Long Canyon Hike, Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness, Sedona, Arizona
I decided to head out for an afternoon trail run/hike and wanted to check out a trail that would hopefully be on the less busy side of things in the Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness. I settled on Long Canyon Trail in Sedona which is the canyon next to the incredibly popular Boynton Canyon. I parked at Long Canyon Trailhead and set out on Long Canyon Trail. There are several trails that branch off from Long Canyon Trail, but I stayed on the trail, passing the sign for Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness. I saw a few hikers headed to the Birthing Cave, but once I passed that turn off, I saw no one else for the remainder of my run.
The views as I headed toward the canyon opened up to a grand red canyon wall. It wasn’t too long until I was headed into the canyon under that wall. The trail along the canyon had a very gradual incline that wasn’t even noticeable at times. The trail meandered across the dry stream bed a few times. As I got further into the canyon, the trail started getting a little more overgrown and a little more faint. It was amazing to see how much less use this trail gets than its neighbor, Boynton Canyon. I enjoyed the solitude I found on this trail. The one thing that surprised me about this trail was the number of mosquitos. I was swarmed by them at times, which kept me moving. It didn’t seem particularly wet in the stream bed, and I did not experience this amount of mosquitos anywhere else in Sedona so I’m not sure what drove there to be so many mosquitos in this canyon. Bug spray would be recommended next time!
I ended up going about 4 miles into the canyon and turned around when it became hard to follow the trail and it was clear it was no longer maintained. The entire trail run ended up being just over 8 miles with 950 vert. If you’re looking for a pretty canyon hike, I believe this one is a great option in the Sedona area.
