Thomas Point-Telephone Trails Loop - Scouting Hike

Five hikers (Dolly Yapp, Gordon Bice, Ellis Price, George Everman and one other hiker) gathered at the Safeway parking lot in Cottonwood at 0700 on 23 July 2011 to do a scouting hike on Thomas Point #142 and Telephone #72 Trails. Our plan was to hike up the east rim of Oak Creek Canyon on Thomas Point Trail, find our way north along the rim to the top of Telephone Trail and take Telephone back down into the canyon. This would bring us back to Hwy 89A at the bottom of Oak Creek Canyon about 0.7 miles north of our starting point.

We drove through Sedona on Hwy 89A and started looking for the Thomas Point Trailhead. We knew that it should be between mile markers 384 and 385. However we missed it on the way up and had to turn around and drive back down. It is much more noticeable on the way down and we found it pretty easily. We then parked on the east side of the road between the two trailheads (Thomas Point and Telephone) and began our hike up Thomas Point Trail.

At Trailhead - Left to right: Dolly Yapp, George Everman and Gordon Bice.

Thomas Point Trail zigzags steeply up the wall of Oak Creek Canyon leading in a southerly direction for about the first half-mile. It then rounds a shoulder and heads up the north wall of Surveyor Canyon in an easterly direction, topping out on the rim after about another half-mile. The elevation change for the first mile from the start of the trail is about 900 feet. All along the way we had grand views down into and across Oak Creek Canyon.

Looking down Oak Creek Canyon from Thomas Point Trail near the rim 

When we topped out on the rim we noted a large pile of rocks (right), almost as though someone had started to build a rock fence alongside the trail. The picture shown here was taken looking back after we passed the rock structure. Thomas Point Trail (not readily discernible here) tops the rim just to the left of the rocks and leads directly toward the photographer.

From this point, the trail is very faint, marked primarily by an opening in the trees leading off to the east such as might have been left from an old roadway. We were in any case obviously at the end of Thomas Point Trail proper and were just looking for an old road (FR 9498), which we planned to follow for a short distance before turning north to connect with Telephone Trail for the descent back into Oak Creek Canyon

Thomas Point Trail at the rim. A trail of sorts leads on through the pines 

and intersects with FR 9498 near Thomas Point Tank.

We found the best way to reach Telephone Trail at the rim was to walk through the trees from the rock wall marker in an easterly direction to reach an old road that (when we hiked it) showed signs of recent travel by wheeled vehicles. We followed this road (FR 9498, though not signed as such) for something like a mile, first going generally southeast, then turning northeast and finally east before leaving FR 9498 to turn north to go around the head of a wash on a very faint old roadway. After about a hundred yards, this old road bears to the left, heading in a northwesterly direction to connect with Telephone Trail at the rim about a mile ahead. As when we first topped the rim, the trail was marked by an opening in the trees showing where an old road must have run.

We missed the turnoff from FR 9498 at first and arrived at Telephone Trail by a longer route. Realizing we had gone wrong, I decided to return closer along the rim to Thomas Point Trail so as to provide a GPS track for a more direct route between the two trailheads. George, having already hiked the Telephone Trail anyway, agreed to go back with me. Leaving the rest of the party to descend by Telephone, and heading back south along the rim, we found the return trip to Thomas Point Trail be just a pleasant stroll. We then descended back into Oak Creek Canyon.

By the time George and I had returned to Hwy 89A and hiked the half-mile up the road to where we were parked, the others had returned and and been waiting for around 45 minutes.

The hiking distance for the entire loop (starting and ending at where we parked between the trailheads on Hwy 89A) is 4.6 miles. The maximum elevation was 6428 feet and the total ascent was 1178 feet.

The included map (below) shows the suggested route for this hike. Along the rim, it includes the path George and I followed on the way back.