West Fork Trail, Sedona, Arizona Part 2

Hi Everyone

As Robin and Charley Myers and myself continue into West Fork Trail, up in Oak Creek Canyon just above Sedona, Arizona, you are getting to see it in the winter time. And how spectacular it is! Please join us on part two as we continue to move into the canyon.



As we went deeper into the first area off the trail into the Temple of Mother Earth, Oak Creek was frozen over here and there. I thought this was a beautiful photo of water with ice and the movement.


Here Charley and Robin Myers are easing their way along Oak Creek. A lot of it was icy and treacherous--but isn't the area beautiful? Wow.


Here is another 'arty' shot of the Oak Creek water flowing across the larger boulders and the build up of ice on them--the rocks look like they have an 'ice cap' on :-)


Here Robin is giving Charley a hand as he has traversed the icy and slippery Oak Creek to get to the island in the center.


I was entranced with the beauty of the ice whether clear or frosted, and the water playing in Oak Creek.


And here are some of the one thousand foot tall sandstone and dolomite walls that comprise the Temple of Mother Earth. You can see the wonderful tapestry of colors, the water running down from far above and then being caught 'in time' and freezing


And here is another ice waterfall on the walls


I think this is one of my favorite photos because I got it right. Might even try entering it in a photo contest. What do you think?


Looking up in the temple, you can see YELLOW icicles hanging over the edges! This yellow color has to do with the tannic acid dropped by the pine needles. Very pretty necklace of icicles, don't you think? Nature jewelry at its finest!


And here is a close up of the yellow/tannic acid icicles at the top of the thousand foot cliff. Reminds me of yellow topaz!


As ice forms around the yellowed grass, it captures it inside like a glass time capsule of sorts. This chunk of ice fell from the top of the cliff at some earlier time and crashed down below where this photo was taken along Oak Creek. This rectangle of ice was about four feet long and about two and a half feet long and you can see how thick it is--at least 3 inches. And this was a huge piece of ice. I stood there photographing it and thinking that if someone had been down below when this piece hurtled off the top of a thousand foot cliff would have been killed or badly injured by it if they had been struck. Luckily, no one was and I can have a pretty photo showing the yellowed grass in it.


Here is where Oak Creek and the ice met and formed. I liked the variations in colors, the frosted ice and the clearness of the water where ice had not yet formed.

I hope you enjoyed our trek into the Temple of Mother Earth--more to come!

In spirit, Eileen