Hey there, everybody. Welcome to the Cactus Atlas.
I'm Glenn and today we're in a very cold and snowy Sedona, Arizona
about to experience Slide Rock State Park.
Here's the first few footsteps into Slide Rock State Park
which many of you I would not be surprised if you have been here or have heard of it.
Typically a summer destination.
I couldn't have picked a better day in my opinion to see this in the snow.
I see snow almost never anymore so for me this is magical in this moment
and they had a good healthy amount and you see it starting to melt
and certain hillsides don't have much left where others do.
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and you can see people built snowmen here and there.
I've seen people sledding out front.
I mean this is beauty.
Beauty that I can't really convey unless you were here.
My normal experience with this place is trying to drive on 89A
sometimes between Flagstaff and Sedona.
I've stayed at cabins up here in Oak Creek
and in the summer times or the warmer months
noticing cars, like, spilling out onto the road, like at 6 a.m waiting to get parking spots in here.
Yes, this place may be one of the most popular places in the state
and the main feature are natural rock slides.
We're not doing any swimming today, I assure you, but this should be quite a sight.
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So one of the things that I like about this location is there's history, of course.
You must know that about me so far.
Not terribly much history but story goes back in the early 1900s,
I want to say 1907 ish,
a family moved out here and go this land through the Homestead Act.
Basically, the federal government since the 1880s was trying to get people to come out
and settle the area to boost the economy.
So some lucky son of a gun got his hands on this and I want to know how that happened.
This would have just been a paradise on Earth.
Right here you could see a sign that says tourist cabins built in 1933
and what I read about these are the owner of the land
built these cabins to house an increasing tourist population
once the word got out about the natural water slides that we're going to seek out today.
Some other historic buildings that I believe might still be around are
maybe the actual original apple orchard even or continuing orchards going into today,
maybe a barn, and some other relics of the time. Farmhouse. We'll find out.
Taking a casual approach to this today.
These grounds are really pretty too. You're starting to see the evidence of orchards.
Maybe those are the orchards and I'm going to tell you what...
If those are the orchards, Amy, I'm not walking out there. [Laughter]
[amy] I just walked in in the snow. I don't recommend.
[Glenn] Yeah, our feet are already wet.
I didn't bring my snow boots because I don't even own snow boots.
This I don't remember and I wonder if it's open seasonally.
Although they're advertising hot chocolate. This is the slide rock Market.
I might be up for a delicious hot chocolate when we're done here and they've got t-shirts.
Oh, I need to extend my t-shirt collection I think.
it's closed though. Darn it. How'd I know.
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Even though the scenery I don't think is the main draw of this place
it's certainly part of the draw and boy is that something.
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This is likely evidence of the
homesteading history, the ranching history of this area.
Different items including a buzz saw
and various other horse-drawn implements. Plows.
It's interesting though because I did not come out here
with snowy conditions in mind.
Amy already learned her lesson the hard way.
Maybe I need to join her and venture off into the snow.
It's very soft and melty, you know. It's starting to turn into a slush almost.
Let's see if it... Seems to make good snowmen from what I've seen.
Oh yeah. Very wet packable snow. So great for snowball fights.
Here you go. This is telling us the history of the gentleman's name that I was looking for.
It's Frank Pendley, the first to visit this property in 1907.
He saw the potential in it, of course, and set up some squatter's rights
and I think through the Homestead Act was able to secure this all for himself.
And these are all things that I presume are from that time.
And I just had a big duh moment.
Like right here behind us I think is part of that orchard.
I mean all the trees are without leaves now.
I think these are apple trees but they're all right here.
Right here in front of us and no I'm not gonna go walk out amongst them.
Sorry.
It's kind of interesting too because maybe for those few of you that don't really know about this park
and the main draw you're going to be pretty amazed.
You might already be amazed just by the red rocks of Sedona.
That's enough to do it for people like me but when you see the slides and shoots
then you'll understand what this place is truly all about.
Here's a map of the Slide Rock apple orchards.
I don't know if this is representative of the time
when this was in its heyday or if it's representative of today
but you can see here if we're here then some of the right to me is this. This is an orchard.
It looks like it is possibly apple trees with little red dots in there but they have apricots.
Probably... there you go. Rome Beauty, Golden Delicious. So a variety of apples. English Walnut.
They, just like the original homesteaders, did grow vegetables it looks like here too on this property.
Absolutely beautiful.
I believe I've read that when apples are in season here I think they're free for the picking
as you'll find in other places.
