One advantage of family and friends staying with us for vacation is revisiting old stomping grounds like West Fork Trail, Oak Creek, just outside of Sedona. It’s very popular, so if you don’t go first thing in the morning, you have to share the trail with hundreds of others. I nudged everyone out the door at 6:45 a.m. to get a spot in the parking lot before hearing the “call of the canyon.”
Ah, speaking of Zane Grey, The Call of the Canyon was one of his many books that had a film version from the silent era. During the creative process, it was this entrance into the canyon Zane Grey was thinking about. In fact, celebrities like Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart stayed at the Mayhew Lodge when filming in the area before it collapsed in to ruin leaving only remnants of its structure. Here are a few morning shots:
https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Plated-Pistol-Cynthia-Bruchman/dp/1951490169/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=inside+the+gold+plated+pistol&qid=1574425759&s=books&sr=1-1
It does look like the setting for a Western film indeed. Lovely scenery, and very different to Norfolk of course. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete. x
I would love to visit Norfolk. I once spend the weekend with a friend’s friend who lived in Yarmouth. It would be fun for me to explore your neck of the woods. 🙂
Yarmouth is considered to be a ‘low rent’ place here. But I think it has a certain ‘faded charm’. It is a popular beach resort, though associated with the less well-off people in the East.
Ah these are just great Cindy, makes me put my travelling head on!
Thanks again, Fraggle.
Funny how one gains an impression from reading and viewing. Before my first trip to the US and driving across Arizona I had thought of it as stark and majestic, dry and beautiful. But coming across wooded areas and streams was an additional pleasure when driving through.
I love West Fork best in the fall. There are red maples that burn your eyes with their sharp color. It helps when I start pining for the trees back east.
I love the water-carved rock….
Hi Allen! I’m glad you liked it. It’s eerily silent and cool there. A great way to escape the heat and appreciate nature.
Gorgeous!
Maybe they should rebuild that lodge?
Ever since I was a child, I have always thought what a cool name “Zane Grey” was. And as for “Riders of the Purple Sage” well, where can I join up?
Absolutely splendid landscapes. I’ve always been attracted to the concept of an underground lair, but these images are enough to change a person’s thinking about stalactites. There’s a very appealing Butch Cassidy hole-in-the-wall flavor to this location.
Great call. I think it is inevitable you will see a future film filmed here. It’s so darned beautiful.
Beautiful shots, thanks for sharing!
My pleasure!
Stunning scenery and photos, looks like a perfect setting for a Western film!
Yes! I daydream that my novel will publish and the powers that be in Hollywood will film it here again. It’s time for a revisit! Over a 100 films from the silent and early 1900s were filmed in this area.
Beautiful scenery, the Mayhew Lodge must be a sight to behold. If only bricks could talk.
All that’s left is the brick perimeter. Weird though, seeing a hearth in the middle of nowhere next to a canyon.
Lovely textures
Thank you, Derrick.
So beautiful!
Awesome spot to take pictures. It’s hard to mess up. 😉
What a cool place, imagine hanging with Stewart and Cable in the lodge back in the day.
Oh, I know! The man who built it was quite the outdoorsman. In the late 1800s, there were lots of grizzlies, apparently, and he was famed for killing most of them, clearing out the canyon. He built the lodge and befriended those who visited.
Impressive.
I love the last one.
Nothing like water running over rocks to soothe the soul.
These look incredible. WE have nothing that looks like this, tho I need to get out into the bush to get some nice Aussie nature photos!
We were just there last week. One of my favorite places.
Welcome! It is special. I love it best when the Maples change to red.