West Fork-ish

As much fun as exploring other states most certainly is, I was so excited to be back exploring my own with a friend this past Monday.

The preliminary plan: a day trip to Sedona and ice cream. Other than the need for packing a suit the morning of no further plans were discussed — just how we wanted it. 

Once on the road, we narrowed our outing down further. We could go to one of our tried-and-true favorites, Crescent Moon Ranch, with the downside of less hiking, or head to the less familiar West Fork Trail, with the upside of guaranteed hiking. With a unanimous vote for West Fork, we went for it. 

To our dismay, though, the parking lot was full; hence, the name of this blog: West Fork-ish. 

About a mile north of the West Fork of Oak Creek Trailhead on the west side of the road (the side nearest the creek) is an abundance of parking and trails down to the water. 

Despite people being around, it wasn’t too difficult to find a spot more or less to ourselves where we could enjoy the best sandwich of my life and the last chapter of New Moon together. 

After basking in the sound of the rushing water in our ears and the cool feel of it on our skin, we regrouped and found another spot along the beach where we could lay out for a bit. 

This was my favorite spot of all. The open space in the just deep enough creek allowed me to submerge up to my shoulders in the ice-cold spring for approximately 10 seconds.  

While the hike we took shortly after ended up being more of a brisk walk with a few pantingly steep areas along the west edge of the creek, we found several breathtaking views, including this beach and this cliff jumping spot. I would love to visit both areas again. 

For the sake of transparency, an aside regarding this location is that there was a noticeable scattering of trash around the trail. While it wasn’t over the top or gross, I was somewhat dismayed by the blatant littering present. Regardless, again, I would go back. 

We started our walk at Telephone Trail Trailhead about a quarter-mile south of where we parked. We crossed the stream immediately, stumbling upon the beach (where we got to pet a cute dog) and continued along the west side of the creek before likewise finding the cliff jumping spot. After getting back down to creek level, we crossed again as soon as we could and headed back up to the road as we knew we were bound to be getting close to the car. All in all, we explored about a half-mile in less than a half-hour. With the heat and day spent in the sun, though, we were very much ready for ice cream. 

Two must-try ice cream spots for your next Sedona adventure: 

1. Sabrina’s Ice Cream – Get a hot fudge sundae, and thank me later. 
2. Black Cow Café – Get a piece of pie warmed up (and maybe one to go), and thank me later, too. I highly recommend the crumble apple pie. 

While I can’t promise you’ll run into this gentleman when you go (or even want to), there is a chance you’ll see an individual yielding a variety of rescue snakes and lizards. As excited as I was to hold Pablo (pictured below), I can understand that doing so is not for everyone. I recommend keeping your distance if that’s the case for you as the rescuer did plop them in passers’-by hands without much prompting. But then again, maybe I was giving off ‘please, let me hold that snake’ vibes. 

No matter where you live, there are certainly a plethora of phenomenal places in your own backyard. Despite having visited Sedona more times than I can count, I’ve always found a new trail to meander down, stream to sit in, views to ogle over, treats to savor, and experiences to be had. 

If your goal, like mine, is to find and know worthwhile locations in the beautiful state of Arizona, here’s one to start with. 🙂