Trail Running in Sedona

(See full size map here)

As a resident of Flagstaff, I am very lucky to have the amazing trails of Sedona to save me during the winter months. While the trails in the mountains around Flagstaff are covered with snow, only 45 minutes away and a couple thousand feet lower in elevation, Sedona has warm weather, no snow, beautiful views and 100's upon 100's of miles of trails to run.


Since starting to run again in January, I have made it a goal to escape the pavement and snow packed trails of home to pad along the sandy trails of Red Rock Country at least once a week.


After a few weeks of running in Sedona I realized that there were still quite a few trails that I haven't explored, even with all my hiking over the last 10 or so years in the area. It seemed to me that while the weather was bad in Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon wasn't in season I could spend my time systematically hitting all these undone trails.

A couple days ago I started the process and got down to Sedona to explore some new trails. Here are the trails I followed that day:

-Started at the Bell Rock Pathway Trailhead closest to the town of Sedona and followed Bell Rock Pathway toward Village of Oak Creek.
-Hit the Templeton Trail and followed that past Cathedral Rock.
-Linked up with Baldwin Trail, which is a loop.
-Got back onto the Templeton Trail.
-Near the Bell Rock Pathway, cut off onto HT Trail.
-Ended back on the Bell Rock Pathway to get back to Bell Rock Pathway Trailhead and the car.
-About an 11 mile out and back.


It was refreshing and very enjoyable to do a new trail down there. I got to see new terrain which included some excellent slickrock, great views of open country, cool standing rock formations and even a short but enjoyable run along a lower section of Oak Creek Canyon.


Sedona is a very special place that I feel very lucky to explore. I am excited to continue wandering new trails this winter and spring. Who knows what I'll get to see around that next bend in the canyon, over the next mesa or along the next turn in the creek. Who knows...


I think it's worth finding out.

Last couple weeks...

Here are some photos from a few adventures I had in the last couple weeks.

Exploring near Kingman for boulders before the big snow storm. The adventure included...
-Negotiating the maze of BAD dirt roads to the boulder piles.
-Shiloh getting tons of cacti needles in her paws.
-Finding a life time of bouldering and then finding that most of the boulders were choss.
-Running into some mountain bikers that have the place to themselves on miles of sweet secret singletrack.
-Shiloh taking down a calf (and I mean taking down!) and then having a stare down with mamma cow.
-Blowing a tire.

Good ol' desert exploring.

After the megga snow storm in Flagstaff we went down to Sedona for some sunshine and hiking with Susan's sister Teresa and her friend Alecio. It was a great day out as we were in Sedona the day before and the weather wasn't quite as nice.

We hiked Fay Canyon and it was a real treat. There were seasonal waterfalls and we got to hang out behind one of them where there was an old ruin. Really cool spot.

Sterling Pass to Vultee Arch Run

I snuck in a nice run last week before the BIG snow storms we are having right now. Good thing because not only is it snowing like crazy in Flagstaff right now but I am sick too.

The run was an out and back along the Sterling Pass Trail and the Vultee Arch Trail. I started at the Sterling Pass Trail head in Oak Creek Canyon, went out to the trail head of Vultee Arch and then came back. The trip is about 7.5 miles with about 1,000 ft of elevation gain and loss. Not to big of a deal by itself but there was plenty of slick compact snow and ice and down trees on the trail to slow me down a bit. The Sterling Pass section is definitely touch and go for running this time of year and I think I kind of got away with one as any more snow, ice or down trees would have had me turning around and finding a warmer, less treacherous trail to run.

Ice near the start of the Sterling Pass Trail was an indicator of what was to come.

Much of the Sterling Pass Trail looked like this. Not deep snow by any means but very compact so early in the morning (I started up the trail before 8 am) and very slick. Many steeper sections I had to grab branches and rocks to make sure not to slip and break my butt.

View just before reaching Sterling Pass. I really enjoyed this section as there were many cool sandstone fins and towers to look at. I even saw some climbing anchors on a few crack systems. I'm not surprised people climb up here because the rock quality is great and the features are very aesthetic, just begging to be climbed.

View from Sterling Pass.

After dropping down the other side of Sterling Pass, it doesn't take long to reach Vultee Arch (you can see the arch in the back of the photo). From Vultee Arch the trail widened and was smooth sailing. No more trees and snow to deal with. Excellent typical Sedona running in this section.

Ahhh...the wonderful red trails in Sedona.

