Walking the Land: Mund’s Trail Hike Near Sedona, Arizona

Hi Everyone,

Marty Reinstra, hiking fool that she is, had a day off and she picked this trail above Sedona, Arizona. Mund’s Trail was said to have been created by a rancher who took his covered wagons up and down from Flagstaff, about fifty miles to the north of Sedona. And today, we were hiking that trail–about miles up and back. We decided to take along our sketch pads and pencils. Marty calls these “sketching hikes” and I was all for it. So, tag along with us!

Actually, this isn’t Mund’s Trail hike–I took this photo down at Cave Creek, Arizona last week when staying to visit my friend Yolande and her family. There was a rainbow in the cloud at dusk and I caught it.

As you begin the trail from the parking lot just north of Sedona, there is this huge cauldron of sandstone that has been worn away by millions of years of water off and on. It almost looks like Greek theatre seats from ancient Greece or Italy!

A little farther up the trail I found this dead Century Plant. It blooms only once, sending up a single stalk roughly ten to twelve feet in the air. And then, it spreads out like a group of candles and produces yellow flowers. Once they have bloomed, the entire plant dies. This is from the Agave family and what you are looking at was once thick, thriving succulent green limbs–now nothing more than dried out and yellowed with age. Still, it produces a beautiful living portrait of nature in motion.

On the way down the trail we came upon a number of beautiful red, smooth barked Manzanita bushes. And, some of them were in bloom. They have such small, delicate flowers on them.

And here’s another bush with the buds…. white with a pale pink making them look very delicate and lovely.

This is a shy, early Spring plant around here called Prince’s Rock Cress. It likes stony, dry areas and if you don’t look hard, you’ll miss it because it’s so thin and small.

There was this wonderful moss on a rock–so soft and velvety feeling that I had to photograph it.

Here is one of the red rock vistas on our hike.

Here’s Marty Reinstra in hiking mode on the trail.

Here is a small waterfall on Oak Creek, which is a teeny stream. We stayed at this spot for about an hour and sketched. It was lovely, quiet and the sound of water splashing is always peaceful.

And here is another area where the water was flowing. I particularly liked the soft, feminine smooth rocks on either side of the water.

Marty played her flute after the sketching. The sound was haunting and lovely. A couple of hikers up the trail came by and complimented her on her playing–the heard it and enjoyed it.

One of my favorite photos where water spilling over the smooth red rock in Oak Creek makes these wonderful mathematically correct geometric designs in the water!

And here is another shot of our fabulous red rocks. It looks like a round tower, doesn’t it?

The end of the trail was this wonderful “womb-like” red rock that had been carved out by eons of water. We found a vortex in the center of it and wow–the energy was incredible. We stayed there for some time just enjoying the energy and peace. Marty is there in the center of it. Smiling, of course.

And here’s Eileen in the ‘womb’ as we referred to it. We then started back–we walked on Schnebly Road, a dirt road with lots of rocks. Plenty of jeeps went by and it was an easy two-mile walk back to our car. A way to spend a lovely afternoon. Thanks for coming along with us! In Spirit…Eileen