Lost Canyon from Mescal Trailhead

Thirteen Skyliners hiked from the Mescal Mountain Trailhead on Long Canyon Road to the Indian Ruins in Lost Canyon on 5 January 2013.

Ten hikers left from the Cottonwood Safeway parking lot and drove north on Hwy 89A to Dry Creek Road in Sedona, took Dry Creek Road to the stop sign, turned right on Long Canyon Road (FR 152B) and continued 0.3 miles to the Mescal Trailhead. We met three additional hikers from Sedona there. The parking area, located on the east side of the road, has space for fifteen to twenty cars. The Mescal Trailhead is on the west side of the road, and a connector trail leaves the parking area leading east to connect with Chuckwagon Trail. This connector trail that would take us to Chuckwagon Trail was unidentified except for a posted map (shown below).

Map sign posted at the parking lot at Mescal Trailhead

We donned our packs and headed down the well-trodden trail, coming to the intersection with Chuckwagon Trail after just 0.2 miles. We turned northeast on Chuckwagon, traveling generally parallel to Dry Creek Road (FR 152).

We had joined Chuckwagon at an elevation of around 4500 feet, but the trail rose gently up a slope and we were soon a hundred feet higher. We could now look over our shoulders to the Black Hills across Verde valley. The photograph below shows Mingus and Woodchute Mountains on the horizon. Woodchute is clearly visible in the gap between the Cockscomb formation and Doe Mountain. Mingus is partially obscured by Cockscomb

The Black Hills shown on the far horizon

Finding a sunny, open spot, we paused for a group photograph.

Left to right: Becky Fowsky, Lila Wright, Lloyd Gardner, Daisy Williams 

(front), Mary Gavan (rear), Kwi Johnson, the author (front), Colleen 

Maktenieks, Miriam Sterling, Dolly Yapp (front), Mike Sterling and Betty 

Wolters – photograph by the thirteenth hiker.

After about another mile we came to a junction with the trail to Devils Bridge. From the Devils Bridge junction it was another 1.2 miles to the junction of Chuckwagon Trail with the connector that would take us to the Brins Mesa Trailhead on Dry Creek Road (FR 152). This junction is identified by the sign shown below. Note the forms of hikers barely visible ahead among the Arizona Cypress trees.

Trail sign at the Brins Mesa Trail connector with Chuckwagon Trail

About 75 yards along the Brins Mesa Connector Trail we crossed an old, but still used, road that apparently leads to the Van Deren Cabin (built by homesteader Earl Van Deren and later used in Blood on the Moon, a film staring Robert Mitchum)¹. After following the connector trail for about 0.3 miles from its start at Chuckwagon, we found ourselves at FR 152. A sign directed us to the Brins Mesa Trailhead which is located on a loop off the main road. In the photograph below (next page) you can see this sign, alongside FR 152, and hikers continuing along the loop road that leads to the trailhead and then returns to the main road a short distance ahead.

FR 152 is to the left of this sign; hikers are shown on a short loop that 

leads to Brins Mesa Trailhead

The following map was posted at the Brins Mesa Trailhead.

Note Lost Canyon (In yellow, between between Brins Mesa and 

Devil Bridge Trails)

We followed Brins Mesa Trail for only about 65 yards before turning right onto an unmarked trail leading to the southeast. This trail would take us up the slope of the mountain ahead and to the ledge along which we would hike into Lost Canyon. The trail crossed a dry wash and then headed directly up the mountain, sloping uphill gently at first, but rapidly becoming steeper as we climbed almost 450 feet to reach the ledge. Near the top we came to what at first looked like an impossible climb.

A steep climb on a rocky trail The final barrier to our path into Lost Canyon

However, we found that, albeit with some effort,we could climb up a very steep section of the trail located just to the left of the cliff shown here.

The trail to the top lies to the left of this cliff face

When we finally reached the top of the ledge, we paused to look back the way we had come. The cairn in the below photograph marks where our trail topped out.

The cairn marks the trail at the top of the cliff

As shown in the following photograph, we had a great view of the layered red cliffs in the canyons across the valley below.

Red cliff walls of canyons across the valley

Closer in, we also had a birds-eye view of the Van Deren Cabin, the blue tin roof visible in the center of the below photograph. The golf course just beyond the cabin, apparently a part of the Seven Canyons Development, is labeled Sedona-Oak Creek Golf Course on most maps I have seen. Seven Canyons, once a private club is now open to the public for a greens fee ranging from $45 to $125.

Van Deren Cabin and golf course beyond

The rest of the hike was along a level ledge with a steep cliff to the left and a steep dropoff to the right. The path was very easy to follow, although we did find a few muddy spots caused by still-melting snow.

The Indian Ruins, the first of two we wanted to see, that were our goal for a lunch spot soon came into view in a long overhang (some might say cave) high on the cliff wall to our left.

Cliff overhang containing Indian ruins

Below is a close-up view of the ruins in the cliff walls.

Remains of Indian dwelling in cliff wall

Part of the group clambered 150 feet up the steep slope to eat lunch at the ruins while the rest ate lunch on the ledge below.

It was just a short distance on up the trail from where the hikers below were eating lunch to an overlook above the second ruins, located deep in the canyon under an overhang on the opposite wall, and they continued along to see them. Meanwhile, those of us who had climbed to the first ruins, finished lunch and proceeded carefully along the face of the cliff to descend at the overlook. These ruins are located where the sun seldom, if ever, reaches, and we conjectured that they were used for a storeroom rather than living quarters.

Well-preserved ruins located under a shaded overhang in Lost Canyon

This marked the end of our hike, so we turned and headed back. We made good time along the ledge, made our way slowly and carefully back down the steep slope of the mountain, and were soon back on the Brins Mesa Trail.

When we reached the junction of the Brins Mesa Connector with Chuckwagon Trail, we decided to take the other loop of that trail, a section of trail that until recently was apparently called Gunslinger Trail, back to Long Canyon Road; it came out about four-tenths of a mile from where we had started the hike. We then hiked along Long Canyon road to the Mescal Trailhead parking lot where we had parked. That is some of us did; the others, considering that entirely too easy, followed a wash alongside the road instead.

According to my GPS our total in-and-out hiking distance was 7.0 miles, the maximum elevation was 5149 feet and the total ascent was 1598 feet.

The GPS track, cleaned up to remove some of the extraneous signals, is shown on the included map (below). The track from the Mescal Trailhead on Long Canyon Road to the overlook above the ruins located in the lower canyon is shown in red, the detour some of us made to eat at the ruins on the upper canyon wall and then on to the overlook above the ruins in the lower canyon is shown in green, and the section of Chuckwagon Trail we used for the return trip (the part that was previously called Gunslinger Trail) is shown in blue.

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