Yesterday we decided to do Oak Creek Canyon, with the major goal being West Fork.  This is one of the most famous hikes in the USA (also known as Call of the Canyon from the Zane Grey novel.)  I’ve done this hike twice before, once at Thanksgiving and once in the Winter.  Both were great.  I loved the Winter hike with snow coating the trail and the stream frozen almost solid.

On Friday when we got to the parking area, it was totally jammed.  We decided to park along the highway (89A) and walk back to the trail head.  On the way one of our party fell down and skinned up their hands pretty badly.  OK, no hike.

On Saturday we had already decided to hike Doe Mountain.  When we went to tourist info to get a map for this hike the associate said “The view from Doe Mountain is spectacular.  Have you ever heard of West Fork?”  We assured him that we had.  “The colors up there are at their peak right  now.  The Arizona Republic today had a picture from there and it was amazing.”

Well plans were made to be changed, and we decided to go back to West Fork.  Once again we needed to park out on 89A.  No injuries this time.  And the colors really were spectacular.