Ah, spring in the desert!  It was that magical time of year when all of the wildflowers began to bloom and the rattlesnakes came out of hibernation to feed and the snowbirds were being rescued off of Squaw Peak after being overcome by the heat.  For us, it was time to head to the high country to get away from all of that.

While looking for a hiking adventure for us to do, John discovered a little-known trail in the Red Rock-Secret Mountain Wilderness Area (near Sedona) called H.S. Canyon #50.    It was five miles roundtrip and would take us into a seldom-visited but very scenic canyon in Red Rock Country.  That sounded like a fun adventure.

But what exactly did "H.S." stand for, I had to ask?  Well, "Horse Shit", of course!  How it got that name, I have no idea, but I'm sure that it was a good story.

We decided to invite Erika along to hike with us on our adventure that day; at first, she didn't accept, stating that she had a lot of stuff to do, but she soon changed her mind.  So, on Saturday morning, April 5, we picked her up at 7:00 a.m., and we all headed towards Sedona.

Our hike began at the Secret Canyon Trailhead, which is located off of Dry Creek Road.  To get there, we took I-17 north to the Sedona exit, at SR 179.  Once in Sedona, we connected with SR 89A and continued until we reached Dry Creek Road.  The road starts out paved, but after a few miles, it becomes dirt.  There is a sign along the way that states that only high clearance, four-wheel drive vehicles should attempt that road; we could only laugh at that sign, considering that we had taken that road in our Oldsmobile, when we hiked the Brins Mesa Trail back in 1998. (Remember: we are crazy like that.)  Now, we were in our 4Runner, so maneuvering down Dry Creek Road was not a problem.

After several miles, we finally came to the Secret Canyon Trailhead, which was on the left-hand side of the road.  The trailhead was well-signed and lots of parking spaces available.  When we arrived, there were already several cars parked there, which meant that we could plan on seeing lots of traffic along the trail. We knew, though, that the hikers would mostly be on the Secret Canyon Trail; none of them were going to be on the HS Canyon Trail.

At 9:30 a.m. - after gearing up and displaying our Red Rock Pass inside our vehicle - we stepped off onto the Secret Canyon Trail.  The trail immediately crossed a wide, dry wash; it then continued on the other side.  As we boulder-hopped through the wash, we were surprised to find an orange barricade blocking the trail!  And, to make matters worse, there was a large sign posted on it: "Stop No Entry: Fire Danger"!

"You have got to be kidding me!" John said in disgust.  This was the second time in less than a month that that had happened to us!  (The same thing had happened while we were on vacation in South Carolina, when we drove all the way to Abbeville to hike Parson's Mountain, only to find out that the trail was closed for the season!)  Certainly, this wasn't happening!

Upon closer inspection, we discovered that the trail was not closed after all.  Below the sign, there was a sheet of paper with an explanation; the Secret Canyon and HS Canyon Trails were open, but the David Miller Trail - one of the trail that connects to the Secret Canyon Trail, about five miles away - was closed due to damage from the Brins Fire, which had taken place last summer.  So, our plans for the day were safe.

The first half-mile of our hike started out on the Secret Canyon Trail, which was sandy and flat and followed a beautiful, flowing creek.  After a half of a mile, we reached the junction with the HS Canyon Trail, which was marked with a small, metal sign.  There, we turned left, crossed over the creek, and picked up the trail on the other side.

The trail soon entered HS Canyon, which was cool and shaded by oaks and junipers and pinions.  As the trail left the junction, it was a wide footpath; the deeper we went into the canyon, though, the narrower it became.  There were parts that were even overgrown with scrub oak and manzanita.

There were many cool sights to be seen in HS Canyon.  One of the highlights of the hike was a gnarly old juniper tree that was perfect for climbing...and that's just what Mary did!  Before anyone could stop her, she had climbed about six feet up the tree.  I knew that she was a great rock-climber; I had no idea that she could climb trees, too!

While hiking through HS Canyon, we also had a great view of the red rocks that made up the canyon walls.  There were some very interesting, very beautiful formations to see.

Perhaps the best thing about HS Canyon was that we had the whole canyon to ourselves.  As we had expected, we didn't see another human being during the entire hike, from trail junction to the end of the canyon.  We had complete solitude.

As we neared the end of the trail, we could see that the walls of the canyon were becoming taller.  John recognized them from a picture he had seen on the internet, when researching the trail; it means that we were getting closer to the box canyon and the end of our hike.  Sure enough, the trail eventually disappeared as it entered a creek bed; when we tried to find it again, we realized that we couldn't go any further into the canyon.  We made it!

Before hiking back to the trailhead, we sat down on the boulders at the side of the dry creek and ate our lunch to refuel.  We rested for about half an hour.  Then, once we were ready to go again, we packed up our trash and started on our return hike.

On the way back to the trailhead, we stopped once again at that old juniper tree, so that Mary and John could climb up in it.  This proved to be a perfect diversion for her and kept her from melting down during the rest of the hike...

...that is, until we came to the creek crossing, at the trail junction...

With help from Grandma, Mary hopped from rock to rock to make her way across the creek.  That was when she slipped and fell, face first, into the water.  Fortunately, she wasn't hurt - except for her pride - but she was very wet!  At first, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry; eventually, she decided that she needed to cry, and she did so. 

We arrived at the trailhead around 1:30 in the afternoon, at the end of our great hike.  After throwing our gear in the back, we got into the 4Runner and drove away.

Once back in Sedona, we stopped at a convenience store to get some cold drinks and snacks for the ride home.  We also stopped to find a geocache.  This one was a must-find, because it was placed by John's friend Rick - a fellow skydiver and geocacher.  It was cleverly hidden and took us a while to find, but eventually, we made the grab.

To make our journey home a little more interesting, John decided to take Cherry Road.  Why?  To geocache, of course!  John had plotted out three geocaches along the beautiful dirt road.  This was, of course, one of our favorite dirt highways, as there are great views along the way; the road also passes through the pretty little community of Cherry.  We've had some adventures on this road, too; once, while I was pregnant with Mary, we took the Oldsmobile on this road...and stalled, in the middle of nowhere.  It turned out that we had dirty fuel injectors (wonder how THAT happened...), but that certainly was not the place to find that out. 

As soon as we turned onto Cherry Road, Mary fell asleep in the backseat; we did not, however, let that put a damper on our geocaching fun.  While I waited with Mary in the 4Runner, John took his mother out to find the caches.  We managed to find all three: two along the road, and the third at the Cherry Road exit, at the end of the road.

With our child asleep, we decided that it was time to head home.  At the end of Cherry Road - after finding our last cache - we merged onto I-17 and started south, towards Phoenix.  Another day's adventure was over...

Return to Naked in the Woods.