Route Editor
Route Scout
Dogie Flipside by HAZ_Hikebot Just getting to this trail is an adventure. The last mile of primitive road that leads to the trailhead is a place of tire bruising rocks and bottom scraping ruts. Actually, it might be a good idea to hike or mountain bike it, so you don't abuse your car driving it. Don't try it at all without a sturdy, high clearance vehicle. There is a FS/APS gate about 300 yards from the trailhead sign. Once you get to the trailhead you'll forget all about that rocky ride. The view is magnificent-Grand Canyon quality. You can see into Mooney Canyon, part of the lower Oak Creek basin, and Sycamore Canyon at the same time. In Sycamore, sheer walls, towering buttes, teetering pinnacles and huge lava flows stretch to the horizon. Taylor Cabin Trail provides good views of all this then drops into a sheltered drainage which it follows to the canyon floor. The steepest part of the climb is mercifully shaded by Douglas firs and ponderosa pines. At trail's end, on the floor of Sycamore Canyon, you'll find everything associated with a desert river except the river itself. Rounded boulders and gnarled sycamore trees attest to the fact that water flows here regularly, but unless you come during the snowmelt or after a thunderstorm, you won't see it. Some of the larger pools hold water into late spring, but eventually they all dry up. Taylor Cabin, a historic old rancher's shack listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is about a mile and half downstream. You can either boulder hop down the stream bed to it or follow the Sycamore Basin Trail. That trail is directly across the main stream bed from the end of the path you have just walked down. Following the trail is the best way of finding the cabin, otherwise you could boulder hop right past it. Check out the Official Route and Triplogs. Gate Policy: If a gate is closed upon arrival, leave it closed after you go through. If it is open, leave it open. Leaving a closed gate open may put cattle in danger. Closing an open gate may cut them off from water. Please be respectful, leave gates as found. Leave No Trace and +Add a Triplog after your hike to support this local community.
Coconino FS Details Just getting to this trail is an adventure. The last mile of primitive road that leads to the trailhead is a place of tire bruising rocks and bottom scraping ruts. Actually, it might be a good idea to hike or mountain bike it, so you don't abuse your car driving it. Don't try it at all without a sturdy, high clearance vehicle. There is a FS/APS gate about 300 yards from the trailhead sign. Once you get to the trailhead you'll forget all about that rocky ride. The view is magnificent-Grand Canyon quality. You can see into Mooney Canyon, part of the lower Oak Creek basin, and Sycamore Canyon at the same time. In Sycamore, sheer walls, towering buttes, teetering pinnacles and huge lava flows stretch to the horizon. Taylor Cabin Trail provides good views of all this then drops into a sheltered drainage which it follows to the canyon floor. The steepest part of the climb is mercifully shaded by Douglas firs and ponderosa pines. At trail's end, on the floor of Sycamore Canyon, you'll find everything associated with a desert river except the river itself. Rounded boulders and gnarled sycamore trees attest to the fact that water flows here regularly, but unless you come during the snowmelt or after a thunderstorm, you won't see it. Some of the larger pools hold water into late spring, but eventually they all dry up. Taylor Cabin, a historic old rancher's shack listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is about a mile and half downstream. You can either boulder hop down the stream bed to it or follow the Sycamore Basin Trail. That trail is directly across the main stream bed from the end of the path you have just walked down. Following the trail is the best way of finding the cabin, otherwise you could boulder hop right past it. Use: Moderate Notes: Bring lots of water-it's hot and steep. No motorized or mechanized vehicles (including mountain bicycles) in the Wilderness. High clearance vehicles only to trailhead. Use experienced trailhorses. USGS Map(s): Loy Butte, Sycamore Point Location: 30 miles south of Flagstaff on graveled and dirt forest roads. One-Way Notice This hike is listed as One-Way. When hiking several trails on a single "hike", log it with a generic name that describes the hike. Then link the trails traveled, check out the example. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
WARNING! Hiking and outdoor related sports can be dangerous. Be responsible and prepare for the trip. Study the area you are entering and plan accordingly. Dress for the current and unexpected weather changes. Take plenty of water. Never go alone. Make an itinerary with your plan(s), route(s), destination(s) and expected return time. Give your itinerary to trusted family and/or friends.
