Cockscomb and Doe Mountain

Eleven hikers from Cottonwood met at the Safeway parking lot and traveled north to Sedona on Hwy 89A.  We turned left onto Dry Creek Road (Forest Road 152C).  About 2 miles from Hwy 89A we passed Vultee Arch Road, a very rough dirt road leading off to the right.  After about another 0.85 miles (2.85 miles from Hwy 89A) we reached a stop sign.  Long Canyon Road leads to the right from here.  We turned left on Boynton Pass Road.  Actually, according to the Google map, we had been on Boynton Pass Road since passing Vultee Arch Road.  We traveled for another 0.6 miles to reach a second stop sign at the junction with Long Canyon road.  We turned left to continue on Boynton Pass Road for about another 1.25 miles before turning left into the trailhead parking lot for Doe Mountain and Bear Mountain Trails.  We were met at the parking lot by four additional hikers from the Sedona/Oak Creek area.

Donning our gear we left the parking lot on Doe Mountain Trail.  Our intent was to hike Cockscomb first, but the map indicated that we would intersect with Aerie Trail a short distance from the parking lot and that we could follow it to Cockscomb.  The intersection with Aerie turned out to be about 165 yards from the parking lot. The sign (left) indicates that one would go straight ahead to continue on Doe Mountain Trail.

We turned right (southwest) and were on Aerie, which crosses Doe at this point, and followed it toward Cockscomb.

Hiking toward Cockscomb

Aerie Trail, apparently named after a relatively new upscale housing project that lies between Cockscomb and Doe Mountain, is a new trail that seems to circumnavigate Doe Mountain.  I am not sure but I think that we remained on Aerie until we turned off to follow a less distinct, but still well traveled, trail directly up the slope to Cockscomb.  That turnoff was 1.7 miles from where we entered Aerie near the parking lot and after we had crossed Aerie Road (a paved road leading to the Aerie housing project).  The trail we turned onto had a few dead branches placed across it as though to indicate that it was the wrong way, but it worked just fine for us.  Perhaps there is a better way up the slope further along.  However, on the way back we met two hikers coming from the other direction along the main (Aerie?) trail and they asked us where the turnoff to Cockscomb was.  In any case, we proceeded up the mountain, soon arriving at the base of a seemingly unassailable cliff near the top of the formation.  However, not ready to give up yet, we followed along the base, heading southeast.  Along the way we noted some unusual lichen, a beautiful gold in color, on the face of the cliff (see photograph below).

Golden lichen on the cliff face

Continuing on past the lichen we found, at last, a way to the top.  It is little more than a crack in the wall of the cliff, offset from a frontal approach and not visible to the casual observer.  Kwi is shown entering the crack in the photograph (right). The climb up the crack is really less difficult than it looks.  It is wide enough to pass through easily and has good footing all the way.

We did have one more obstacle to overcome before we reached our goal, a final ten-foot high rock wall (left).  However, someone had helpfully built a rock ladder and we were soon on top, free to explore the admittedly limited area on top of Cockscomb.  We wandered around on the ridge that forms the “cockscomb” and viewed scenery spread out all around us.  We could look back north to Bear Mountain, to Scheurman Mountain looming above Red Rock High School southeast of us, and past Rosie’s Volcano and Windmill Mountain and on across Verde Valley to the Black Hills outlined by Mingus and Woodchute Mountains to the southwest.

Looking across the last hump in the “Cockscomb” – Rosie’s Volcano 

(center, left), Windmill Mountain (center) and Mingus and Woodchute

Mountains (on the horizon)

We paused on top for a snack and a group photograph.

Left to right: George Everman, Miriam Sterling, Jo Benkendorf, Lila Wright, 

Becky Fowsky, Anita Jackson, Dolly Yapp, Akemi Tomioka (front) Colleen 

Maktenieks, Daisy Williams, Kwi Johnson (front), Mary Gavan, 

Jim Manning and the author (front)

Following our snack break we all slowly made our way back to the North end of the Cockscomb formation.  From there we could look across the saddle containing the Aerie housing development to Doe Mountain.

View of Doe Mountain from the top of Cockscomb with Bear Mountain 

looming in the distance

With our next goal in view we really didn’t want to follow the trail all the way around Doe Mountain to ascend by the normal route on the north side.  George had climbed up from the south side of the mountain once before, but he didn’t remember the exact route that he took.  However, on examining the view of Doe from across the saddle (shown in the above photograph) it was evident that only one possible route existed.  We would have to skirt along the fence enclosing the development to reach a wooded area (center of the photograph shown above) and follow it to the top.

We returned to the main trail at the foot of Cockscomb and hiked on it for about 0.15 miles back the way we had come before leaving it by continuing straight ahead where the trail made a left turn.  We found ourselves on a less traveled, but still very distinct, trail until we neared the foot of the Doe Mountain.  Just at the end of the private fence we passed through an older, now unused, fence and continued up the mountain; the trail was now less obvious and we had to take care to stay on it.  The climb, itself, was no more strenuous than our climb to Cockscomb had been and we were all pleased that we had avoided the long hike around the mountain to ascend from the north.

When we arrived on top of Doe, we stopped for lunch and I managed to work in my normal noontime nap.

After lunch we hiked counterclockwise around the rim until we reached the point where Doe Mountain Trail descends to the parking lot.  The hike distance 4.8 miles according to my GPS track; the highest elevation was 5074 feet and the total ascent was 1071 feet. The track to Cockscomb was 2.6 miles and the return trip across Doe Mountain was 2.2 miles.

The included map (below) shows the hike to Doe Mountain and the Cockscomb.  The trip to Cockscomb is shown in yellow and the return across Doe Mountain is in blue.