If you are spending the day in the Sedona area and looking for a short hike I would highly recommend the Doe Mountain Trail. It is located approximately 5 miles Northwest of Sedona. There is a bit of elevation gain with roughly 400 feet in .7 miles to the mesa. If you decide to walk the edge of the mesa it ends up being 1.3 miles plus the additional .7 mile return to the trailhead.  The views get better and better as you go up in elevation.  Once you reach the mesa summit you have the opportunity to go across the mesa to the other side.  There you can see Bear, Maroon, and Wilson Mountains, Loy, Boynton, and Secrete Canyons along with Chimney Rock and the Cockscomb to name a few. Sedona is also visible to the east and to the south.  I will say once I made it to the mesa that I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hiked across the mesa to the other side and the views looking towards Sedona were breath taking.

Amenities: Toilets, no water. Open year-round, Red Rock Pass or America the Beautiful Pass is required to park at the trailhead.

Directions: Drive through Sedona to Dry Creek Road at the west end of town. Turn north on Dry Creek Road (FR 152C) three miles to the Boynton Canyon intersection then left on FR 152C about a mile to the trailhead.

The Highline National Recreation Trail is located 18 miles Northwest of Payson near the town of Pine and approximately 96 miles from Scottsdale.  The trail is 54-miles long and has challenges for the more experienced hikers. The trail has beautiful vistas of rim canyons, brushy hills, and distant mountains with unique rock formations and wonderful stands of Ponderosa pine.  The Highline Trail was established in 1870. It was used to travel between homesteads and to attend school in Pine. 2

One of the nice things about the Highline Trail system is that you can choose how far you want to go. There are a few trailheads along the route. Please plan your route and distance before randomly picking a trail. I say this because when I was training for Ultra-marathons I did 19 miles with friends one day. We carefully selected a route that had trailheads along the way should we have had to stop or needed help. We also had a designated driver that dropped us off at one trailhead and met us at the end of our 19-mile run. Be prepared: Make sure that you have enough water and food. Be as self reliant as possible. 

Directions: AZT Pine Trailhead is off of highway 87, just Southeast of Pine, AZ

TRIVIA

Do you know why Sedona’s rocks are red? Natural minerals caused the thin layer of iron oxide, chemical weathering and turned the rocks into their trademark red Sedona color.1

1 ilovesedona.com

2 fs.usda.gov

If you have any questions or comments you can send me an email at TroonTrailTales@gmail.com