Most recent Triplog Reviews
Taylor Cabin Trail #35
Casner - Taylor Cabin - Sycamore - Dogie Loop
I've wanted to do this loop to Taylor Cabin for the longest time. After a dayhike down Dogie to Sycamore Creek last year and some fooling around on and around Casner this year I did some more homework and opted to do the damn thing from the Casner approach...
After camping near the Casner mountain trailhead, I got an early start just before 6 AM. I opted to drive a little further to the "ROAD CLOSED" gate under the power lines that run up Casner (this is the right of way gate for Casner Mountain). Getting the climb up Casner done first before the heat of the day sets in is recommended. Despite carrying 5L of water the climb wasn't too bad with trekking poles. The views going up are wonderful but the novelty of peeking down into Sycamore Canyon to your left AND the edge of Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness to your right is just fantastic. Pictures won't do it justice...
After spotting Mooney trail snaking up from the edge of RRSM wilderness I came to the junction with both Mooney and Taylor Cabin. The shade of this somewhat overgrown descent was quite appreciated. Taylor Cabin trail is cairned in abundance all the way down to the creek.
I did a dumb thing and boulder hopped ALL THE WAY from Taylor Cabin trail to Dogie trail, stopping at Taylor Cabin with quite a bit of help from Gaia GPS. My entire excursion boulder hopping was exhausting, hot, and dry (I would not recommend) however it did save me the anxiety of bushwhacking and trying to find the cairns marking the trails comings and goings thru Sycamore Canyon. My extra dumb choice was boulder hopping this in running shoes (read: not boots or even trail runners) it would be a hell of a place to slip or twist an ankle... Personally, I can rationalize exhausting and dangerous boulder hopping as "more direct" but ultimately it's just a preference and again, I wouldn't recommend this to another hiker unless as a last resort.
Taylor Cabin was cute. If you go TAKE A COUPLE PENS AND PENCILS. There are no writing implements for the log book. On my visit there was one pan of clear water that had run off the metal roof (about one liter) after the recent light showers in the area. Don't count on seeing water on this loop though, pack enough to safely execute your hike without finding water on the route. I almost packed less water because of the recent showers and I'm so glad I thought better of it. There is a binder with information about Taylor Cabin inside, it's worth flipping through if you like historic details. An intrepid hiker may also find the nearby gravestone of "Jak" (a cattledog I presume), the corral ruins, and adjacent storage cave. During my visit, mice seemed to have set up shop fairly well in the cupboards.
The boulder hop down to the Dogie junction was slow and exhausting. The junction is unsigned and easy to miss as the cairns are spread wide on either side of the wide canyon floor. I set a GPS waypoint on my track for this junction. Dogie trail felt like a moving sidewalk after all the boulder hopping. The trail is in good shape and has plenty of camping spots between the creek and Sycamore Pass tank.
After camping near the Casner mountain trailhead, I got an early start just before 6 AM. I opted to drive a little further to the "ROAD CLOSED" gate under the power lines that run up Casner (this is the right of way gate for Casner Mountain). Getting the climb up Casner done first before the heat of the day sets in is recommended. Despite carrying 5L of water the climb wasn't too bad with trekking poles. The views going up are wonderful but the novelty of peeking down into Sycamore Canyon to your left AND the edge of Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness to your right is just fantastic. Pictures won't do it justice...
After spotting Mooney trail snaking up from the edge of RRSM wilderness I came to the junction with both Mooney and Taylor Cabin. The shade of this somewhat overgrown descent was quite appreciated. Taylor Cabin trail is cairned in abundance all the way down to the creek.
