Long Canyon Indian Ruins

Sixteen Skyliners hiked to Indian ruins in Long Canyon on 5 March 2011. Meeting at the Safeway parking lot in Cottonwood we took Hwy 89A to Sedona and turned left onto Dry Creek Road. After about 1.5 miles on Dry Creek Road, we turned right onto Long Canyon Road (FR 152D) and traveled for around 0.6 miles to reach the trailhead. Parking at the trailhead, we followed Long Canyon Trail for about 2.1 miles before coming to a faint trail that leads off to the right, crosses a wash and then climbs steeply up the canyon wall to the Indian ruins. An almost buried rock (right) in the trail marks the turnoff.

From the turnoff it is a steep climb (600 feet in 0.7 miles) up the canyon wall to the ruins.

Climbing the canyon wall to the Indian ruins - Photograph by Jon Lloyd.

We struggled over two rather difficult ledges and up some steep slopes before reaching our goal, the path to which passed between an ice cream shaped rock formation to the left and three sentinel-like rock spires to the right. All the while, the scenery ahead was breathtaking, keeping us focused on our goal. The pictures below and on the following two page show our approach (between the Ice Cream Cone and the Three Sentinels), the ruins, paintings on the cliff wall and the surrounding scenery.

Ice cream cone to the left three sentinels in the right – picture by Jon Lloyd

The well-preserved ruins tucked under an overhang in the cliff wall were

well worth the climb

The below photograph shows just what a cozy place, tucked well under the cliff overhang, the occupants had chosen for their dwelling.

Photograph showing how well-protected from the elements the location was

Paintings on the cliff wall at the Indian Ruins – photo by Jon Lloyd

Looking back at the three sentinels from the ruins – photo by Jon Lloyd

All sixteen hikers (Donna Goodman, Jon Lloyd, Lila Wright, Marvin Alt, Jim Manning, Daisy Williams, David Beach, Linda Tovar, John McInerney, Miriam Sterling, Dolly Yapp, Jan PreFontaine, the author and three others) having made it up the steep slope, we rewarded ourselves with a good long break while we examined the ruins.

When we left the ruins it was nearing lunch time and we went in search of a nice spot to eat. Returning to Long Canyon Trail, we followed it on up the canyon for about another 0.7 miles before turning off to eat at a high, sunny spot that was also the approach to some caves that Jim had recently visited with another group.

The turnoff, located around 2.8 miles from the lower trailhead, is marked by what appears to be an old camping site. One turns off to the right, crosses the wash and climbs up the canyon wall along a side canyon.

After a moderately difficult climb we found ourselves high up on an open ledge between Long Canyon and the side canyon and stopped for lunch. As the others settled down on the ledge, I climbed to the top of the ridge behind it where I had a better view up and down Long Canyon could take a quick nap after eating.

After lunch the main party proceeded on up the side canyon, while David Beach, who had climbed up to awaken me, and I crossed down the other side of the ridge to join them. Jim led us to several caves that showed signs of human habitation…ranging from old cooking fires and barrel hoops left behind by moonshiners to currently stashed supplies in five-gallon buckets. We went first along the main side canyon to look at caves then retraced our steps and turned up a spur canyon that took us to a cave that, according to reports recently had semi-permanent residents that the Forest Service had to remove.

It was easy to see why this cave is so popular. Just outside lies a deep pool of fresh water and just across the stream below the pool is located a smaller cave that we decided was the guest cottage. Dolly and I thought of George and decided to take a picture of the smaller cave for his benefit.

Dolly posing in mouth of small cave

We returned to the main trail and headed back to our cars at the trailhead. This trip to visit the caves added about 2.4 miles to our hike.

The total hike, according to my GPS after I downloaded and cleaned up the file, was 7.7 miles, and the elevation change (low point to high point) was around 1000 feet.

A GPS track of this hike is shown on the included map (below).