Wilson Mountain Trail #10

So this weekend we headed up to Sedona to hike Wilson Mt Trail #10, an 11.5 mile loop up to the top of the highest peak in Sedona, climaxing at 7000 feet. Dolores decided to join us again, so it was her, Theresa and I.

We started out about 830am. The trail is steep right out of the gate and does not let up for the next 5.5 miles. It climbs up, switch back after switch back, through a beautiful Juniper tree forest, the trees were covered in berries from all the rain, it was quite a sight.

After a while the trail opens into a meadow, although its an UPHILL meadow and the switch backs stay constant! The trail, most of the way, is rocky. We noticed this much more on the decent than the ascent though. And its very narrow in parts due to all the overgrown shrubbery and cactus.

The weather was beautiful on the way up, it was sunny and not too cold. Once we reached the saddle though, we were hit by a strong, VERY COLD wind. Thankfully we brought lots of layers and bundled up here. We continued up, seeing only the second person of the day as he was coming down from the summit. This man greeted us with this gem, "The good news is the wind dies down once you get into the trees, the bad news is its muddy and there is some deep snow up there. But you girls look dressed for it! Have fun." He said this wearing only a smile, a thin jacket and shorts!

And yes... everything he said was true! We hit some VERY muddy trails, some parts even had running water coming down them! As we continuing up toward the summit, we would loose the trail where it would get covered in SNOW and have to follow muddy footprints (which I am sure belonged to that happy half naked man).

Now, this snow was no ordinary AZ snow...I mean, one would think with it being almost April and all that the snow would be thinned out, just a light layer over the trail....ya, not so much.

We had to REALLY step lightly here, because if we were unlucky enough to step wrong, our legs would disappear up to our knees!(even our hips in some spots)!!

In hind sight, T and I were remarking how thankful we were to have Dolores with us during these spots. She provided us with much entertainment as she was cursing and laughing and whimpering and then laughing and cursing....mostly talking to herself... but doing it just loud enough for us to benefit from it!! :) We love you D! Thanks!

Anyway.....about 200 feet from the actual summit we COMPLETELY lost the trail to the snow, so we had to trail blaze a little to reach the top. No worries though. We were careful to trample as little vegetation as possible, staying mostly in the dirt and snowy patches.

Once on the summit we trekked across the top to the to the other side so we could stand on the edge and collect our absolutely SPECTACULAR pay-off, what a view!

It is a shear drop to the bottom of this mountain with a full view of Sedona cliffs and surrounding areas.

Theresa even pointed out Mt. Rainier off in the distance, towards Flagstaff...!?! (OK, so it was really Mt. Humphrey's...but we will let her have it... ;)

After a bit, we found a nice little spot on the edge of the mountain out of the wind to have lunch and warm up in the sun. Then it was, back the way we came, which was another adventure in and of itself!

One I will leave to your imagination...

All in all Wilson Mountain Trail #10 was a very fun adventure, and totally worth the challenge!