Fall Colors along the West Fork Oak Creek Trail

10 miles north of Sedona, off 89A
Oct 28, 2014; Don & Suzanne; 9 miles roundtrip
(Click on a thumbnail to see a larger picture)
Music: Bagatelle in a Minor for Piano, Woo 59, 'Für Elise,' from the Original Soundtrack for Immortal Beloved

1 Along much of the trail, particularly near the trailhead, most of the trees are past peak and have lost many of their leaves	2 No matter what the season, the red rock cliffs that line the trail are beautiful	3 But at the right time in the fall, the beauty is particularly breathtaking. One of the most beautiful trees in this area is the Bigtooth Maple (see e.g., http://www.dirtdoctor.com/Big-Tooth-Maple_vq891.htm), with its red and yellow leaves.	4
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13	14	15 This is one of very few spot fires that were started by this summer's "Slide fire" in Oak Creek Canyon. Thankfully fire fighters somehow saved this area from the destruction that it could have been.	16
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21	22	23 We've now passed our normal turn-around point, where the creek had covered the floor of the canyon and the stones on the bottom were sharp. The creek was lower than we had ever seen it and the creek bed is now covered with lots of soot and ash, washed downstream from the areas that had burned. We continued on up canyon for a quarter to half a mile before turning around.	24
25 Several hiking groups, including us, used our turnaround point as a lunch/snack spot before heading back to the trailhead.	26	27 Heading back now.	28 Some plants hanging from the overhanging cliff walls.
29 The accumulation in the stream bed of sludge and soot from the fire are evident here at the normal (i.e., the pre-fire) turnaround point shown in the next photo taken a year earlier.	30 Photo taken the previous year (2013) at approximately the same time. Note the composition of the rocky streambed.	31 We head on back to the trailhead.	32
33	34	35 We snap our last photo before heading back to the parking lot.