GREAT WEEKENDS

great weekends Revisiting Oak Creek Canyon Recalls Five Decades of Picture-perfect Memories

Driving north on Interstate 17 bound for Oak Creek Canyon, I ask Dorothy, my wife of nearly 39 years, "How old were you when you first went into the canyon?"

She remembers clearly. Her father had been transferred by his company from California to Phoenix the year before. They had driven out through Wickenburg, up Yarnell Hill - where their DeSoto overheated-through Prescott, over Mingus Mountain and on to Jerome, Clarkdale, Cottonwood, Sedona and, finally, Oak Creek and the waters of Slide Rock. It has been 50 years since that trip.

Three decades later, we'd journey to the canyon for a family outing. With our young children, we spent a weekend within the canyon, on the creek and at Garland's Oak Creek Lodge. With many happy memories of that experience, we are heading back.

After arriving in Sedona, we relax over a leisurely lunch at L'Auberge de Sedona, a Country-French-style inn on the bank of Oak Creek. Following lunch we visit the Sedona Arts Center, enjoying a well-attended show, "Cool, Clear Waters,"

presented by the Northern Arizona Watercolor Society.

Eager to make our return to Garland's, we travel north on State Route 89A, entering Oak Creek Canyon on the curving, scenic two-lane highway that has changed little since it opened in the early 1930s. As the red rocks of Sedona give way to tall, rugged outcrops of white sandstone, Dorothy says, "What this weekend should really be about is our grandchildren." Build on past experience.

Pass the present and the future on to our children, whom we brought to this canyon, and to their children, two youngsters nearing 3 years old, with a third on the way. Dorothy is right (she usually is). Our visit should

Forest Houses, a collection of homes for two to eight people, including a remodeled barn, built originally in 1930 by Mary and Bob Kitteredge, whose family continues to run the property.

A pleasant lunch of sandwiches and fresh, cold apple juice can be had at Garland's grocery store and deli at Indian Gardens, adjacent to Garland's trading post. A historical marker tells that on this site, centuries ago, Indians planted corn and squash. Just south of the store, nothing remains of more recent canyon history, a roller-skating rink from the 1940s and '50s. At Lomacasi Cottages Resort, down the canyon, the centerpiece original rock house built in 1924 remains, and The Briar Patch Inn cabins sit on a long meadow adjacent to the creek. Part of The Briar Patch formerly belonged to Rocky's Cabins, where crews stayed while working on motion pictures filmed in the Sedona-Oak Creek area. We've sampled only some of the campgrounds and family lodging in the canyon, but it's already time to return to Garland's.

Following the lodge's daily 4 o'clock tea, we rest before a second gourmet dinner (grilled pork rib chop with bourbon rosemary sauce, among the delights), then make plans for our final morning in the canyon. We'll start by sampling one of the area's numerous hiking trails.

West Fork Trail, rated “moderate” by the Forest Service, runs 3.8 miles. Perhaps a quarter-mile along the trail, we pass a wild rosebush. One red rose blooms. Ahead, to our right, purple irises rise where, apparently, a tended garden once grew. Then, abruptly, the ruins stare at us.

The ruins had once been Oak Creek Lodge, begun in 1925 by Carl Mayhew and his wife, Ethel. Mayhew had come to the area in 1923 as the photographer filming Zane Grey's novel Call of the Canyon. He and Ethel stayed. What began as a log cabin in 1880 became a spacious lodge boasting a swimming pool, and luminaries — among them Howard Hughes, Walt Disney, Jimmy Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, and Gloria Swanson enjoyed Ethel's home cooking and welcomed a respite from the outside world. Deeded to the Forest Service by Ethel Mayhew, who hoped it would become a museum, the lodge burned in a fire in 1980.

The trail continues into trees and shadows, silence, solitude, the creek and the rising beauty of its rocky heights. A morning not soon to be forgotten.

Midday, we say goodbye to Garland's. Stopping by the store at Indian Gardens, we purchase fresh eggs and apple juice to take home. At the Indian trading post, Dorothy picks out a pair of Navajo earrings set off by gaspeite, a brilliant palegreen Australian stone.

Our last stop is Slide Rock State Park, where visitors picnic, take short trail hikes, visit a museum of orchard farming and view old farming implements, while kids, as they have for generations, ride the creek's rushing current over a series of smooth and well-worn rocks.

For now, the canyon is behind us, until three generations of us return — and we will.

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