North Wilson Trail

Twelve hikers gathered at the Encinoso trailhead on 20 October 2012 for a day's hiking on Wilson Mountain. The trailhead is located at the entrance to Encinoso Picnic Area and features a paved parking area for several cars and available toilet facilities. It is 5.8 miles north on Hwy 89A from the Hwy 179/Hwy 89A traffic circle in Sedona.

I am told that the picnic area is the site of an old orchard whose owners sold fruit to passersby on the, then dirt, road that ran up the canyon from Sedona to Flagstaff. In fact, I understand that a descendant of the family that owned the orchard currently lives in Flagstaff and is a member of the R2R hiking group.

The below group photograph was taken when we returned to the trailhead at the end of our hike.

Left to right (back row): Gary Jacobson, Donna Davis, Betty Wolters, 

Miriam Sterling and Jerry Helfrich; middle row: Donna Goodman, 

Anita Jackson and Dolly Yapp; front row: Lila Wright, 

Daisy Williams, the author and George Everman

A thirteenth hiker, not shown above, started the hike with us, but soon discovered that she was still suffering from a recent bout with pneumonia. She wisely turned back.

Our goal was to take North Wilson Trail 123 to the intersection with Wilson Mountain Trail 10 on what is called the “first Bench” and is about two-thirds of the way up the mountain. We would then continue to the top, turn left at the top and follow the rim for about one-half mile southeast to the Sedona Overlook.

As we left the parking area we encountered a sign that provided us with the general layout of the trails we would be hiking.

Posted sign showing trail layout

The trail starts by leaving the parking area leading north alongside Hwy 89A. At the trail sign (right). It turns to the northwest to climb to the crest of a ridge a few yards ahead. It then climbs steeply up the mountain following, for a time, along the ridge crest. This was a fairly strenuous start, as illustrated below, to what we expected to be a very strenuous hike.

Starting our with a strenuous climb up the crest of a ridge

Looking back across Oak Creek Canyon, we were struck by a gleaming white layer of limestone sandwiched between the sandstone layers. Two other, thinner, limestone layers appear just above it.

White bands of limestone in the cliff wall across the canyon

The effects of the 2006 Brins fire were still quite visible in the form of charred, dead trees, many of them now fallen. On the other hand, signs of forest recovery were all about us. The photograph below nicely captures both the destruction, as shown by the dead trees, and the recovery, as shown by the oaks, still green with summer foliage, and the sumacs, now displaying their brilliant fall colors.

Dead trees, live green oaks and brilliant red sumacs

After climbing up the crest of the ridge, we enjoyed a reprieve from hard climbing as the trail would its way along a canyon wall at a fairly gentle slope, at least gentle enough as not to require switchbacks or steps, before becoming steeper and climbing directly up the canyon wall with the help of several switchbacks and rock steps.

The forest was little changed along this section from what we had already seen. We continued to see burned, dead trees scattered among the vibrant signs of a recovering forest. At one point the yellowish-red fall foliage of a maple contrasted with the surrounding red of sumac and the green of oaks.

Maple in center, sumacs below

Along the way we also found a deerbush (left) in full bloom. It looks very much like a white version of the purple lilacs commonly used in yards and gardens for ornamental purposes. I suppose one could accurately call it a white lilac; it is, after all, a member of the lilac family.

We eventually turned to climb the canyon wall, and the going became more difficult, with a steep incline and and many switchbacks.

As we neared what is called the first bench, we could look to our right and see a white intrusion in the red sandstone at the top of the mountain. It looked very much like a swirl of vanilla in a scoop of chocolate ice cream.

White intrusion in the red rock

When we reached the north end of the first shelf, we found that we had climbed around 1350 feet from the trailhead. It was another half-mile to the junction with Wilson Mountain Trail, but the going was easy, essentially level along a firm, well marked trail. When we reached the junction (sign at right), we still had almost 900 feet to climb and some of the hikers choose to stop here for lunch and then make a leisurely descent to wait for us at the trailhead.

The rest of us trudged on up the trail, finding it somewhat easier than than we had expected. There were numerous lengthy switchbacks, making the climb generally less steep than the last part of the trail up to the first shelf had been.

The fork in the trail, where one turns south along the rim to the Sedona overlook, is rather easy to miss if one is not careful. A large fallen log lies alongside the trail and one must turn sharply at the end of the log to take the trail to the overlook. A sign is posted (left), but it is easy to miss among the trees.

From the fork it was an easy half-mile to the Sedona Overlook. By the time we arrived there, it was about 1300 and we were all famished.

The weather was perfect, the view was great and we were hungry enough that whatever food we had brought tasted like a serving from a gourmet restaurant. In other words conditions were perfect for a quick lunch, a look at the scenery and a good long nap.

Unfortunately, some of the group were anxious to finish the hike and almost immediately started back after eating. Although the others were willing to stay and enjoy the view while I napped, I didn't want to cause anyone to have to wait too long at the trailhead, so I took one long last look out over Sedona and headed back down the trail. In a photograph taken from the overlook (below) one can see Sedona spread out below, Airport Mesa at center right, Hwy 179 making its way toward The Village of Oak Creek in the center and Hwy 89A running through West Sedona to the right.

From Wilson Mountain Sedona Overlook

The return trip went rapidly. I hiked on ahead hoping to reach the North Wilson Trail junction on first bench in time to catch a short nap before the rest of the group caught up. I was not entirely successful as they caught up before I dropped off. However, George was willing to stay for a while longer and I did finally get ten-minute nap (right). We then hurried to catch up and I was already at the trailhead when the last of the hikers arrived.

According to my GPS track, the hike was 6.8 miles round trip, the maximum elevation was 7031 feet and the total ascent was 22927 feet.

The track for this hike is shown on the included map (below).