Carroll Canyon

The Skyliners hiked in Carroll Canyon wash, on Carroll Canyon Trail and Old Post Trail on January 30, 2010. Hikers were Ellis Price, Daisy Williams, Anita Jackson, Jim Manning, Dolly Yapp, Miriam Sterling, George Everman, Gordon Bice and two others. From Cottonwood, we traveled north to Sedona on Hwy 89A, turned right on Upper Red Rock Loop Road at Red Rock High School and drove about 0.9 miles before turning left onto Chavez Ranch Road going toward Red Rock Crossing. About 0.28 miles from Upper Red Rock Loop Road, Chavez Ranch Road crosses he Carroll Canyon Wash. There is room to park two cars at the wash; however both of these spaces were taken and we continued for about another 300 yards to park on the shoulder at the intersection of Chavez Ranch Road and Red Rock Crossing Road. We started our hike from there, walking back along the road to enter the wash, at about 34°50'0.18"N; 111°48'33.55"W, and follow it up the canyon.

Continuing our way up the canyon floor, we climbed over what many would call rock ledges, but which to Arizonans are waterfalls:

This is an Arizona waterfall. We don't require much water for waterfalls in Arizona

See? This one really does have water

We found an arch along the way and Gordon went exploring:

Gordon peering thru the arch                     Another view of the arch

After traveling up the canyon for about 1.25 miles, we came to Carroll Canyon Trail, which crosses the canyon at this point. We continued on up the canyon for about 100 yards before stopping for lunch, and then returned to take the trail for the return trip. The trail at first climbs steeply from the canyon floor and then follows pretty closely along the western rim for about half a mile before turning west to intersect with Old Post Trail, which we followed back to its trailhead on Chavez Ranch Road just west of Carroll Canyon Wash where we had started our hike. There were great views along the way down into the canyon, across the canyon to Cathedral Rock and Courthouse Butte in the distance, to the red rock peak between Upper and Lower Red Rock Loop Roads and back across Sedona to the mountains in the north.

Looking down into the Canyon from the rim at the “waterfall” we had  climbed on the way up the canyon

This shot shows both Courthouse Butte (center left) and Cathedral Rock (center right) in the distance

I am told that the the pyramid-like formation in the center is called Red Rock Peak. It lies between Upper and Lower Red Rock Loop Roads

Looking back across Sedona to the north

My GPS track showed a total hiking distance of 3.96 miles and an elevation change of about 425 feet. The hike up the canyon was moderately strenuous because it entailed some climbing over rock ledges. The hike back along the Carroll Canyon and Old Post Trails, except for the short initial climb from the canyon, was easy. The route we hiked is shown in red on the included map (below).