Munds Wagon Trail, Sedona
Monday, January 8, 2024
We checked into the Wildflower Inn at Bellrock, just south of Sedona, for 5 nights. The Wildflower Inn is one of the cheapest places to stay in the area. It was busier than last year so, unlike last year, we didn't get a complimentary upgrade to the one suite that they have. Still, our room was very nice with a gas fireplace that soon warmed up the room. That was good because it was very cold outside (from a Southern California perspective). Water in the parking lot had frozen so we had to be really careful walking back and forth to the car. It was like an ice rink in places despite their having salted the stairs.
On our first full day in Sedona we returned to the Munds Wagon Trail trailhead, intending to do the Munds - Hangover trail in the anticlockwise direction. It was quite different from last year. It was a lot colder and had a couple of inches of snow on all the path that stayed in the shade.
At the end of the Munds Wagon Trail we met a runner, "Coyote", who recognised us from the Colorado trail in 2020. How remarkable! He warned us that the north side, the Hangover Trail, was really sketchy because there were frozen areas above slick rock dropoffs. He advised us against doing it but said we should go and see for ourselves. We thought he was perhaps exaggerating but he wasn't. I started down and soon changed my mind. A slip would have turned into an uncontrollable fall. It wasn't worth the risk so we turned around and returned to the car on the jeep road on which there was no traffic. It was a bit disappointing not to do the loop but not worth breaking bones for.