Does This Blog Make Me Look Fat?

There is no “Y” at the junction of Highway 179 and Highway 89A anymore. They changed it to a traffic circle, and if you think it’s less congested or any easier to navigate now you’d be wrong. Going north on 89A takes you to Flagstaff. South will take you west of town to red rock canyons and some of the most amazing scenery you will ever see in your life. Our destination was Fay Canyon, another new stop for us. I picked it out because it was listed in the book Best Easy Day Hikes by Brian Grubbs. Mostly I picked it because it was somewhere I had never gone and contained the two magic words - “Best” and “Easy”.

To get to Fay Canyon you turn right on Dry Creek Road and then left on Boynton Canyon Road. The road will come to a “T” and you take another left. If you go right there then you’ll end up at the more popular Boynton Canyon which, like Bell Rock, is considered one of the Energy Vortexes surrounding Sedona. I best remember Boynton Canyon as the place where my Mom lost her footing and slid down a short embankment on her tush about 20 years ago. The video camera recorded it all, along with me laughing hysterically as she slid. I don’t know where that video is now because it belonged to my sister and after she passed away I don’t know what happened to it, but every time we watched it we still laughed – mostly at the fact that we were all laughing in the first place as Mother slid down the hill on her bum.. She was okay, of course, or it wouldn’t still be so funny today.

We followed a Pink Jeep to the trail head. If you ever get to Sedona and have the time to take a Pink Jeep tour I highly recommend it. They have different routes, and some of them will take you to places you'd never be able to hike to if you're city girls like us. I remember when my Mom and Step Dad took theirs. They came back with smiles as wide as the Grand Canyon and red dirt all over their faces. Kathy and I took one a few years back, and I'd love to do it again if we ever get the time.

It was starting to get a little overcast when we got there, and you could hear the wind whistling through the canyons. It almost sounded like a pack of sprites singing some mystical ancient song. At the parking lot, it was pretty cool so we decided to put on our sweatshirts. The trail head is across the street, and once we started walking the sun peeped out from behind the clouds. Since the canyon walls protected us from the chilly wind we felt in the parking lot, we once again decide that we didn’t need the extra layer of clothing.

This trail was obviously less traveled than the one we’d just taken at Bell Rock, but we still met a few hikers coming out as we made our way in. Up the trail a ways and to your right there is a natural arch in the canyon wall which is hard to see if you don’t know that you’re looking for it. The path up to it is steep and not very well marked. We were pretty sure we found it, but not adventurous enough to explore. Besides, I had spent the day planting flowers the day before, and my muscles were already aching from that. We followed the trail a little further and spotted the arch high up on the canyon wall and were pretty glad we hadn’t tried to get there. If you don’t do that kind of hiking every day your body reminds you in fairly quick fashion.

We debated going on, but the clouds were starting to look a little darker. Besides, there was a place that had been calling my name all day so we decided to go there next...