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| Long Canyon - Bell Trail Loop, AZ | |
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| | Long Canyon - Bell Trail Loop, AZ | | | |
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Long Canyon - Bell Trail Loop, AZ
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| Hiking | 17.70 Miles |
2,860 AEG |
| | Hiking | 17.70 Miles | 9 Hrs 44 Mns | | 2.11 mph |
| 2,860 ft AEG | 1 Hour 20 Mns Break | 14 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | Bruce engineered this seemingly obvious yet rarely traveled loop. Aside from a couple hours of vicious biting gnats I enjoyed the hike. The stats are reasonable. Route finding even with monster sized caged cairns is challenging for miles. I doubt this loop will appeal to casual hikers.
Long Canyon Trail #63
Climbs vigorously up to a mesa. Look back to catch some nice views heading up. Our view included smoke over Sedona and hanging low in the Verde Valley from the Slide Rock Fire. The first 2.5 miles is medium intriguing. Then it turns into an ever increasingly challenging cairn hunt. Typical Sedona mesa zone... junipers dot the rocky ankle buster landscape with prickly pair accents.
At 4.5 miles a sharp canyon edge intrigues dazed eyes. Distant Sedona views open up. This is where it turns into advance route finding. Caged cairns continue. Keep an eye out for sawed off tree limbs to hopscotch the voids. That game plan works for 1.5 miles. Just after 6 miles in whip out the bible and start praying. It's about 2 more miles to Roundup Basin Tank. If you are lucky you'll cross paths with a few cairns along the way. We did not witness more than a hundred yards of anything that could remotely be called a trail.
Bell Trail #13
Most only hike the very lower 3.3 mile portion near the creek. We tackled the middle third ( 4 to 4.5 miles ), I'd imagine only 3-5% make it here past Bell Crossing. Perhaps 1-1.12% knock out the upper third all the way to FS 214.
From Roundup Basin Tank it's an old road for 1 mile heading down. Raiders of the Lost Cairn Hunt is back in theaters for two miles until you reach the edge overlooking Wet Beaver Creek. Albeit a steep ~1.5 miles down to Bell Crossing I highly recommend this if you enjoy sweet overhead canyon views.
We finished off the lower portion taking in a bit of the Wier 85. It is a gem. While it lacks maples it may get a little more popular now that nearby Oak Creek has been torched. We hit up the undisclosed hidden secrets ( oops I posted a gps track ) to round out the loop.
Fun moderate loop! |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
prickly pair with yellow flowers for the most part, Palmer's Penstemon |
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