Finally, the trail head for Vultee Arch was reached, time to turn around and head back toward the snow and fallen trees. It was o.k. though. I actually enjoyed the whole trail...it's fun to have a little excitement thrown into a run and the way back was much easier anyway. The temperatures had risen a bit and the icy sections around Sterling Pass had softened up. I didn't really have to deal with any ice. Luxury.

Great run. Can't wait for better weather and getting over my cold so I can get back out on the trails!

Barstow and beyond...

Note: I had trouble getting these photos to place properly through out the post so they are all posted at top of page for now.

(Sun behind ridge at New Jack City)

(Susan entering Gold Strike Canyon)

(excellent pool in Gold Strike Canyon)

(another nice pool in Gold Strike Canyon, there were many)
(just another nice looking pool)

(Susan enjoying an excellent and our favorite pool of Gold Strike Canyon)

(ahhhh...the life)

Over the holiday break, Susan and I got away for a week to climb and play. We performed our standard "weeks of deliberation" ritual trying to decide which of the bajilions of climbing areas in the southwest desert would give us the best chance of good weather and fun climbing ( I am notorious for scouring the list of areas trying to find somewhere that will offer climbs that I haven't been on (harder and harder to find the older I get)...Susan is a little easier to please as she just needs sport routes and sunshine). After the dust finally settled we decided on New Jack City and the Red Rocks.

New Jack City, our first destination, is located about 15 miles south of Barstow, California and is smack dab in the middle of one of Southern California's prime red neck boondocks. The cliffs are situated right in the middle of a popular ATV area. In fact, no more than 1/4 mile from where we climbed was a red neck outpost of 5+ RVs that were circled up cowboy style with (no joke) a fully decorated Christmas tree in the middle and one RV had a California state flag flying...upside down. Classic.

Every morning the ATV's and motorcycles would be reved up and the RV cowboys would be off exploring the endless dirt roads of the Mojave Desert Mad Max style. Very entertaining for me.

The climbing area was somewhat exempt from the two and four wheel destruction as the first ascentionists had the for thought to construct fences around the best crags to protect them. In fact, the climbing area is quite pleasant with recovering plant life, well thought out trails, wood benches and built up flat areas under climbs. The only thing I would say was going a bit too far was the glue that held some of the loosest choss to the walls and one route that literally had two steel rods that were drilled through a massive hollow flake and kept it attached to the main cliff. This was done to keep it from ripping off while climbers yarded on it on their way up the cliff and probably seriously injuring themselves or killing their belayer. Definitely the extreme end of crag development. Most definitely in style with how crags are developed near L.A. If this debauchery were anywhere else I would not be psyched about it but for some reason out here in ATV land it seemed to be par for the course.

We really enjoyed the climbing at New Jack City. The rock was a metamorphic volcanic with lots of vertical to overhanging routes that took a lot of technique and route reading skills to maneuver. I really had a good time climbing on such a complex rock. Word of caution though...the area is full on Mad Max style with free camping, red necks, burned furniture and super choss rock. If all that sounds fine and you like sunshine in the winter and juggy, athletic sport climbing then check it out. It is definitely not for the rock snobs out there but fun for the rest.

The end of the the trip was spent at Red Rocks, near Las Vegas, Nevada, which is a staple for climbers in the winter. With thousands of routes and boulder problems on excellent steep sandstone and extremely nice winter temperatures, it's no wonder. Unfortunately, the weather had been messing with us all trip and after one day of climbing at Red Rocks we decided to head home a day early. The day had started out chilly and overcast with a bit of a threatening look. All we wanted was one more day of sun to soak up and this wasn't cutting it. We were out of there.

As a weird twist of fate, we had all day to waste driving home from Vegas and the drive only takes about 4 hours, so we decided to check out some hot springs I had always wanted to go to on the way home. The hot springs were the Gold Strike Hot Springs.

It was worth the exploratory hike as the springs were great. Not all that hot at about 100 degrees but excellent approach through a deep canyon and beautiful pools to soak in. Interesting note: A guy who was at the springs told me that some of the springs were actually hotter a few years ago but because of all the dynamite work for the new bridge at Hoover Dam (the springs are really close to the dam) some of the springs don't flow into the canyon anymore, thus cutting off the hot water supply to some of the best pools. It is sad when things as sensitive and rare as hot water coming out of the ground is so severely effected by our need for development. Especially sad and even confusing ethics wise for me because I love hot springs but I also know that the moment they finish that bridge I will use it just like everyone else that wants to go to Vegas from Arizona, thus in a weird way supporting the destruction of the hot springs.

