Mysterious Appearance
By Sue Greenwald
On November 1, 2019, I was hiking the West Fork Trail in Sedona with a friend. We walked to the end of the trail, which ends in a stream in front of you, and steep, unclimbable canyon walls on either side. To proceed further, you would need to wade in the water. That particular day, I talked with a man that had a very nice camera and tripod, while we were standing at the end of the trail. He was in his later 60’s with glasses, hiking boots, a camo coat, and jeans, fairly nondescript. After a bit, he went into the water area, and set up his tripod where there was a little pile of rocks. When we left that area, he was busy taking pictures.
We turned around, and hiked back up the trail, up a hill, and down to the bottom. As we got to the bottom, there was our photographer, leaning again a fallen tree, with his tripod and camera already set up! I was shocked. There was NO WAY that he passed up on the trail, and there was no other “logical” way that he could have beaten us to that location! The only physical way to get back was to take the trail, as the canyon walls are unclimbable.
We talked with him for about 20 minutes. I asked him about 4 times during our conversation how he’d gotten there before us. He never answered that question, he just kind of smirked. Our conversation was all over the place at that point. I knew that he’d transported, teleported, there’s been a time lapse, or something similar, and was super curious, but he was not forthcoming.
I literally hiked the same trail the very next day, to double check if I’d been mistaken and there was a shortcut that I’d missed. I was also hoping to run into him again, to ask more focused questions, but unfortunately, he wasn’t there. I’ve been on that trail many times since then, and still haven’t found evidence of any type of shortcut that he could have used.
The main picture here is the end of the canyon, and the picture was taken at a later date. The photo below is the log where he was leaning. Every time I hike this trail, I show people these places and have them verify that I haven’t missed anything.
The is the log that the photographer was leaning against when we came down the trail, all set up. The top pictures is from the end of the trail (this one is taken another time) that shows the height of the canyon walls, and the water.
This shows the end of the trail with the steepness of the canyon wall. There’s a steep canyon wall on both side, and no way to scale them.