Day 4: The Ridge Trail

Distance: 5 miles out and back
Elevation: 4,000 – 4,400 ft
Elevation gain: 400 ft

Back side of Cathedral Rock

I asked my parents when they would let me hike while vacationing in Sedona. They said I could hike all I wanted as long as I was back to cook breakfast by 9 AM. Since I was awake by 6:30 AM anyway, I started going out at sunrise to enjoy the area. I did this trail twice, because the southern trailhead is less than 50 yards from where I am staying near the Crescent Moon Picnic Area. I did not have a map at that point and had no idea where the trail would lead, but it turned out to be wonderful early morning hike with 270-degree views of the surrounding areas. The rock cairns were easy to follow and the views were spectacular.

Beginning of the Ridge Trail from the southwestern side

Cathedral Rock in the early morning light. Not the best time to photograph it. Sunset is much better.

The first day I did the hike, my camera froze up and I was unable to take pictures, which is why I ended up doing it twice. There were also six hot air balloons hovering around Cathedral Rock, which made it particularly festive. I was practically in tears that day knowing I had the chamber of commerce shot right in front of me. My frustration was in vain, however, because my early morning photography skills could use an upgrade. I am so used to taking pictures in the middle of the day, that I did not do very well in the low light conditions.

Behind the Cathedral Rock viewpoint is a small ridge to be scaled.

Intersection with Chavez Road. Note the distinctive cairn.

Note that the first half-mile of this trail is not in the books or on the Sedona trail map. It is obvious, however because there is a large cairn right at the trailhead. These cairns exist all the way to the published trailhead on Chavez road. After that they disappear. Note also that there are more trails in this area than exist on the map so it is hard to tell exactly what trail one is on. Anyway you go will be nice, just realize that unless you do an out and back, finding your way home without a map may be time consuming.

The final pitch to the top of the ridge is a steep and rocky outcrop. Poles would help in coming down this portion.

View to the southwest from the top of the ridge

On my first trip, I did an out and back, turning around the far end of the ridge at a T-intersection. On my second trip I decided to take the left fork of this T for a longer hike. This is the continuation of the Ridge Trail. It goes down the hillside towards Sedona. Since I had a breakfast date, I did not want to go too far but decided to try and find my way back along an old streambed. Do NOT do this! Going off trail has risks that most should not take. Following streambeds means very rocky terrain. Additionally, I had 5 class 2 scrambles to descend where the rocks ended in sharp 6-foot ledges. At each of these locations, I had to evaluate whether I would be able to turn around and retrace my steps. As it was, this streambed ended up intersecting with one of the many trails in the Carrol Canyon area and I continued on them to get out. Later, I studied a map of the area. Had I had this map while hiking, always a better plan, I would have known that 30 yards from where I turned off the trails would have intersected naturally.

The trail as it crosses the ridge

Heading down the left side of the ridge

So, I have not hiked the Ridge Trail from end to end, but scaled the easy, by Colorado standards anyway, 400 ft to the top. The views are well worth that effort. Early morning is a delightful time to hike, even in spring. The sun, in these exposed areas is welcoming and the vistas are awe-inspiring. The following day, I hiked up Fay Canyon, which was beautiful, but cold first thing in the AM. In the heat of summer, I am sure the coolness would be most welcome.

View of Sedona and the surrounding rocks in the early morning light. I got up close and personal to the fingers on the right on the Thunder Mountain Trail on my last day in Sedona.

Day 3: Honanki Pictographs and Cliff Dwelling

Distance: 0.6 mile loop
Elevation: 4,700 – 4,750 ft
Elevation Gain: 50 ft


If you are going to Palatki, a very nice Sinaguan site, be sure to also visit Honanki. The setting is not as pretty in my mind, but the site does have better, if less historically significant, pictographs. The short trail winds through pine and shrub and was very accessible to my mother who has trouble with stairs. In contrast, she did not climb the stairs to Palatki but stayed just below communing with the lizards on the rocks.

Trail to the Honanki site

You can actually see texture and finger marks in this pictograph

Honanki ruins

Honanki is only 4.4 miles beyond Palaki, but I would recommend setting your trip odometer because that distance is deceiving when you are driving slowly on a dirt road. I kept thinking, gosh that rock formation has got to be it etc. It was not. You will recognize the site immediately and don’t be freaked out when you hit the boundary of the Handcock ranch. The route goes right through it.

