Girdner-Rupp-Cockscomb-Dawa-AZ Cypress

Fourteen strong, we left the Cottonwood Safeway parking lot at 0800 on Saturday, 10 December 2011 to hike on Girdner and other connecting trails near Sedona. We drove to Sedona on Hwy 89A, turned left onto Cultural Park Place just across Hwy 89A from Red Rock High School and drove about 0.2 miles to the parking lot. Girdner trailhead is located near the Ramada in the parking area.

Following Girdner Trail we headed down the slope of a wash and then followed along the bank high above the wash until it reached Dry Creek about a mile from the trailhead. We stopped along the way for a group photograph with the red rocks for a background:

Left to right: Jim Manning, Bob McDonald (Donna’s Cousin), Lila Wright, 

Dolly Yapp (front), Jan Tomko (rear), Marvin Alt, Daisy Williams, 

Mary Gavan (rear), Becky Fowsky, Kwi Johnson, David Nelson, 

Collene Maktenieks, Donna Goodman – photograph by the author

On reaching Dry Creek we continued on Girdner Trail heading upstream until we came to Rupp Trail, which is 2.8 miles along Girdner from the trailhead. Leaving Girdner for now, we made a sharp left turn onto Rupp and followed it for 0.9 miles until it ended at Cockscomb Trail. We turned right on Cockscomb and followed it for 0.9 miles to the intersection with Dawa Trail, stopping just a short distance short of Dawa to eat lunch on a nice sunny slope. At the Cockscomb/Dawa intersection, we turned right onto Dawa and followed it for 0.6 miles to its end at AZ Cypress Trail, stopping along the way to take another photograph; someone insisted on taking another so as to include the photographer who took the group photograph near the Girdner Trailhead.

The author checking his GPS with other hikers in the background 

– photograph by Lila using the author's camera

When Dawa ended, we turned right onto AZ Cypress and followed it for 0.6 miles until it ended at Girdner Trail just 0.6 miles further upstream along Dry Creek than the intersection where we had turned off onto Rupp Trail.

Note: AZ Cypress crosses Dry Creek twice between the intersection with Dawa and Girdner. Just after we crossed for the second time, about 0.2 miles downstream from the Dawa/AZ Cypress intersection, Lila and several of the group broke off to follow an unmarked trail leading downstream parallel to Dry Creek. The rest of the party following the trail on the GPS map continued on AZ Cypress until it ended at Girdner. The trail that Lila and her group were on was shorter and also ended at Girdner. We found them waiting at the Rupp/Girdner intersection.

When the main party reached Girdner Trail, we headed downstream and arrived at the Girdner/Rupp intersection just 0.6 miles from the AZ Cypress/Girdner intersection. From there we repeated the 2.8 miles back along Girdner to the parking lot.

For clarity on the included map (below), I have color-coded the different trails we hiked on. Girdner is cyan, Rupp is green, Cockscomb is yellow, Dawa is blue and AZ Cypress is magenta.

Our total hiking distance was 9.5 miles; the highest elevation was 4597 feet and the total ascent was a bit more than 1000 feet. The trail was good all the way and there was not very much climbing. The most strenuous section was the mile between Dry Creek and the parking lot, especially climbing back on our return. I would call this hike moderately difficult.