One morning during our stay in Sedona, my wife and I had gone for a long hike – as in over 4.5 miles – on the trails surrounding Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte just north of the Village of Oak Creek.  What I thought would be a nice hour-long stroll along the trails turned into a two-and-a-half hour trek that went from a easy walk, to a challenging march, to a more than strenuous traipse, to a Bataan-style death march during the course of the hike.  During the final three-quarters of a mile of the journey, my wife had asked if I wanted to sit and rest.  I was past annoyed with what had transpired and I told her that if I sat down and rested for even a moment, I may not be able to get up.  Dirty, dusty, tired, sore and hungry, we made it to the car to go to breakfast at a place in the Village of Oak Creek my wife had picked out before we started our grueling and demanding hike that morning.  She said that we didn't have to go, but I knew that if I pointed the car in the other direction and went back to our hotel to clean up and not have breakfast where she wanted to go, I wouldn't hear the end of it.  (Can you tell that I was pretty pissed at that point?)  Instead, we drove into the Village of Oak Creek to go have breakfast at the Oakcreek Bistro.  

Over 25 years ago, the Medrano family immigrated from a small town in Chihuahua, Mexico to the Sedona area.  One of the Medrano kids – Christian – started working in restaurants in the area, first as a bus boy, working his way up the ladder to running kitchens in various restaurants over the years.  Always wanting to run his own restaurant, something rather serendipitous took place a couple years ago.  

Christian Medrano's sister Dinora McCullough had worked as a business manager/accountant for various businesses in the Sedona region and started as an executive assistant at the Oakcreek Country Club in March of 2016.  When the lease of the restaurant that was in the country club expired at the end of 2022, the golf club's board was looking for someone to take over the restaurant.  Dinora said that her brother was hoping to start his own restaurant and the board met with Christian Medrano.  It was a no-brainer for the golf club's board of directors to hire Medrano after he discussed a myriad of recipes that would fuse Mexican favorites with American fare.  

It took a couple months for Medrano and his family to transform the restaurant into his vision.  They had set an opening date of March 8, 2023.  But on March 2 of that year, a heavy, wet snowfall of 8 to 10 inches blanketed the Sedona area causing power outages and tree damage – especially on the course at the Oakcrest Country Club.  Undeterred, the Medrano family decided to go ahead with their March 8 opening date – even as clean-up on the country club grounds and the surrounding homes in the Village of Oak Creek was going on.  Even though the golf club didn't re-open for play for a couple weeks after the storm, Oakcreek Bistro saw steady business from the locals from the start.  

Now, I will say that our early morning hike that turned into the hike from hell started out to be pretty nice.  We got up early and got out to the north Bell Rock trailhead about 6:45 when the sky was a bright blue and the temperature was in the low 70's with light winds coming out of the north.  Bell Rock is so named because of its unique bell-like shape.  It's also known as being one of the top energy "vortex" destinations in Sedona.  Sedona supposedly has a number of energy vortex's in the area and Bell Rock is one of the more famous place.  Some people say these energy vortex's around Sedona radiate a healing energy.  I don't know, maybe the reason I was able to do the full 4.6 mile hike that morning was because of the energy vortex at Bell Rock.

Sitting just to the east of Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte tops out at just over 5400 feet above sea level.  The views change every 100 yards or so that you walk along the trail and I found myself stopping every so often as we were going on the south to the east side of the butte.  But then the trail started to get more steep and difficult just past a dry creek bed on the east side.  My "give-a-shit" factor about stopping and looking up at the large rock waned soon after.

Driving into the Village of Oak Creek, we found a nice little green space area nestled in a valley surrounded by hills, rocks and buttes.  The main road through town had a number of shops and restaurants, and just off the main drag there were houses with grass yards – something we didn't see a lot of in Sedona.  There are three golf courses in the Village of Oak Creek giving it even more of an oasis feeling in the desert.

We pulled into the parking lot of the Oakcreek Country Club parking lot around 9:30.  (See map)  We had to be a sight with the dirt on our clothes and shoes, disheveled hair, and no makeup for my wife.  I'm sure we didn't smell the greatest either.  But we went into the restaurant and found a combo bar/restaurant area.  A few golfers who had gone out earlier were taking a break after 9 holes at the bar and it was a bit boisterous in there. 

In a separate room behind the bar area was a more formal dining area.  However, that part of the restaurant wasn't open, so it was either sitting in the bar area or outside on the patio.  