The bottom row of images was not visible to the naked eye but became visible when I enhanced the colors of the picture.

One of the local tour companies takes folks to this site, so there were at least 4 tour groups on site. They are small and timed themselves pretty well, so it was not terribly intrusive. I think they are helping to fund the restoration of the area, so you can’t bitch too much about that.

The Sinaguans are gone, but the cliff dwellings are far from uninhabited.

Day 3: Palatki Cliff Dwellings and Pictrographs

Distance: 0.6 miles round trip to view the pictographs, 0.6 miles to walk the cliff dwelling loop for total of 1.2 miles.
Elevation: 4,800-4,850 ft
Elevation Gain: 50 ft.

Palatki Pictographs

If you visit one Sinagua site in the Sedona area, make it this one. The site sits beneath an 800 ft red cliff. It dominates the site and looms dramatically in the distance as one approaches it. The site has both pictrographs and a cliff dwellings but only a one-seater bathroom, so plan accordingly. You will make new friends while standing in line.

Rocks from Road 525

Road 525

You do need reservations to visit. Call (928) 282-3854 for information. The site opens at 9:30 AM but when we called at 9:45 AM we still got a recording. It is Forest Service Volunteers who man the phones and the small visitor’s station, so don’t expect the punctuality one would expect from fully pensioned Federal employees. If you do end up leaving a message like we did be sure to tell them what time you are coming because they will get annoyed if you don’t.

Cliffs around Palatki. The alcove on the left is where the pictographs are located.

Pictograph Trail

There are two ways to get to Palatki. The map you get in town advises driving up 89A towards Cottonwood. From there you need to take Forest Road (FR) 525. Note that there is a small brown sign with this number on it about 50 yards before the turn off. This is the only sign so don’t blink. FR 525 is a long dirt road passable by passenger cars as long as you don’t mind a lot of washboard jiggling. The other way to get there is via Sedona’s back roads, Dry Creek and they Boynton Pass. This is by far the more scenic route and it is paved for longer. I put detailed directions of this route at the bottom of the post. I would recommend going that way, it is just prettier.

Rocks along the pictograph trail

Ancient Scratchings

It was very pleasant out at the site. The pictographs are in two alcoves, each with a docent. The views of the area from these picturesque spots made me wish for a Barcalounger. The ancient Sinaguans understood location, location, location. Just to the left of the pictographs was a spring. So not only did they have protection and beauty, they also had running water.

View from the alcove

Giant Agave Bug (Acanthocephala thomasi). This bug drinks the nectar of the Agave plant, the source of Tequilla. Now that is my kind of meal.

The pictographs at this site are very unusual. There are bears, headless figures, and other unusual anthropomorphic figures. There are also large scratches in the wall that I thought was vandalism but turned out to be ancient and authentic. In the local Indian tradition, shamans would scratch at the walls to enter the spirit world. Some of the pictographs are believed to be several thousand years old.

Pictograph

Palatki Ruins

The trip to the cliff dwelling takes you a across an open field, across a creek, and up some steep steps to the wall. The dwelling itself is not overwhelmingly impressive but the setting is pleasing. We saw a Cardinal and a Scrub Jay on the way back to the car, so there is some wildlife in the area.

Palatki Ruins from the side

There is another site nearby, Honanki, which is not as good but since you are already there, you might as well go see it too. Just be prepared for the hordes. One of the local jeep touring companies takes folks to that site. Don't pay money for that trip, however, you can get there easily by yourself.

Directions (the more scenic route): Drive 2.9 miles up Dry Creek Road out of Sedona to the Long Canyon intersection. Stay left and drive another 1.6 miles to the Boynton Canyon intersection. Go left and drive another 4 miles to the intersection with Forest Road 525. 2 miles of this last pitch are on a dirt road. The dirt continues to the site. 0.1 miles from the 525 intersection is a fork. The right fork goes to Palatki, the left to Honanki. It is 1.7 miles on the right fork to the site.

Day 2: Tlaquepaque

Shopping shopping!!


