Sedona

Six weeks, 8 corps members, and several containers of hummus later my crew and I, alongside the US Forest Service, built a 6-mile loop trail in Sedona, AZ.

Above is a before and after of a section of trail on the upper part of the loop, called Rabbit Ears. The Forest Service flagged out the entirety of the trail system and our crew came through once with brushing tools to lop vegetation and saw tree limbs, then a second time to dig out the tread.

This area of Forest Service land has many “social trails” that were built by locals who wanted to hike around the area. Unfortunately, many of these were not built in a way that allows water to run off effectively, which is important during monsoon seasons. Below is an example of how we’ve closed off some of these “social trails” so that hikers and bikers will use the new trail system.

We plant things like cacti and yucca that will grow into the old trails. The dark patches are “duff,” or plant matter that will revitalize the soil.

The weather didn’t always cooperate, and on week 2 of our project there was a decent amount of snow and hail that we had to work through. Luckily the crew I was working with had a great attitude and only complained a little when it hailed on our sandwiches.

A cool feature of this trail is the fossilized coral that can be found on many of the rocks. Some of them even have fossilized seashells and barnacles from when Arizona was beach front property 300 million years ago.