On 1 May 2010, we
hiked on Jim Thompson Trail at Sedona. Eight of us (Carol Burtt,
Anita Jackson, Betty Wolters, John McInerney, Lila Wright, Miriam
Sterling, Ellis Price and one other) drove from Cottonwood to Sedona
and then turned left onto Jordan Road, about three-tenths of a mile
past the junction of Routes 89A and 179. We followed Jordan Road
into the Jordan Park subdivision, turned left onto Park Ridge Drive
at the "T" and continued four-tenths of a mile before
parking near a gate at the end of a short stretch of unpaved road.
We had originally
planned to camp out overnight at General Springs on the Mogollon Rim
this weekend. However, the rim road is still closed to the area
because of bad weather and it was too cold anyway. Jim Thompson
Trail was the alternative.
As the trail leads
out of Mormon Canyon from the Jordan Road trailhead, it passes
through a forest of Arizona cypress, Manzanita and the ever-present
juniper. It continues along the side of the mountain above Sedona,
passing Steamboat Rock and Steamboat Tank along the way, to connect
with a trail leading into Wilson Canyon about 2.5 miles ahead and
approximately one-half mile from Midgley Bridge.
Plants and flowers
were abundant along the trail and I spent a lot of time photographing
flowers. Although I didn't know what very many of them were, George
Everman identified most of them later. I also sent a lichen picture
to Bob Wakefield for identification. Specifically we found Blackfoot
daisies, ragwort, banana yucca, sego lilies, Indian paintbrush,
cliffrose, Nevada dalea, irises, western wallflower, cliff
Fendlerbush, Nevada goldeneye, pincushion cactus, narrowleaf yucca,
Torrey’s milkvetch and the earth scale soil lichen identified by
Bob Wakefield.
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| Plains blackfoot daisy |
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| Smooth threadleaf ragwort |
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| Sego lily |
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| Indian
paintbrush |
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| Mexican cliffrose |
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| Nevada dalea |
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| Iris |
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| wallflower |
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| Cliff fendlerbush |
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| Nevada goldeneye |
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| Pincushion Cactus/Whipple's fishhook |
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| Bladderpod
spiderflower |
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| Torrey's
milkvetch |
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Earth scale soil lichen (genus Psora) -- Identified by Bob Wakefield
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On reaching the
junction with the trail leading into Wilson Canyon, we turned up the
canyon and traveled for about three-quarters of a mile until the
trail became very indistinct. We then stopped in a nice sunny spot
for lunch before heading back.
A few of the scenes
that struck my fancy along the way are shown in the following
photographs.
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Looking down on Midgley Bridge from Jim Thompson Trail.
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From Jim Thompson Trail. Looking across Oak Creek to red rocks backed by
white rocks
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Sun playing in the branches of an ancient Arizona Cypress tree along Jim
Thompson Trail
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This was an easy
hike. The round trip distance was just about 7 miles and the total
elevation change was a bit over 400 feet.
The GPS track of the
path we took is shown on the included map (below).
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