Who can resist picking up some bling from the southwest? I certainly can't! The most attractive place to shop in Sedona is the Tlaquepaque (pronounced Tal-keh-paw-keh) Arts and Crafts Village. It is modeled after a mexican villiage and was orginally conceived as an artist colony. Now it is filled with galleries and shops. It is the ambiance, however, that is the most striking. Filled with bronze scultures, fountains, balconies, and ecentric sycamore's, Tlaquepaque is a very pleasant environment indeed!



My second cousin, who lives in town, said she can spend the entire day there. I managed to spend 2.5 hours, which is a lot for this gal who would rather be hiking than shopping. Still, I managed to find a nice tourquoise inlaid ring that I am very pleased about. My father, who is not much of a shopper, moved from bench to bench and photographed the scenery. Below are a few quick shots to give you an idea of the place.

Day 1: Montezuma's Castle

Telephoto view of the castle. With the naked eye, it is far up the cliff face.

This National Monument was one of the first ever created. It happened back in 1902 by the enlightened fiat of President Teddy Roosevelt. There is short (1/3 mile), sycamore shaded trail to view the castle, which is a Sinagua (meaning without water) cliff dwelling high up a rock wall. While not as impressive as Mesa Verde, it is still interesting to see and the most well preserved of the Indian Ruins in the Sedona Area. If you have only one day, however, and don't mind driving on a dirt road, I would recommend visiting Palatki. It is in a much more beautiful setting and also contains very interesting pictographs.

Directions: Take exit 289 off of I-17. Drive past the casino and follow the National Park Service brown signs to the site.

Day 1: Turkey Vultures

Vulture on a roost. I adjusted the contrast so it's wing feathers would stand out.

You would have thought there was an AIG executive on the side of the road near Montezuma’s Well for all the Vultures circling. As you might guess from their featherless heads, these boys know that bald is in, Turkey Vultures (Cathartees aura) feed on carrion. It has been a long time since I have seen a Vulture up close, so I could not resist snapping a few photos. Most of the time I see Vultures high in the sky riding thermals, their flight feathers a dead giveaway.

Vultures in flight. Note the spread wing-tip flight feathers and identifying V-shaped stance.

What I did not know was that Vultures tend to roost in groups, breed in caves, and will regurgitate a foul smelling mash of undigested carrion in threatened. Maybe bald is not so in.

Day 1: Montezuma’s Well

Distance: 0.5 miles
Elevation: 3,800 ft
Elevation gain: 100 feet up stairs to the top and down to the irrigation ditch

Montezuma's Well from far side. The cliff dwelling is in the recess in the upper left.

Montezuma’s Well is a large limestone sinkhole formed when an underground cavern collapsed. 700 years ago its continuous flowing water, up to a million gallons a day, was used to irrigate Sinagua fields. It is 368 feet across and 55 feet deep. There are several cliff dwellings in the walls and lots of moss in the water. This desert oasis is home to some ducks and several creatures that live nowhere else.

The algae in the water feeds a tiny shrimp, which in turn feeds a small water going scorpion as well as some nocturnal leeches that congregate at the bottom of the well and rise to the surface at night to feed. Scorpions? Leeches? Gee, let me just go for a swim…NOT!

More dwellings at the base of the well

The well has a C02 concentration that 600 times higher than normal. This anaerobic environment precludes fish although they live in the nearby stream. We saw a Bald Eagle fly over the well while were there and wondered what it could eat in the area. Perhaps there is sufficient fish in the stream to keep it happy.

A Fence Lizard (Sceloporous sp.).

The early Caucasian explorers, who found the ruins of Sinagua culture including Montezuma’s Well, thought the Indians were Aztec, which is why the site is misnamed.

Ruins on the side of the well

There is a side trail that goes down the outside of the well to where the irrigation ditch started. It was quite a technical feat to dig through the sinkhole to get the water flowing. There are also several pit houses along the upper edge of the well.

Irrigation ditch where it comes out of the base of the well

I would not go way out of my way to see this site, but if you are going to the V-bar-V ranch to see the petroglyphs, you might as well drop by. It is only a few miles up back up county road 618, right before I-17. From the well, you can head the 11 miles to Montezuma's Castle with only a short jog on I-17.

