Take a Hike: Long Canyon, Sedona

Overlooking Long Canyon, Sedona, AZ

I have a soft spot for Long Canyon, located about four miles northwest of Uptown Sedona as the raven flies. A story about hiking the canyon was the very first piece I sold to Arizona Highways magazine, back in 1999. But Long Canyon was one of my favorite places way before then, with its deep shade, candy-striped cliffs, giant manzanitas, and entertaining bird life.

Decades ago Long Canyon was a hideout for bootleggers. (Some well-meaning but misguided hikers removed the bootleggers' “trash” a few years back, so that bit of the past has been erased for history buffs and archaeologists.) Today, the canyon is a great place to hide out from the bustling shops and galleries in Sedona, offering a change of scenery, a moderate hike, and a breath of fresh air.

The Long Canyon Trail starts at an unpaved parking area off Forest Road 152D and leads through manzanita, scrub oak, and junipers as it gently climbs toward deeper forest. Ponderosa and piñon grow beside Long Wash, and after snowy winters, the musical notes of flowing water echo off the surrounding cliffs. The tall trees play peekaboo with the views as the trail continues to climb, ending at about four miles.

At certain times of the year, the last mile of trail can be obscured by snow or lined with a gauntlet of poison ivy, so I prefer to approach Long Canyon without an agenda. You don't have to hike to the end of the trail to find beautiful places to linger—a sandstone arch, a wide tributary scattered with rocks and pinecones, a cliffside perch perfect for watching the antics of Stellar jays and acorn woodpeckers.

Other than poison ivy, Long Canyon has only two drawbacks: tour helicopters that buzz overhead with annoying frequency on busy weekends and the Seven Canyons golf resort, which sprawls near the canyon entrance as out of place as, well, green grass in a desert.

Even so, the canyon remains one of the wildest places within a few minutes of Sedona. Here, it’s easy to imagine a mountain lion blending into the buff-colored Coconino sandstone cliffs high above, or a black bear nosing a mossy fallen pine. The last few miles of the Long Canyon Trail lie within the Sedona–Red Rock Wilderness Area, but mountain bikers can turn off the main trail for Deadman Pass, outside wilderness boundaries and scenic in its own way.

People occasionally ask why I write about Sedona’s hidden places instead of keeping them to myself. I believe that when I introduce someone to this wild beauty (especially someone who’s never hiked a wilderness before) that person becomes a potential defender of natural places. Yes, I'm hoping to recruit an army of tree-huggers.


For those who have already been transformed by the outdoors, stay tuned: I'll be writing about a hike or two every month.