surprised to see the reference to the Call of the Canyon at the trail head.
The walk looked easy enough at the start.
Plus we immediately crossed the Oak Creek; which gave us all something to look at.
We headed past formations of that red rock geology. Were looking at red and orange sandstone, Fort Apache limestone, Coconino sandstone and basalt at the tops of the higher formations here.
You might have spotted the apple tree in the picture. Yes, there was an apple orchard along the path. All this area at the start of the trail used to be part of a homestead that formed the Bear Howard.....
....and Mayhew Lodge. Carl Mayhew worked on the filming of the Call of the Canyon and bought this lodge in 1926. Celebrities such as Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable have stayed here. And, believe it or not, Walt Disney!
We walked along the West Fork...
....and came across our first river crossing some 0.8 mile in.
The West Fork seduces you to keep walking.
The path follows the creek and crosses the water 13 times heading in.
It only took me until the second creek crossing to slip in and get my shoes, socks and feet completely soaked! At least we were blessed with a relatively hot day temperatures on this vacay to date had been in the high 80s.
In between the creek crossings, you keep walking along the trail.
There are occasional markers along the way.
We also saw these sorts of trail markers....cairns. They added some novelty to the walk for DS and I naturally encouraged him to keep a look-out for the next one.
In effect, just keep following the yellow (brick road) path.
The walk was gentle and easy enough in spots.
But there were a few hurdles to overcome along the way. Nothing that we couldn't manage, though.
There were times when you were reminded that the trail did have an elevation gradient of 200 feet.
(Continued in Next Post)
The Call of the Canyon
Zane Grey was one of the first millionaire American authors. He wrote over 90 books and many of them formed the basis of the Hollywood Western movie and shaped many of the myths of the Wild West. One of them The Call of the Canyon was written about a returning Veteran being nursed back to health by an Arizona girl; is reputed to be set along the West Fork Trail (No 108) of the Oak Creek Canyon. Certainly the Hollywood version was filmed not far away from our house. If you've never heard of it, don't worry. I learnt about it from my mother when I mentioned Sedona. I've subsequently googled it....I hadn't realised my mother was quite that old! The movie was filmed in 1923 in the days of silent movies!!!
(Actually....she talked about the book; not the movie. But creative license seems to fit in the post right now).
When I was researching things to do in Sedona, I came across the West Fork Trail. It is listed as one of the Top 10 walks to do in the US and naturally, we were going to walk it. Afterall, a walk along a canyon floor with awesome cliffs, gentle babbling stream red rock, solitude, lush greenery just sounded like music to my ears. This trail was supposed to be an easy, flat, 3.2 miles in and 3.2 miles out hike. About 3.5 hours to complete.
DH needed no convincing at all. DS? I'd convinced DS to try this trail; but he did try every trick in the book to weasel out of this walk before we got here. There was never any doubt about it at all....he was going! To his credit, he realised he up against an immovable wall very quickly and after that, he didn't whine (much at all). But he did tell me that this was the part of the trip he was looking forward to the least.
With that kind of encouragement, we got to the parking lot by 9.15 am. The trailhead is about 18 miles north of Sedona along the 89A. It really isn't signposted at all....rather you keep an eye out for a parking sign and make that turning when you see it. I had read that this was a popular trail to walk and parking could be difficult to get; so the advice was to get there early. I figured we were fairly safe mid-week.
The scenery was spectacular right off the bat!
I was surprised to see the reference to the Call of the Canyon at the trail head.
The walk looked easy enough at the start.
Plus we immediately crossed the Oak Creek; which gave us all something to look at.
We headed past formations of that red rock geology. Were looking at red and orange sandstone, Fort Apache limestone, Coconino sandstone and basalt at the tops of the higher formations here.
You might have spotted the apple tree in the picture. Yes, there was an apple orchard along the path. All this area at the start of the trail used to be part of a homestead that formed the Bear Howard.....
....and Mayhew Lodge. Carl Mayhew worked on the filming of the Call of the Canyon and bought this lodge in 1926. Celebrities such as Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable have stayed here. And, believe it or not, Walt Disney!
We walked along the West Fork...
....and came across our first river crossing some 0.8 mile in.
The West Fork seduces you to keep walking.
The path follows the creek and crosses the water 13 times heading in.
It only took me until the second creek crossing to slip in and get my shoes, socks and feet completely soaked! At least we were blessed with a relatively hot day temperatures on this vacay to date had been in the high 80s.
In between the creek crossings, you keep walking along the trail.
There are occasional markers along the way.
We also saw these sorts of trail markers....cairns. They added some novelty to the walk for DS and I naturally encouraged him to keep a look-out for the next one.
In effect, just keep following the yellow (brick road) path.
The walk was gentle and easy enough in spots.
But there were a few hurdles to overcome along the way. Nothing that we couldn't manage, though.
There were times when you were reminded that the trail did have an elevation gradient of 200 feet.
(Continued in Next Post)
It isn't much of a secret anymore! 
And what is wrong with the time-honoured DisTradition of licking your screen????
