RED ROCK WILDERNESS
I've been pretty antsy to get out and do some camping despite the cold, so I decided to drive out west to Sedona and hit some trails. My original plan was to spend a couple of nights doing the secret canyon loop, but my car didn’t end up having a chance in hell of getting to the trail head. So I stopped by the ranger station for some help coming up with another plan.
I ended up patching together a few trails and old forest service roads to make a 20 mile or so loop. Starting at the Loy canyon TH, I hiked up through some red rock to the secret mountain trail, and camped a couple miles into it on the rim of the peak. The next day I backtracked, then connected a couple forest roads to get me to the trail junction of the Taylor cabin trail and the Mooney canyon trail. I dropped my pack at the junction and went a mile or two down the Taylor cabin trail into the gorgeous Sycamore canyon. After that I made my way down into Mooney canyon to camp for the night. For the hike out I thought the Mooney would take me right back to the forest road my car was parked on, but after the trail took me in the other direction for a mile or two, I realized that a millimeter on a map can make a hell of a difference and the Mooney had me just on the other side of a steep wash from the forest road. So I ended up having to backtrack a couple of miles to where I could bushwhack my way to the other side and blaze my own trail to the road.
Anyways, It was a gorgeous little adventure. I got a few decent photos, and a couple serene soundscapes that I’ll try to post soon.
