West Fork Trail is touted to be one of the best trails in Arizona and one of the top ten trails in United States. We have hiked this trail many times before, but this time was different and absolutely the most fun, challenging, and the COLDEST experience ever.

The drive to the West Fork Trailhead was very smooth, even the always busy up-town of Sedona was quiet and empty. Ha-ha, it is good to be early before the tourists show up.

Li is set up to take a group picture. [photo by Tom]

“No problem”, Tom, Li and I answered, “we will help you to find the parking lot.” I kept my eyes on my phone (Google map), Tom and Li were on high alert constantly keep eye on the road signs.

“Here! Here! Make a left turn,” one of us screamed.

“OK, I got it.” Carl said.

We did sharp left turn between mileposts 385 and 384 and we were on entrance of West Fork parking lot. I looked at my watch, 7:59 AM. WOW, we were one minute before the gate opened. AWESOME. Wait, Wait a minute. Why the parking lot was almost FULL.

I looked the sign on the wall of the station: Open 8:00 AM. Ok, their 8 AM was different from my 8 AM. As we approached to the gate, I also noticed, the day use fee per vehicle was $11. It was $10 last year, inflation, guys.

We quickly found our parking spot and rushed to use the bathroom, but Carol’s car was nowhere to be seen. There were only few parking spots left. I was getting nervous. Where are you, Carol? The line at gate was getting longer and longer. Just then, I saw Carol’s car make turn into parking lot, she quickly parked right next to Carl’s car. WOW, what a relief! Everything was perfect.

The air was COLD. To be exact, it was 39°F. That is cold for those desert rats, our blood was so thin, we can only handle everything above 65°F. We quickly put on hats, jackets, gloves and scarfs, but with shorts! Yes, that’s how we dress in Arizona in cold weather.

It was a small group today, only seven people: Lin, Li, Carl, Tom, Carol, Michael, and Connie. It was Connie’s first time hiking with this group. We did a quick welcome and introductions. Then we were ready for group picture. Li set up her Bluetooth remote control phone camera, we put up our smiles with unusual shivering body ... Cheese ... We were done with group pictures. Everyone was quickly taking off and started our hike. It was cold, and we were hoping if we keep moving, we will warm up soon.

After numerous stream crossings, which were done with stepping stones and logs, we arrived at the end of the maintained trail, a pool of water surrounded by cliff. Yes, we are here, we are done! NO, Not so fast. Usually this was our turnaround point, but today we were planning to go beyond this pool of water—wading in the water, boulder hopping, and maybe swimming for next few more miles.

The air temperature still very cold, we were sure the water was colder. Do we really want to wade in the water? A few of us had second thoughts. There were a few boy scouts who had just hiked out of water (canyon), they were shivering while changing water shoes to hiking shoes. A couple of us asked them: “Is the water cold? How deep is the water?”.

“The water is COLD, most of time the water was knee high, but few places were about hip high.”

“Hip high? I do not know how to swim; I do not want to die”.

“Oh come on. If those boys can do it, we can do it.”

“I brought a life jacket. You can use it if you need it.”

“Lin, do not push people if they are not comfortable.”

“Let’s go, if in any time you do not feel comfortable, we will turn back.”

After few minutes of debating while we changed into our water shoes, Michael starting walking into the water. We were turned and watched him. Some of us were waiting to hear him to screaming “COLD!” Some of us was waiting for him to say, “It is not so bad, come.” But Michael said nothing.

We were guessing Michael was so cold that he barely can make any noise, but his lips were moving, and saying “XXX! Damn, it is cold!”

The train is leaving the station. We really do not have lots of choices but to start following Michael. So, one by one we marched into the water.

“Oooooh, it is cold!”

“Holy cow, that is cold!”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaah,” One after another, the screaming sound was echoing in the canyon.

After a few minutes, we met at Michael at small dry floor, everyone was shivering and screaming to each other “That is cold, my god, that is cold.” Then we heard Michael say: “This is the coldest water I ever hiked in here.”

Sunlight slowly warms up the canyon. But the air was still cold. We cannot feel our numb feet. However, the beauty of the canyon gave us so much energy, we were laughing, screaming, and just marching on. We totally enjoy the moment and lost our soul and mind in this wonder of a canyon.