I did a dumb thing and boulder hopped ALL THE WAY from Taylor Cabin trail to Dogie trail, stopping at Taylor Cabin with quite a bit of help from Gaia GPS. My entire excursion boulder hopping was exhausting, hot, and dry (I would not recommend) however it did save me the anxiety of bushwhacking and trying to find the cairns marking the trails comings and goings thru Sycamore Canyon. My extra dumb choice was boulder hopping this in running shoes (read: not boots or even trail runners) it would be a hell of a place to slip or twist an ankle... Personally, I can rationalize exhausting and dangerous boulder hopping as "more direct" but ultimately it's just a preference and again, I wouldn't recommend this to another hiker unless as a last resort.
Taylor Cabin was cute. If you go TAKE A COUPLE PENS AND PENCILS. There are no writing implements for the log book. On my visit there was one pan of clear water that had run off the metal roof (about one liter) after the recent light showers in the area. Don't count on seeing water on this loop though, pack enough to safely execute your hike without finding water on the route. I almost packed less water because of the recent showers and I'm so glad I thought better of it. There is a binder with information about Taylor Cabin inside, it's worth flipping through if you like historic details. An intrepid hiker may also find the nearby gravestone of "Jak" (a cattledog I presume), the corral ruins, and adjacent storage cave. During my visit, mice seemed to have set up shop fairly well in the cupboards.
The boulder hop down to the Dogie junction was slow and exhausting. The junction is unsigned and easy to miss as the cairns are spread wide on either side of the wide canyon floor. I set a GPS waypoint on my track for this junction. Dogie trail felt like a moving sidewalk after all the boulder hopping. The trail is in good shape and has plenty of camping spots between the creek and Sycamore Pass tank.
2016-07-01 NoPal
Taylor Cabin Trail #35
Casner-Taylor-Dutch-Sycamore-Dogie Loop
I've had this loop in mind for awhile now. Time to escape the heat in the valley.
The injured Teva said he would join me, but had two requests.
1) No Rock Hopping - Oops
2) No Bushwhacking - Double Oops
We parked at the Trailhead at the end of 525C and started our 1.25 mile Counter Clockwise road walk over to the Casner Mountain Trail. This is the recommended way to go, (You were right)
getting the major climb out of the way in the beginning of a long day (2000' in 2 miles). The 4 mile walk across the top of Casner Mountain, yielded views that gave you a great overall feel for the Sedona landscape. At some points you are walking on a ridge that's 30' across, with views off both sides.
Be careful when making the turn off Casner Mountain and on to Taylor Cabin trail. The finely groomed trail appears to go straight and to the left. We wasted 20 minutes after it just dead ended. After back tracking, make the semi-hidden right, once off Casner Mountain.
The Taylor Cabin Trail was gorgeous, and reminded me a bit of how the Grandview trail drops into the GC. For the next hour the prominent feature is unnamed peak 6416. During this time, you make the 3 mile steep decent to Sycamore Creek. You'll pass through both conifer and deciduous trees and pass through smooth red rock narrows, while following the drainage.
Once at the bottom, at Sycamore Creek, the trail goes straight across. Two faded Taylor Cabin signs are the only clue. From here to the 1/4 from the cabin, you'll be skirting Sycamore Creek. The trail is almost gone in many places. This is the one area that it'd would have been nice to have long pants. It's a 2 mile hike to the Cabin from here.
Taylor Cabin is a place that has to be seen to appreciated. There's a lot of history there.
The chimney on that fireplace is something I've never seen before. There are some food stuffs, Water in containers, propane, etc stored about. If you feel like doing some cleanup while you are there, please make use of the Wheel barrow and shovels.
From here you take the 8.5 Mile Dutch Kid Tank / Sycamore / Dogie Roller coaster back to the Start. Yep... there are many more gorgeous views along the way....
We finished up just as we were going to need headlamps. We had two other side trips we were thinking for this day, but they will have to wait for another time.
On the way home, Joe talked about his Contractors.
Thanks for joining me, and I'm glad your foot did not fall off.
The injured Teva said he would join me, but had two requests.
