The Cow Pies Trail of Sedona

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The Cow Pies Trail
of Sedona
by James Cassidy, Ph.D.

LEVEL: easy

HIKING TIME: Approximately 45 minutes to the last cow pie.

DRIVING TIME FROM THE INTERSECTION OF 89A AND SR 179: About fifteen minutes from the City limits.

FEATURES: Panoramic views of the mountains and canyons to the southwest. A vortex site. Unusual rock formations.

A hike for the whole family! With only limited physical effort this hike provides access to rock formation which are unique even for the Sedona area. The views are superb. Some locals claim that the vortex areas yield a special energy which is almost palpable. I say this is one of my favorite hikes in Sedona when I don’t have a lot of time but I want to experience outstanding views. Sedona is located thirty miles south of Flagstaff in northern Arizona.

AN ARIZONA COW TAIL
The unusual name for this area describes its appearance to a “T”. For those who do not know what a cow pie is, let me relate a story which my mother told me about her childhood that will explain the terminology. Each morning my mother and her three brothers had to get up at the crack of dawn and bring the cows in from the meadow and take them to the barn for milking. Though most dreaded the cold mornings of fall and winter since they did not want to mess up their school shoes, which meant they had to perform this task in bare feet.

After putting foot to frigid ground for only a matter of minutes they would experience the irresistible need to warm their tootsers (feet in tenderfoot language). Well, cows eat a lot and so they also do other things a lot, all the way back to the barn. So, she and her brothers would shoo the cows and then race behind them and sink their feet into the most recent warm deposits of the cow herd. To pass the time they would try to outdo each other by conjuring up names for these warm piles of cow leavings such as -- meadow muffins, meadow delight, bovine biscuits, plop drops, daisy’s doing it, and cow pies. Their system worked like a charm until they tried to enter the kitchen... That’s when their mom ruined the fun and froze their toes by making them rinse off the warm natural cows socks in the cold stream. Oh, well there is always a core to every apple.

DIRECTIONS FROM THE INTERSECTION OF SR 179 AND SR 89A:

From the intersection of 89A and SR 179 drive south to Schnebly Hill Road. Turn left on Schenebly Hill Road and drive for .9 of a mile on a paved surface. For the following 2.6 miles the drive is on a dirt road (depending on the time of year and maintenance provided by the Forest Service the condition of the road can range from bumpy-- but a passenger car do it-- to very rough unless driving a four wheel drive vehicle. After driving a total of 3.5 miles from the intersection of Schenebly and SR 179 the parking lot can be seen on the right.

Related Links:

Sedona Hikes

Hiking Sedona

James Cassidy, Ph.D. has been an educational therapist/consultant with over twenty years experience in research and practice in which his clients have been the rich and famous of Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica and Santa Barbara. He has published numerous professional papers, a geometry textbook, a screenplay, and two novels-- A Paradise Lost and A Little Charity (Through a Glass Darkly Shines). Dr. Cassidy has advocated educational programs that accommodate individualized learning styles for one on one situations as well as in the classroom. His methods were developed during research at UCLA in conjunction with the University Enrichment School on campus and have been used for over ten years to train thousands of tutors at the University. During his four year association with the school in the Education and Psychology departments under the aegis of project C.U.E.S. , he wrote and produced several educational training films which are still being used. Those successful films are the basis for his latest book: A Simple Formula For Smarter Kids.

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