After a quick break under the warm sun, our bodies and feet were warmed up a bit (but not very much). Connie had enough of cold water, she decided she will sit and wait at the dry, warm island, while the rest of us continued our hike in the canyon. Some sections of water were hip deep. But most of the time, the water was about one foot to two feet deep. The view was breathtaking. We saw fall color on the higher cliff, there were red, pink and golden yellow. The water was so clear, you can see fish were swimming.

In some sections of a shallow pool, red, gold and green leaves floating in the clear reflecting pools under a canopy of solid color. It is so different from when we were here during the spring and summer.

This phenomenon of a cliff seemed beyond the comprehension of her sight. It looked a mile high. The few trees along its bold rampart resembled short spear-pointed bushes outlined against the steel gray of sky. Ledges, caves, seams, cracks, fissures, beetling red brows, yellow crumbling crags, benches of green growths and niches choked with brush, and bold points where single lonely pine trees grew perilously, and blank walls a thousand feet across their shadowed faces—these features gradually took shape in Carley’s confused sight, until the colossal mountain front stood up before her in all its strange, wild, magnificent ruggedness and beauty. “Arizona! Perhaps this is what he meant,” murmured Carley. “I never dreamed of anything like this...” (from Zane Grey’s novel, Call of the Canyon)

The entire hiking trail—from the bottom of 89A to the Top of Forest Road 231—is 14 miles long. It is not recommended for a day trip. Today, our goal was to go as far as we could with some time to explore, to test, to prepare for our backpack camping trip in 2020. About 6 miles in, we decided it was time for us to turn around and go back to trailhead.

It was a fun and COLD day. I think we were laughing and screaming so loud and so often, we burned extra 1000 cal. Here are few lessons we learned from this trip: We need to do backpack camping trip in early September after the monsoon but before it gets too cold. We need to have warm clothes, even in the summer, because the sunlight only occasionally reaches the canyon floor, a hot day may still be cool. We need to have good water shoes, because you do lots of wading and boulder hopping in the canyon. We need to wear long hiking pants rather than hiking shorts. Tom said this is going to be last time to wear shorts for this year. We did not swim this time, we did not use the lifejacket, but it is a good idea to have it. Even a small inflatable raft, a river dry bag or two air mattresses will work well. Bagging everything in Ziplock bags is a good idea. Our pants were wet, the bottom of the backpacks were wet, but everything in the pack was dry.

So much fun, such a great experience, this is going to be the coldest hike for us ever. We are ready, and we are looking forward to our backpacking trip in 2020. Are you interested? Are you ready?

Here are few notes and experience from other hikers:

This is my part! Thank you again for leading this fun hike!

West Fork hike this year was both physically and psychologically challenging, but I am glad I did it. It was more fun than I ever imagined. I have to admit that we had to be crazy enough to step into freezing cold water in the first place and the rest is history.

Tom and Carol’s painful faces, Lin and Michael’s calmness, my crazy screaming and our laughter formed dramatic effects for this enchanting hike. The only smart and rational person is Carl, but he does not know what he missed! Sorry Connie, when you realized that you made a wrong decision by following us, it was too late, but you would be glad that you did not miss any fun.

The scenery rewarded us as we passed many more creeks and corners. There’s nothing better than spending our Saturday surrounded with beautiful red rock mountains, theatrical sound effects, and great companions in this incredible canyon. What a beautiful day we had! I can not wait to do another camping trip next year!

Good morning, Lin! I just wanted to thank you so much for making it possible for me to experience such a wonderful and fun day hiking with all of you on Saturday! Yes, the water was icy cold but it was worth it all. I would have continued on from the island, but from my experience while snow skiing once I got frostbite on my feet and the cold Icy water brought back those memories so thawing out on the island seemed like a good idea! LOL I look forward to speaking with you guys again and hopefully very soon. You guys ROCK!

Note from Tom: Imagine yourself hiking when the air temperature is in the high 40s, and then being challenged to take off your warm wool socks and start walking in 50 degree water. My feet immediately became numb and then I started shivering. After walking a hundred yards, my feet changed from numb to feeling like they were being sliced by knives. And then I’m challenged and I respond by walking in water up to my thighs, and now I'm breathing deeply and screaming, while looking for shallower water or maybe a dry rock to stand on momentarily, before continuing the agony and the cursing. And we do this for over a mile!