1) No Rock Hopping - Oops
2) No Bushwhacking - Double Oops
We parked at the Trailhead at the end of 525C and started our 1.25 mile Counter Clockwise road walk over to the Casner Mountain Trail. This is the recommended way to go, (You were right)
getting the major climb out of the way in the beginning of a long day (2000' in 2 miles). The 4 mile walk across the top of Casner Mountain, yielded views that gave you a great overall feel for the Sedona landscape. At some points you are walking on a ridge that's 30' across, with views off both sides.
Be careful when making the turn off Casner Mountain and on to Taylor Cabin trail. The finely groomed trail appears to go straight and to the left. We wasted 20 minutes after it just dead ended. After back tracking, make the semi-hidden right, once off Casner Mountain.
The Taylor Cabin Trail was gorgeous, and reminded me a bit of how the Grandview trail drops into the GC. For the next hour the prominent feature is unnamed peak 6416. During this time, you make the 3 mile steep decent to Sycamore Creek. You'll pass through both conifer and deciduous trees and pass through smooth red rock narrows, while following the drainage.
Once at the bottom, at Sycamore Creek, the trail goes straight across. Two faded Taylor Cabin signs are the only clue. From here to the 1/4 from the cabin, you'll be skirting Sycamore Creek. The trail is almost gone in many places. This is the one area that it'd would have been nice to have long pants. It's a 2 mile hike to the Cabin from here.
Taylor Cabin is a place that has to be seen to appreciated. There's a lot of history there.
The chimney on that fireplace is something I've never seen before. There are some food stuffs, Water in containers, propane, etc stored about. If you feel like doing some cleanup while you are there, please make use of the Wheel barrow and shovels.
From here you take the 8.5 Mile Dutch Kid Tank / Sycamore / Dogie Roller coaster back to the Start. Yep... there are many more gorgeous views along the way....
We finished up just as we were going to need headlamps. We had two other side trips we were thinking for this day, but they will have to wait for another time.
On the way home, Joe talked about his Contractors.
Thanks for joining me, and I'm glad your foot did not fall off.
2012-04-07 The_Eagle
Taylor Cabin Trail #35
Casner-Taylor-Dutch-Sycamore-Dogie Loop
This is good loop. Glad I finally got to tackle it after knowing about it for so long. Casner seems under rated to me. The best views of the loop are from the top in my opinion. The sweetest part of the hike is going down Taylor through the thick forest. A lot of dead fall, luckily it's relatively easy to get over. The worst part is from when Taylor enters the creek over to a quarter mile before reaching the cabin. Either friendly or lazy backpackers have left over ten bottles of used coleman fuel in the cabin cabinet. Overall it's a cool little area and well maintained. The most enjoyable part of the loop was on the short Dutch Kid Tank Trail #54.
Believe the only water seen all day was in the creek about a mile ENE of the cabin near-ish 34.996719, -111.973172. Personally I wouldn't count on water down there much ever.
Our temps ranged from 43 to maybe 75. Any warmer at the bottom would have been hot. The rocks radiate the heat back with such little shade.
Wildflowers: one sprig of blue dicks, wallflowers on a couple occasions, indian paintbrush maybe a dozen times and a few other varieties I'm unsure of on the identification
First serious hike now 16 days after the foot injury. At times it wasn't too bad, at times it was quite painful. Obviously not the wisest choice yet I have no regrets.
Believe the only water seen all day was in the creek about a mile ENE of the cabin near-ish 34.996719, -111.973172. Personally I wouldn't count on water down there much ever.
Our temps ranged from 43 to maybe 75. Any warmer at the bottom would have been hot. The rocks radiate the heat back with such little shade.
Wildflowers: one sprig of blue dicks, wallflowers on a couple occasions, indian paintbrush maybe a dozen times and a few other varieties I'm unsure of on the identification
First serious hike now 16 days after the foot injury. At times it wasn't too bad, at times it was quite painful. Obviously not the wisest choice yet I have no regrets.