We decided to sit on the patio that looked out onto the lush green golf course and the houses that ringed the perimeter of the fairways.  The patio was covered so we were safely in the shade and the temperature was in the low 80's.  And with low humidity, it was nice to sit out there.  

Our server that day was a young lady by the name of Gabbie.  We apologized for our appearance and she said, "Oh, we get a lot of people who come here after hikes all the time."  

Gabbie had told us that she lived up in Flagstaff and commuted down I-17 nearly every day.  We told her that we had been up in Flagstaff the day before and she asked us how we liked it.  "Well, we didn't see much, but it seemed nice," I said.  I lied.  We drove around the downtown area, drove around the campus of Northern Arizona University, drove through a couple other parts of the city before we came to the realization that we had pretty much seen about everything and decided that we could cross a return trip to Flagstaff off our agenda for the week.  But Gabbie made her pitch on all the great things "Flag" had to offer, but her recommendations fell on deaf ears.

Gabbie had dropped off menus for us and wanted to know what we wanted to drink.  After a strenuous hike, I felt I needed a morning bracer to get me started for the rest of the day.  I got a bloody mary, a Tower Station IPA from the Mother Road Brewery in Flagstaff (the only reason I would have wanted to go back to Flagstaff was to go to the Mother Road Brewery), and a stiff four shot serving of espresso.  "Wow," Gabbie exclaimed.  "That's starting your morning off right!"  My wife got a coffee and an orange juice.  

The breakfast menu – which is served from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.) is pretty extensive at Oakcreek Bistro including the usual breakfast favorites such as pancakes, French toast, omelettes, skillets, biscuits and gravy, and light items such as avocado toast and fruit plates.  True to Christian Medrano's heritage, there are a handful of Mexican-style breakfast items such as tres leches pancakes, breakfast burritos, and chilaquiles – fried corn tortillas simmered in a red or green salsa, then topped with any combination of items such as pork, beef, cheese, onions, and/or fried or scrambled eggs.  

The lunch part of the menu (served from 11:00 a.m. to 3 p.m.) includes sandwiches, burgers (including a ground lamb burger), grilled tilapia fish tacos, a slow-cooked pork verde dish, and tacos gobernader – corn tortillas filled with grilled shrimp, tomatoes, onions and peppers, and topped with a crusty mozzarella cheese, shredded cabbage and a chipotle mayo.  Oakcreek Bistro also does catering for weddings, events, and private gatherings at the golf course clubhouse.   

My wife went with the basic breakfast of two eggs over easy, home-fried potatoes, bacon and sourdough toast.  She had contemplated getting the light breakfast skillet consisting of scrambled egg whites, potatoes, spinach, peppers, onions, mushrooms, avocado and mozzarella cheese, but she seemed happy with her ultimate choice.  

Just reading the description of the green chilaquiles allowed me to make up my mind immediately.  I got two scrambled eggs served over pulled pork and the fried corn tortillas then smothered in their house-made green chili sauce.  It was topped with pico de gallo, cremé, and queso fresco.  The taste flavors were fantastic!  There was so much going on with each bite that I shook my head a couple times thinking of how great this was.  We didn't eat a lot of Mexican food while we were in Sedona, but I'm not certain there could have been anything that would have been able to top the green chilaquiles at Oakcreek Bistro.  

A couple that had been seated near us had heard our conversation with Gabbie regarding our morning hike we just took.  As they got up to leave, they came over to ask about the hike.  "It started out great," I said.  "Then it turned into a death march."  

My wife countered and said, "It wasn't THAT bad!"

I said, "Well, it wasn't until it was."  

They gave us a couple other places outside of Sedona to go check out including some hikes north and west of the city.  We did go check a couple of the trails out, but weren't able to get to all of their suggestions.  

The other thing about visiting the Oakcreek Bistro was that it afforded us a driving tour around the Village of Oak Creek after we finished up.  And if we hadn't done that, we wouldn't have found the Hilton Resort at Bell Rock where we stayed for the next four days after we went back, cleaned up, packed up, and checked out of our hotel in Sedona.  The pulled pork green chilaquiles breakfast I had at Oakcreek Bistro was outstanding.  My wife was happy with the simple farm-style breakfast she got, as well.  Gabbie was a great server and bless her for trying to get us to go back up to Flagstaff to hang out again, but there were other things higher on our list for things to do and see around Sedona.  We contemplated going back to Oakcreek Bistro while we were staying in the Village of Oak Creek, but there were a number of good little coffee/bakery shops where we could grab a coffee and an espresso along with some pastries or croissants.  But sleep on the breakfasts at Oakcreek Bistro – they're worth the visit!  

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