Like Lee's Ferry has a similar concept up in northern Arizona
where there's an orchard up there where you can pick more than just apples.
Whenever things are in season.
And I think this is the same idea although I bet you
when the crowds start coming in, when the weather's a little bit warmer,
when apples would be in season, they probably don't last long would be my guess.
But imagine being one of the earliest settlers of this area
and stumbling upon this and calling this your land. Your own.
It is a very fertile area with abundant wildlife.
Lots of running water. I assume the soil was good.
Sceneries to boot. I mean, come on. This is where it's at.
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Ah! And here's the Pendley Homestead house. Built in 1927.
So this one is very close to 100 years old
and it's probably survived many snowstorms
in this region.
If I have the story right I think this family after they got this land and ended up building
this homestead, this ranch, farm, and owned this land until the 1980s.
This was one of the largest private land parcels in this general area in Sedona.
I already forget my Wikipedia-ing from earlier but something along the lines of
for whatever circumstances had it
the family was ready to sell the land or give it to the public
and then the State of Arizona became interested in this and acquiring it.
Well, clearly it's a state park today but sounds like there was opposition to the idea at the time.
Alright, so I think that's all the historic stuff or the bulk of it and now we're going to get to the the meat of it.
The thing that everybody comes here for right down this way I think.
Down this trail.
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The further deeper and we go in here, there's like nobody here.
Maybe it means it's too slippery or something but
the Slide Rock swim area. Dun dun dun dun duuuuun!
Yeah, in the summertime there's just I'm going to I guess hundreds of people.
As many as they can cram in here without exceeding the limit
and it's constant so there's just no way for me.
That's not for me. That's not a good time.
Maybe if you have kids and people want to run around and play and have fun
that'd be a little bit better.
I like peace and quiet and that is not peace and quiet.
These trails down here are very slippery and icy
and it's kind of like intermittent
but right down below you see, like, the the start of the main draw.
Now we're gonna walk upstream up the trail and it's going to get really pretty
but I don't know how far we can actually go down that way.
These shoes I have are not good for traction and if I can get onto the rock...
The rock's fine. The rock's got grip. It's the snowy slush on top that's the problem.
But it is muddy. It is muddy.
But you tell me is it worth it for coming up here to see this.
Nobody else is coming over here.
This should be Oak Creek
running right here through the heart of Oak Creek Canyon
parallel to Route 89A. Areas we've explored before.
You can see this creek is flowing really well with all the snow.
I'm sure it's the snow melt. The recent rains.
All of it turning this into a beautiful mountain stream.
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You can see the trail kind of continues. Here's not too bad.
There's a lot of up and down so even if this was dry
for some people this could be a challenge I would reckon.
But I love how the water is just glistening and dripping off of everything here.
And if this were summertime you would see
scores of people swimming down in this
area here and I think we're approaching
the natural water slides where you can truly slide down slick rocks.
The trails here are quite short so I want to say this thing's like a third of a mile long.
We may have... We may be getting to kind of the end so
I reckon this might be the water slide area proper
where you see a lot of people doing that.
Now we'll keep going as far as we can but
with the restrooms being, like, right there kind of makes me think this is,
like, a main hangout area for folks.
And there's Route 89 where we started this trail right over there.
I honestly forgot how beautiful Slide Rock State Park is.
I mean it is one of what I would recommend as one of the premier destinations here in Sedona.
As long as you can avoid the crowds.
If you like a nice stroll and don't want to get wet
you could see this is a good time of year to come here and with the snow to boot
this is magic. It's like something from a movie almost.
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This is the kind of place I could just hang out at it though for
a very long time but the scene says it all itself.
Now this spot cleared up so I'm gonna kind of hang out
in a place where I bet is the prime spot.
It'd be like the place everybody rushes to when they want to set up their towels.
I bet it's right down there.
You get some sun some chill...
And that's some loud water. Some rapids right there.
I think you can literally slide, like, down this thing here. I've seen people do it.
Alright, so now you got to see what gives Slide Rock State Park its name.
This rock that I couldn't demonstrate to you today how to slide down it.
As nobody else would either because I assure you I just dunked my foot
full on in some of the water and woo doggy is it cold.
No thank you.
Alright, so I made it back up to the top.
Looking at my progress... This is where that other trail starts by the way
so I don't know how many good views you'd get but the main attraction is down. Down there.
Well, folks, this view going back towards the parking lot
might be the one of the day and it's a proper place to part ways with you.
I don't even know what else I got to show you. I think the video speaks for itself.
Take it or leave it. Slide Rock State Park.
I happen to love it.
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