Boynton Canyon Hike, Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness, Sedona, Arizona
Unless you like hiking with hundreds of people, I would not recommend doing this hike. It is one of the most popular trails in Sedona. Having had a wonderful experience in Long Canyon a few days before, I decided to see if Boynton Canyon was worth battling the crowds for. Spoiler: I don’t think it was, but feel free to read on if you want to learn more about the hike.
I started out by trying to park at the Boynton Canyon Trailhead, but there were no spots available and there were probably 75 cars parked along the road so I parked my car along the road as well, which added over a third of a mile each way to my hike. I hiked along the road to the trailhead and set out on Boynton Canyon Trail. There was a turn off for a vortex, but I could see how absurdly busy it was so I didn’t add the detour to my hike. I continued the hike which passes the Enchantment Resort in the beginning. So the first views are of a resort and the sounds of construction going on at that resort.
Eventually, the resort is behind you and you can focus on being outside. I was constantly passing people going both directions, which took away from the experience too much in my opinion. Sure, the red canyon walls were pretty, but you can see those on plenty of other trails in Sedona that have a fraction of the crowd.
The end of the trail was also uneventful. Again, it had a view of a canyon wall on the other side of the canyon, but there was nothing so unique about this spot that it was worth sharing with several other groups. After a quick snack, I headed back to the car the same way I came in. The hike ended up being 6.9 miles from my car with 750 vert. I did not check out the Subway as I could tell by the number of people headed that way that it wasn’t for me. Overall, I was disappointed with this hike because of how busy it was. I think there are much better hikes to do in the area that are both prettier and quieter, providing a much better experience.
