Sedona Energy

Oak Creek Camping, Sedona Arizona

Happy Belated Independence Day!

When I saw the weather forecast for July 4th was going to be a balmy 116 degrees, I booked the first campsite north of town and ran for the border. Tom and two of our friends and I camped under the tall trees along the Oak Creek just north of Sedona, Arizona. Sedona is famous for its red rock and energy vortexes while also being 20 degrees cooler than Phoenix and having that crisp clear stuff called H2O. We got up there late afternoon on July 3rd, set up camp and made a nice meal on the propane grill (no fires allowed due to lack of rain). We drank, ate, played cards, and just relaxed listening to the trickling of the river. The next morning we got up early and explored Slide Rock which is a natural slide in the river bed for sliding. It was nice early, but gets very busy (aka similiar to a loud public pool) later so we only stayed for a little while. We decided to hike the Oak Creek West Fork trail which is 11 miles through a canyon along the river. The normal turnaround point which does not require swimming up the river was 3.3 miles in so that was our designated turnaround. The only problem was, that we were told this point was 2 miles, so by the time we finally go there, we were all out of water and more than a little tired. We cooled off for a minute in the deep water (pic above), and then hauled back to the car to get more water. I did take some unfiltered drinks from the clear river and felt fine so I wasn't really that worried about running out of water. Overall, it was a great day with about 8 miles of hiking and some cool river swimming and definitely beat any sort of Independence Day activities occurring in Phoenix. Fireworks while feeling on fire...not so great.

Slide Rock State Park, Sedona, Arizona

Tom and I on Oak Creek

So I decided to pimp my blog.. okay not really pimp it so much as add a new custom header. It's the best my amateur Photoshop abilities can come up with at the moment. I will admit that creating these types of graphics if FUN with a capital F for me. It is artistry for those without ability.