2012-04-07 joebartels
Taylor Cabin Trail #35
We left Sedona around 8am and drove two hours mostly on dirt roads to the trail head. The views were spectacular even at the start: we could look over the Verde Valley and at the same time deep into Sycamore Canyon. The trail descends steeply (but with some switch backs)at the beginning, then levels off a bit as it follows the rocky wash in the side canyon. You pass through several dramatic narrow passages and quite suddenly come to the wide open Sycamore Canyon bottom proper. Cross the wash to pick up the continuation of the trail -- left towards Taylor Cabin, right towards Winter Cabin. The trail crosses the river bed several times and is at times a bit hard to follow. Taylor Cabin is a beautifully maintained stone cabin built (according to inscription in the stone) in 1931. The cabin is very tidy, immaculately clean. Unlike many unattended places, there wasn't any trash.
We had reached the cabin around 1 pm, so we just had a quick snack and started back. We were back up at the trail head shortly after four. On the drive back, it got dark. All forest roads look alike in the dark!
The round trip hiking distance is around ten miles with a CEC of about 2,400 feet. A lot of the hiking is on river rocks. There isn't any water anywhere on the trail. (Taylor cabin had a few plastic containers with water) Long stretches of the trail are shaded, but about half the distance down in the bottom of Sycamore Canyon is in full sun.
We all decided that we wanted to return, but also thought it might be more enjoyable as a two day backpack, with an overnight stay at Taylor Cabin.
The cabin can also be reached from the south via Dogie Trail and Sycamore Basin Trail. Or even longer, from the Parsons Trail trail head via Packard Mesa Trail and Sycamore Basin Trail.
We had reached the cabin around 1 pm, so we just had a quick snack and started back. We were back up at the trail head shortly after four. On the drive back, it got dark. All forest roads look alike in the dark!
The round trip hiking distance is around ten miles with a CEC of about 2,400 feet. A lot of the hiking is on river rocks. There isn't any water anywhere on the trail. (Taylor cabin had a few plastic containers with water) Long stretches of the trail are shaded, but about half the distance down in the bottom of Sycamore Canyon is in full sun.
We all decided that we wanted to return, but also thought it might be more enjoyable as a two day backpack, with an overnight stay at Taylor Cabin.
The cabin can also be reached from the south via Dogie Trail and Sycamore Basin Trail. Or even longer, from the Parsons Trail trail head via Packard Mesa Trail and Sycamore Basin Trail.
2007-11-21 pbaenzig
Taylor Cabin Trail #35
I actually ended up doing a loop hike from Dogie TH, down to Sycamore Canyon, up past Taylor Cabin, to the junction with the Taylor Cabin trail, up this side canyon to the TH on Casner Mountain, south along the 4x4 road & powerlines, and eventually down back to the Dogie TH. My guide book list this loop as 18.8m and another site has it as ~20m and having done the hike I'm thinking it's closer to 20ish than 18ish (the NF map isn't the greatest at listing mileage 
). I day hiked this loop clockwise, but I would recommend doing it counter-clockwise to get the climbing up Casner mountain done early plus better lighting for photos as the sun glides across the sky. Taylor cabin is a pleasant place and would make a great backpacking destination. Most would prefer to backpack this rugged remote loop, esp considering I was barely able to squeak this hike out just after the sun set. It should be noted that the NF map shows the trail sticking to the westside of the canyon down around Taylor cabin, but in reality it jumps sides a few times and you could also just boulder hop right up/down the dry creekbed if you prefer.
). I day hiked this loop clockwise, but I would recommend doing it counter-clockwise to get the climbing up Casner mountain done early plus better lighting for photos as the sun glides across the sky. Taylor cabin is a pleasant place and would make a great backpacking destination. Most would prefer to backpack this rugged remote loop, esp considering I was barely able to squeak this hike out just after the sun set. It should be noted that the NF map shows the trail sticking to the westside of the canyon down around Taylor cabin, but in reality it jumps sides a few times and you could also just boulder hop right up/down the dry creekbed if you prefer.2007-10-21 Vaporman
