Boynton Canyon Trail, Sedona

Today was a day of exploration for me.  I had been to Sedona a couple of times and had run part of the beautiful trail into Boynton Canyon in Sedona, AZ.  This time, I was with my kids and staying at the Enchantment Resort right at the lead to this beautiful and unique place.  While the kids were in a morning camp, Camp Coyote, I indulged in my morning trail run.  I didn’t do my research, I just knew I had three hours to meander up and back as far as I could.  A true exploration through the tall red rocks.

The trail actually starts at a paid parking lot that is a lead out to a few other trails, but the resort had its own entrance at the rear of the property.   So I headed through the resort to the private gate and started the run.  The first .6 or .7 miles of the trail are mild to moderately technical and there is no real elevation gain.  Just rolling through some short pinons and Manzanita  over a red rock trail.  Where I got on the trail, it started as a very easy, dirt packed single track trail through a forest of Manzanita bushes.  Nothing steep or technical.  Which was nice, because for this one trail, the scenery shouldn’t be missed.  After just a half a mile or so the trail is almost completely shaded by tall pines and I was running on a bed of soft pine needles.   It was 9:30 and their wasn’t really a lot of traffic.  A mix of true grit locals and the posh resort hiker want-to-be.  At about 2 miles in, the trail changes and it gets a bit more technical and starts to gain some elevation.  My heart rate was starting to climb sky high and then it just ended.  The trail that is.  The End Of Trail sign was depressing.  Only about 2.5 miles in.  About 400 ft elevation.  Short but sweet!  The views are amazing from the small plateau you get spit out on.   And the bouldering around was fun.  But it is indeed a short run.  I headed back and decided to run past the resort entrance and run the trail start and made a diversion on the Vista Trail, which added another half mile each way and again had an incredible view.  This added another 200 ft of elevation.

I ended up running back to the resort and found a trail map.  The other trail leading out from the parking area was Deadman’s Pass.  I had opted out of it, but in the future it is another 2.2 mile out and back with no real elevation gain to add on.  This would be a great triple trail for a total of 10 miles…..Next time….

More research and I found a ton of trails to run here.  I will come back for sure.  Maybe for the leisure, stop and look, trail running vacation.  Which I usually have a hard time doing, but here it didn’t seem to matter.  Maybe it was the vortexes?  I don’t know.  I will say this.  Don’t run in white shoes in Sedona, AZ!