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| Hiking | 8.30 Miles |
898 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.30 Miles | 6 Hrs | | 1.66 mph |
| 898 ft AEG | 1 Hour Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Boynton Canyon TH was parked full when I got there. (Busy spring weekend in Sedona!) Luckily it's a pretty short walk between the TH and FR152C, where it's legal to park on the side of the road. (If you don't like buying the Red Rock Pass, this seems like a good option.)
I did parts of this canyon hike off-trail, in the dry creekbed, and my photos were all taken during those parts. The trail, itself, was pretty crowded, but the creekbed was great. The Enchantment Resort seems to extend for about the first mile of the hike -- you are theoretically in the Wilderness, but seeing buildings, satellite dishes, cars on a resort road, etc. Also for that first mile you have to walk the official trail. After you get past the last of the buildings, the trail gets a bit shadier, and the first place where the trail meets creekbed is just a bit after the last building - creekbed veering off to the right.
EDIT - Oh yeah, and there's a sign near the Boynton TH about a bear that had to be destroyed in 2014, because some people fed it, and then it became aggressive toward people, trying to get easy calories. The sign reminds, "A fed bear is a dead bear." If you choose to backpack this canyon, please keep it in mind.
The Deadmans Pass trailhead is off the Boynton, so I decided to check it out on the way back. It's pretty much an inverted "V" of a trail -- you hike steadily uphill for 3/4 of a mile, then you start downhill, with a view of a golf resort ahead of you. Mescal Mountain is on your right (if you're headed NE), and unnamed bluffs on your left. Very thick manzanita forest (with a few junipers and such thrown in) on both sides of the trail. Mtn bikes are allowed, but there were few on the Sunday I hiked it. (The trail is just on top of the wilderness boundary, according to my TI map.) Looks like there are some loop options in this area, among the Deadmans Pass Tr, Long Canyon Tr, Mescal Tr, Aerie Tr and Cockscomb Tr -- will have to check some out on a future trip. |
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"Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy . . ." -- John Denver  |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
. So that went better than I hoped. From there it was a cruise down the Long Canyon Trail where we saw quite a few more hikers; some inquired whether we had been to the Birthing Cave. 
.](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
. We ran into a family that didn't have any idea where they were hiking really and had very little water. We told them the trail does loop but it's about 4 1/2 miles. They decided to turn around. We waited for them a bit at the Mescal Trail Jct to let them know they could reach the side of the mountain from here in less than 1/2 mile. I guess they originally thot they were doing a hike up to the spire but this wasn't even the TH for that I don't think.
. It was interesting terrain down here before we climbed back up to once again see our vistas and eventually start heading west.