The bridge, by bypassing the Hoover dam, will on average save people 45 minutes travel time to Vegas, crazy. Go here if you want to read about the crazy bypass bridge project.

Towel Creek Trail #67

Towel Creek Trail Run

After a couple months of laying low and regaining psych, I started running again. It's seems time to get back in shape for another season of trail running adventures.

To start off, I wanted to ease back in with a few weeks of 10-15 mile weeks (a couple leisure miles a day). I started fine, running a couple miles on roads around town each day (trails are covered with snow right now in Flagstaff) but after only one week of running I couldn't hold out and started sniffing around for cool longer runs to explore in the snow free deserts around Northern AZ. After a bit of searching and a few good prospects, I found the Towel Creek Trail while on http://www.arizonahikingtrails.com/.

I considered the Towel Creek Trail last year but didn't do it because of hot temperatures and the bit of route finding that would be involved. The trail travels through the desert for 7 miles (one way) from Fossil Springs Road (FR #708) to the Verde River along sometimes good and sometimes faint trails and cairns. For a run this would be an out and back for a total of 14 miles and an elevation gain and loss of 2,700 feet. Trail description and directions here.

It didn't happen last year but this year it seemed the perfect thing to do...more like...last week it seemed the perfect thing to do. I know I should be building up slowly but once I find a trail I am psyched on it is hard to wait to do it. It was only 14 miles anyway, how bad could it be? A little bit of psych and trying not to push the pace would surely see me through without to much discomfort. Chalk it up to waking up the legs.

The trail started with a rolling old dirt road that had degraded to single track. This section of the trail was one of the best parts to run. At this point the trail travels along at about 4,500 feet near the tops of ridges. The views were excellent of distant mountains and near valleys and I could keep a pleasant pace and get into a bit of a rhythm. After this first few miles the trail travels over a saddle and Towel Tank. The old degraded road ends here and the trail gets less defined. Luckily the trail was marked extremely well with cairns and tape as I would have lost it completely a few times without these markers. Also, It became much more rocky and brushy, making for slower travel. I continued running for most of this section but sometimes resorted to walking to find my way.

I passed some interesting and beautiful things along the way to the river after Towel Tank. There were many beautiful volcanic rock formations. Some of my favorite were the formations with bright yellow lichen covering them. The yellow color exploded in front of the reds and browns of the other volcanic cliff bands. Other interesting sights were springs along the towel creek drainage, some excellent ruins in the caves of one of the cliffs and an old tin shed used by cowboys.

By the time I reached the Verde River I was pressed for time so I rubbed a bit of creek water on my face, took a couple rocks out of my shoes and was off back up the trail (1 hour 30 minutes car to river, a bit longer than I expected).

On the way back up the trail I could tell that I hadn't been running much. My legs were pretty fatigued and my feet hurt a bit. Because of my competitive side, my fatigue made me even more determined to try to put in a good showing coming back out. I wanted to see how well I could climb the 2,700 feet of elevation I just descended.

It was hard. I was not in that great of shape and a few times I had to ease up in the middle because of being on the edge of cramping. After some serious calories, salt and water I started feeling better later on the trail and was even able to straight up run much of it.

Although, I did get slowed down for another reason...at one point a bull decided he didn't want to leave the trail and there wasn't anywhere to get around him. I resigned to walking behind him and yelling while ready to run the other way if he got a little too grumpy.

The road section at the end was quite nice. Knowing that I had the climbing behind me and could role along on a nice rolling trail was what it's all about. I just got to plod along, enjoying the evening desert light and the feeling the sensations of exhaustion only attained after a good day of adventure and exploration.

When I reached the car, I was surprised at my return time. I went river to car in 1 hour 45 minutes. Only 15 minutes slower than my car to river time. Either I was slow heading down to the river or I busted ass coming back (cramps, bull and all). Whatever...it doesn't really matter what time I did it in it's just my competitive side coming out. As much as I enjoy the solitude, exploration and adventure I also love pushing my limits. I just can't help but want to move quickly through this amazing remote terrain and push myself to the edge (my edge anyway). I guess that seeing how fast I can do these trails is just part of the deal for me.

Now let's see what other trails there are I haven't been on yet...although maybe not such a long one next time.

All in all, a great trail for the hikers/runners out there that want to get off the beaten path. Worth checking out.

(sorry for the lack of photos. I will bring the camera next time!)

Go here to see some photos from someone elses trip down the Towel Creek Trail (scroll down to bottom of linked page for photos)