Twin Buttes Loop

Seventeen Skyliners hiked the Twin Buttes Loop in Sedona on 14 March 2015. This hike, consisting of a combination of trails, can be performed in a clockwise direction, as we did, or in a counterclockwise direction. We parked alongside Chapel Road at the Mystic Trailhead and headed north on Mystic Trail. The hike consists of a series of bike trails or parts of trails (Mystic, Piglet, Hog Wash, High on the Hog, Hog Heaven, Broken Arrow, Little Horse and Chapel). This route is shown in red on the below excerpt from a Forest Service map posted at the trailhead.

The route we took is shown in red on the above map

From the hike described here, we made one significant deviation. We followed a social trail that climbs steeply up the butte behind the Chapel to a small cave (right). It is a steep, precarious climb along a faint trail that rises almost 200 feet in 0.1 miles. The cave (or perhaps tunnel, as it has an opening at either end) is only about 30 feet long and small enough that one can barely squeeze through with a pack on.

George is shown here (left) exiting the cave. Having assumed the role of tailgater for the hike, he was bringing up the rear. I do not recommend a climb to the cave as a part of this hike. It is a lot of effort for a climb through a short cave. Some of us climbed through the cave and returned to the trail by a different route; others just looked and returned the way they had come.

From our position high on the shoulder of the butte, we had an excellent view of Cathedral Rock across the valley.

View of Cathedral Rock

We returned to the trail and continued on our way around Twin Buttes.

The trails were well-marked and posted with signs (right). The signs warned bikers of the level of difficulty ahead. We had long since learned that a trail rated as difficult for bikers would require a great deal of care from hikers. On the other hand, the very fact that a trail is rated as navigable for bikers tends to put a certain limit on just how difficult it can be.

We wanted to make it to the saddle north of Twin Buttes for our midmorning snack and, as a result, delayed our snack a bit longer than we should have. By the time we reached the saddle, I was feeling quite ready for a rest. As a matter of fact, I even managed to get in a short nap.

A single cloud floated high in the sky above the distant mountains and, except for the occasional short, steep climb, hiking was easy. The views, meanwhile, were such as to cause one to pay too much attention to the scenery and too little to footing.

Panoramic view visible from the north slope of Twin Buttes

From the saddle where we stopped to snack we could look down on Submarine Rock and, although we couldn't pick it out, the location of Devil's Dining Room. A steady stream of jeeps were to be seen carrying tourists along the jeep trail that runs from Morgan Road to Devils dining Room, Submarine Rock and on to Chicken Point. While at the saddle we also saw other hikers and bikers for the first time on this hike. Traffic then picked up steadily for the rest of the hike but never became heavy enough to be a real problem.

The trees along the way included junipers, Arizona cypress, manzanita, ceanothus and crucifixion thorn. Because of the recent rains and the arrival of spring growth, the plants were arrayed in various shades of green ranging from the feathery, delicate hues of new growth to the darker shades of maturity. The various shades of green stood in stark contrast to the surrounding red rocks, but together they were quite pleasing to the eye.

Few flowers were to be seen along the trail on this hike, a fact that made a single ceanothus (left) in full bloom a striking sight.

We arrived at Chicken Point to find it a very busy place. There were several groups of individuals who had driven their own vehicles in and were just basking in the sun on the bare rock surface, eating lunch or simply enjoying the view. I found a sunny spot on the rock, ate my lunch and settled in for a nap. George and Akemi had previously climbed along a narrow white line (hardly wide enough to be called a ledge) in the cliff above (right) and George decided to climb back to it while I napped.

When George had returned from his adventure and I had awakened from my nap, we all gathered for a group photograph.

Left to right: James McGinnis, Ellen Mcginnis, Joyce Arregui, the author, Akemi Tomioka (front), Anita Jackson, George Everman (front), Connie Woolard, Donna Goodman, Daisy Williams, Karl Sink, Collene Maktenieks, Frank Lombardo, Jim Manning, Tim Wolters and Betty Wolters – photograph by Name Withheld

As we left Chicken Point we had a view of the terrain ahead from Courthouse Butte on the left to Cathedral Rock on the right.

Courthouse Butte, Bell Rock, Unnamed Mountain and Cathedral Rock

From Chicken Point it is just 0.4 miles along Little Horse Trail to Chapel Trail and then another 0.7 miles to the end of the trail at the chapel parking lot. From the end of Chapel Trail back to our starting point at Mystic Trail is only another 0.4 miles, this along a paved road.

At the end of Chapel Trail we encountered an automatically-closing gate (left). That is a very handy arrangement as one doesn't have to fumble around closing and latching the gate after passing through. Just push it open, pass through and let it go.

On the other side of the gate was posted a very puzzling sign (right). Since this very obviously is a trailhead, being one end of the Chapel Trail and with two signs posted just beyond the gate to identify it as such, one is left to wonder what the sign really means.

My GPS track shows a hiking distance of 4.2 miles for the loop with a maximum elevation of 4629 feet and a total ascent of 1016 feet. We hiked an additional 0.2 miles and climbed an additional 185 feet to visit the cave.  The GPS track for the loop hike is shown in red on the attached map (below).

For those who might be interested, an interactive Bike Trail Map of the area is available at: http://www.trailforks.com/map/?lat=34.831287579117884&lon=-111.7570010023071&z=15&m=roadmap