Day 1: V-bar-V Petroglyph Site

Distance: 1.1 loop
Elevation: 3,800 ft
Elevation Gain: none

Petroglyph Wall

In the foothills west of Sedona is the V-bar-V ranch, an archeological site run by the U.S. Forest Service. It contains one of the best Petroglygh sites in Arizona. The glyphs themselves were etched between 1150 and 1400 A.D by the Sinagua (pronounced sin agua or without water in Spanish).

Trail to the petroglyph wall

Desert Paintbrush along the trail

There is a short 0.5 mile trail from the small visitor’s center down to the petroglyph wall. There was docent from the Verde Valley Archeological Society there. She used a laser pointer to discuss the history and significance of the petroglyphs.


It is believed that the glyphs represent a calendar. At various times of the year, sunlight hits certain glyphs, marking times to plant or harvest. The website Sinagua SunWatchers contains a detailed discussion of this theory, so I won’t try and reproduce it here.


The trail to the glyphs follows wide road that borders a creek shaded by dramatic Sycamores. I was very impressed by the number of the glyphs and how close you can get to them. At other sites, I have had to use a telephoto lens. At this site, you could practically touch the glyphs.


One thing you should know is that this site is only open Friday through Monday, so plan accordingly. The glyphs are well worth the trip.

There is a different trail one can take back to the parking lot. It is not as flat but wanders through pleasant desert plants.

Directions to the site: From the Y (intersection of 89A and 179) in Sedona, drive south on highway 179 for 14.7 miles. Go under I-17 . At 17.4 miles, you will come to a 3-way fork in the road. There is a large sign for the V-bar-V heritage site. There is a fee unless you have a National Parks Pass.

Sedona: Overview

Cathedral Rock seen from Upper Red Rock Crossing Rd.

Sedona is a touristy and quirky little town situated in an oasis of geologic wonders. Surrounding the town are monumental spires of spectacular red rocks. The bright orange-red rocks are more than 250 million years old. You have to have been employed since then to afford to live here, however. You can afford to visit, and should.

Whether it is panoramic views, serious gallery hopping, or new age vortex worshiping, Sedona has something for everyone. I will be here a week with my parents and who knows what we will end up doing. I shall try to blog it all. This post will become my index to which I will add links to all the posts. One advantage of traveling with my parents is that they walk slowly, so I can snap a 1,000 pictures without getting on anyone’s nerves.

Topographic image of the Colorado Plateau. The Mongollon Rim is the edge of this Plateau

Sedona is all about geology, so here is the “dirt” on what you will see if you visit.

The rocks of Sedona are primarily sedimentary, which means layered. It is sort of reminiscent of the soap scum in your bathtub if you don’t scrub it out sufficiently, it just keeps building up. About 320 million years ago, the area of Sedona lay under water in a sea, and the first layer of Sedona's rock formation came from the shells of sea creatures. The next layer arrived about 275 million years ago as sand that was eroded from ancient mountains was carried by ancient rivers and deposited in a delta. This continued for a really long period of time. Much of the colorful rocks in the area were formed this way. Their technical name is the Schnebly Hill Formation. Eventually, about 1900 feet of rock covered the entire Sedona area.

At the Bell Rock (out of the picture to the left) overlook on Highway 179

Several million years ago, the Colorado Plateau uplifted, which created numerous cracks in this broad area of sediment. Water flowed in, sediment flow out, and we are left with these wonderful formations. The formations survived the process because they are capped with a protective layer of white limestone.

This rock is red because of iron oxide. Iron oxide drains through the porous sandstone and coats the grains, giving it a rich red color. Outside of Sedona’s unique oasis the rest of this part of Arizona consists of bleak rolling hills covered in desert shrubs. It is no wonder that people are drawn here by the millions. Take note oh millions, there are only about 500 parking spots in town so most of you will be driving around looking an opening, creating quite a traffic snarl. At least there is a pretty view to keep you entertained while at it.

Looking west from Upper Red Rock Crossing Road. The two small spires in the middle of the picture are near the famous chapel.

To make matters worse, at least for us, is that the bright folks in Sedona have decided to expand the major road, highway 179 that runs through town. So for the moment there is a very unattractive and highly annoying cone zone impeding the entrances to all the galleries. In the end though it will be much improved.

Our first day consisted of some scenic drives to visit ancient Indian sites. That will be the subject of the next few posts.

Trip Index: