Robbers Roost with Diana

Having hiked 15 miles and climbed over 3200 feet on Mingus just two days before, Diana and I had decided to do something less-strenuous on Wednesday, our next scheduled hike for her week-long visit to Arizona. Diana wanted to do a hike in Red Rock Country and I wanted to test my gear for a scheduled overnight campout to visit Crack-in-Rock Pueblo this coming weekend.

After some discussion we decided that Robbers Roost met our requirements. We slept late and then dawdled around the house for awhile, finally leaving for Robbers Roost at about 1000 on 11 October 2012. We left Cottonwood traveling north on Hwy 89A, turned left onto Forest Road 525 at the Sedona Water Treatment facility (just past mile marker 364) and followed FR 525 for two and eight-tenths miles before turning left onto FR 525C. On FR 525C (Sycamore Pass Road) we drove seven miles before turning right onto FR 9530, a very rough road, suitable only for four-wheel drive vehicles. We drove up the mountain on it for about 1.2 miles and parked across a wash from Robbers Roost, located about half a mile to the east. The road itself continues on up the mountain, once providing access to the now- abandoned quarries located there.

Diana said the short stretch of FR 9530 to the parking lot was so rough that her pedometer thought she was hiking and gave her several hundred steps for the trip. I suppose one could drive the road in any high-clearance vehicle; however, I was thankful for 4-wheel drive. There were no other vehicles in the parking area when we arrived, and we were grateful for the solitude.

The unmarked trail leaves the parking lot, descends sharply for a short distance to a wash, climbs out the other side, climbs at a moderate slope out the other side and then climbs sharply to the top of the red butte which contains Robbers Roost Cave. To access the cave proper, one turns to the east (actually more southeast) on a fainter, but still well-trod side trail just a few yards short of the rim of the butte.

The author on the side trail leading to the cave – photograph by Diana Price

After a few yards the trail ends abruptly at a sharply-slanting cliff face, along which one must travel to reach the cave, perhaps 100 yards ahead.

Cave seen across the slanting cliff face – photograph by Diana Price

A closer view of the cave – photograph by Diana Price

From inside the cave we had a clear view across Loy Butte and on into the Red Rock-Secret Mountain Wilderness.

Looking northeast to Loy Butte and beyond – photograph by Diana Price

Looking to the southeast through the round, porthole-like window in the cave wall (visible on previous page) we could see the Cockscomb, Bell Rock, Courthouse and Cathedral formations (photograph by the author at right).

While we were still in the cave, a bare-chested young man with long black hair, arrived with a guitar and what appeared to be a prayer rug. Seemingly under the influence of something, he mumbled something about it being, contrary to what he had been told, around four miles from where he his hike. We gathered that he had come across country from the Indian Ruins at Loy Butte which, as he put it, were “locked up by the United States of ...,” followed by some indistinguishable muttering. The muttering included the word “wasp,” but I did not feel that it was meant as “WASP” or in any pejorative manner at all. He declined to have his picture taken and, when he started to to unroll his prayer rug, we left him to his meditations, continued along the now even more steeply slanting cliff face until we found a suitable spot and climbed on up to the top of the butte.

The highest point on the butte is located at the southwest corner, and that is where we planned to eat lunch. However, when we arrived, another couple were busy taking pictures at that spot, so we sat down and waited for a few minutes until they left. They apparently dropped down to visit the cave afterward as the man later remarked to Diana that he had listened to the young man in the cave playing his guitar and that it was “magical and awesome.”

Of course, pictures are obligatory for an excursion such as this one, so Diana and I took photographs of one another. Diana is shown standing on top of Robbers Roost Butte with the Red Rock-Secret Mountain Wilderness in the background. The author is shown sitting on top of the butte with Black Mountain as a background.

Diana atop Robbers Roost Butte - Secret Mountain Wilderness is seen in 

the background background

The author atop Robbers Roost Butte - Black Mountain is seen in 

the background background

When we arrived back at our truck, there were now two other vehicles in the parking area: a pickup, driven by the couple we had seen on top of the butte, and a quad ATV driven by another couple. We all left at essentially the same time. Including the mystical (or, perhaps, just stoned) guitarist, there were at least seven visitors to Robbers Roost during a two-hour period on this middle-of-the week October day.

The hike was only 0.8 miles round trip and the elevation gain was a little less than 200 feet.

Our GPS track is shown in red on the following map (below); the green track shows FR 9530 from FR 525C to the parking area at Robbers Roost.