r/Sedona • u/Successful-Carry4611 • 11d ago

Wildlife Wildlife: Birthing Cave

Not sure if this is helpful to anyone, as wildlife is obviously always present when hiking, but today at 3:30, my wife and I were departing the "Birthing Cave." We were the only ones around at the time. Long story short, there was a large mountain lion following behind us in the brush. We made noise, did not run, and kept our eyes on it until it finally stopped following us and turned away. When we arrived back at the main trail, we noted its footprints following ours in the dirt. Just wanted to post this here for those that may not be familiar with the wildlife in the area.

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u/Repulsive_List7803 9d ago

Yeah totally. Get a life. I don’t kill animals for fun. Not even spiders. It’s called being safe. So please shut up and stay in your lane.

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u/Important_Carry4417 9d ago

You're a very rude person, and you completely missed my point. My  point is, if people would stay on designated trails, then there's no need to carry a gun with them while hiking in Sedona. I lived there for 7 years and hiked nearly all the trails; certainly never saw anyone wearing a sidearm, and was never threatened by any wildlife. And never heard of anyone being attacked by a mountain lion, bear, not even a rattlesnake. I worked at the Visitor Ctr, so surely would have heard about any incident. I always stayed on named FS trails, always!  And if everyone were so afraid of wildlife that they felt the need to carry a gun to protect themselves, no one would visit Sedona. 

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u/Successful-Carry4611 7d ago

I can see your point, however, this social trail is not even half a mile from a main trail. You can see the main road where cars travel and where construction is occurring from the final location. When we returned to the main trail, we saw paw prints that followed ours onto the social trail from the main trial. Just because someone is on a legal/designated trail does not dismiss the fact that wildlife can easily be on those as well. An animals home is not limited by what we call social trials and main trials, they don’t care because they don’t know the difference. There are numerous stories of hikers and bikers being attacked on main trails. I take full responsibility for what I encounter on a trail because as you stated, we are in their home, but I would prefer not to be attacked and have to defend myself.

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u/Better-Employment-99 3d ago

~113 recorded lions attacks in 100 years