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| Hiking | 6.74 Miles |
814 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.74 Miles | 3 Hrs 44 Mns | | 2.01 mph |
| 814 ft AEG | 23 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | The route provides a nice loop near the iconic Courthouse Butte in Sedona, but starting at a (much) less used (but highly rutted) Jacks Canyon Trailhead parking. And further the loop for the most part avoids the popular and crowded trails for Bell Rock and Big Park.
The loop offers a wide and pleasing variety of terrains, from open grassland to meadow forest to thick pine stands to open washes to slick rock expanses. Wide views open to reveal red rock formations, featuring most prominently the majestic Courthouse Butte as well as the long string of peaks from Gibraltar Rock to Lee Mountain. The trail includes fairly rocky trail surface at times, but never much an issue. I rate the elevation gain as modest, just enough to invigorate. Same with the length, modest; don’t use my four hour trip time as a gauge, as that time included a good bit picture taking.
Some fairly key notes/cautions. The parking at Jacks Canyon trailhead has descended into a rugged, rutted patch, a good bit worse than I remember from when I last parked there about five years ago. Not impossible to navigate. But not pleasant.
For tracking, though not mission critical, a GPS will definitely help. The loop suffers at times from dead end spurs, and in open wash and slick rock areas can turn unexpectedly while one just walks on straight. You can see even with a GPS I lost concentration on navigation and wandered off course.
Take the loop counter-clockwise. One almost must do so. The connection of the trail where one would go clockwise has been completely overgrown, for about 50 to 100 feet. Now going counter-clockwise, one at the end runs into the overgrown section, but at that point can just push forward thought the low brush and grass until they cross the defined trail.
Finally, the trail contains a few gates, so obviously close the gates, per protocol. Now the gates no longer seem to actually serve as part of some confinement fencing, but as noted trail protocol says close gates just in case. |
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Route Editor
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