West Fork Oak Creek, near Sedona, AZ

**drewboy** · 06-28-2010, 08:46

Pisanodc and I did a really fun weekend overnight trip up to West Fork of Oak Creek. This is a very popular and beautiful hike near Sedona, AZ. But after a couple of miles the crowd thins out and it turns into a very nice canyoneering adventure, with lots of creek walking and rock hopping. We both took our Warbonnet Travelers, and used IX underquilts from Mac. We found a nice campsite on one of the ledges above the canyon floor with trees to hang our hammocks from. We both went fairly ultralight. I had a ULA Conduit pack, and Ang had a Gossamer Gear Gorilla. We both had cuben tarps (mine was MLD, Ang's had a custom from Zpacks), but never we had to set them up. Nothing like a hang under the stars in a beautiful place.

Here are a couple of videos that I took and posted on Youtube:

This one was taken from our campsite
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiMTH...eature=related

This one taken as we walked in the water through one of the narrow slots
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VD2qT20-sI

A video taken as we hiked through another section of the canyon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POmko-LPzPY

Some more pictures of this trip:

One of the endless gorgeous views as we hiked along

The canyon frequently got this narrow

A nice little grotto/campsite area we found along the canyon

As you get further up it becomes necessary to hike in the stream bed

View from below of the campsite we stayed at up on a ledge

Angelo kicking back in his Warbonnet Traveler DL 1.0 (note margaritas in platy bottle lower left)

The view I enjoyed from my Traveler SL 1.7. We both used the 4.7oz Snowpeak UL umbrella for shade.

Nothing like staring up through the trees to beautiful blue sky.

My SL 1.7 Traveler with IX UQ hung the wrong way. Kept me warm, but not toasty down to 50 degrees.

A little visitor on Angelo's hiking pole

Yet another breathtaking scene

A rare part of the hike that actually had a trail

Just another shot on the return trip

Much of the time we were doing rock hopping and boulder scrambling. This just happens to be directly below our campsite.

**Triggerhpy** · 06-28-2010, 09:03

Super WOW. What a nice trip. Thanks a lot for the pics.

**mbiraman** · 06-28-2010, 09:30

Beautiful stuff. Have always liked the look of that. Maybe some day.

**pgibson** · 06-28-2010, 09:33

Awesome Drewboy. What very little time I have spent hiking in canyons has been great, this trip looks very cool

Thanks

**Rook** · 06-28-2010, 09:35

Looks like another fantastic trip, Andy.

**dejoha** · 06-28-2010, 09:47

Awesome! Would you mind sharing your map? I'd like to take this trail when I get back.

**drewboy** · 06-28-2010, 15:38

The trailhead is on 89A N of Sedona just a few miles past Slide Rock park. I did capture a gps waypoint at our campsite with my SPOT, shown at the link below. We did also find other potential campsites that were closer in as well.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...UTF8&z=12&om=1

Originally Posted by dejoha

Awesome! Would you mind sharing your map? I'd like to take this trail when I get back.

Thanks for all the great comments and feedback guys. We'll definitely need to get out and do that one again and check out some other parts of the canyon further up. We're scheming to do an AZ canyoneering Trifecta this summer. We've done West Clear Creek a couiple weeks back, just did West Fork Oak Creek ,and possibly in another couple weeks do the Wet Beaver Creek trip as well. Then it's train for high elevation and get out in August to the South San Juan Wilderness for a 5 day trip above 12K ft along the Continental Divide. It's shaping up to be a great summer backpacking season!

Super WOW. What a nice trip. Thanks a lot for the pics.

Beautiful stuff. Have always liked the look of that. Maybe some day.

Awesome Drewboy. What very little time I have spent hiking in canyons has been great, this trip looks very cool Thanks

Looks like another fantastic trip, Andy.

**Poppabear** · 06-28-2010, 18:00

Absolutely fantastic pictures! Thanks for sharing with us. I will be adding this to my dream list of places to go and see. Angelo's rigging of the umbrella was pretty ingenious.

**te-wa** · 06-28-2010, 19:49

I spy an Angerita!

**BillyBob58** · 06-28-2010, 21:41

Super! I always loved Oak Creek Canyon, and even more so West Fork of OCC! It is one of Earth's great spots. And I never even got to hang a hammock there!