Hi. I am planning on hiking echo canyon trail in November with my wife and 33 year old daughters. I've heard about hiring a guide for this. Is a guide a good idea? We are not expert hikers by any means. Any input is greatly appreciated!!! TIA
Echo Canyon is a pretty well-traveled trail; the trail (for the most part) is pretty clear and you'll see people most of the way up/down as it is a busier trail. There are some parts where a guide might help, but that will probably depend on your comfort level as a hiker. If a guide would make you guys feel more comfortable with the hike, then I'd say go for it!
Unless you are a very experienced hiker, I would suggest staying away during the summer months. People underestimate the difficulty during the heat of the summer, and people die on it annually as a result. If you do go, I would suggest a very early start with much more water than you think. When I hiked this during summer, I would start the trail around 5-5:30AM and would have at least 3 liters of water. I was in very good shape when doing this and would go through the entire 3 liters of water easily during summer.
Wow I never heard about this peak. I did San Francisco Twin Peaks. Hollywood hills in LA. Never heard about this. Gonna have to visit, definitely underrated.
If you're in good shape, I'd guess it'll take between 45 and 90 minutes depending on your pace. In my best shape I was able to get to the top in about 35-40 minutes
That is the most rigorous route of the four I know of. My favorite is to park at the North Mountain visitors center and start from there. A nice warm up through the valley, the a left turn up the draw between the two smaller hills. Go right at the top of the draw and circle the back side of one hill until you meet up with me asphalt path. Follow the path to the comm tower pad and veer left to get to the top. Near one side of the fence I used to place a rock that I would carry up each trip. Had quite a pile by the time we moved away. After hitting the too and enjoying the view, we'd head down, find a place in the shade and drink our slushy Gatorades that I toted in my backpack along with our extra water. The Gatorade gave us renewed energy for the hike back to the car. Loved that place. If we had time, we would sometimes opt for Shaw Butte. We enjoyed taking our Bluetooth speaker and dancing on the Cloud Nine ruins. How many people can say that they danced with their wife on cloud nine? Can't wait to get back again.
The whole loop is really fun to do. When you're in the valley between Shaw and North Mountain you can't really tell that you're in the middle of a huge metropolitan area
Just a heads up. This vid is sunset trail plus hunter. Sunset trail ends and connects to hunter right after the first set of cables in vid. The stats that are posted in the begining of vid, 5.4 miles and 1607 ft is only sunset trail. Not the full trail to preak.
It's in an odd spot in terms of Google Maps. The trail can be found on AllTrails here: www.alltrails.com/trail/us/arizona/yavapai-point-trail--2 Directions from the AllTrails website - "Take AZ74 Carefree Highway and go north on Castle Hot Springs Rd. Go past the main entrance of Lake Pleasant Regional Park and take the North Entrance Station into the park. Once through the station go to Cottonwood Day Use area where there is parking and trailhead for the Pipleline Canyon, Yavapai Point Trail, and Cottonwood Trail. Clean bathroom here also"
I hiked this trail for years, back in the 90's. Out of shape and living in Minnesota - I start my treadmill, run this video at half speed, and take a trip back in time, while I hike the peak, 1800 miles away. Thank you for making this available to us.
Thank you for the info! I made the videos for people who wanted to revisit the hikes, and also for people who had never hiked the trails and were curious what it would look like :)
Iirc, the hike should take about 30m to get to the top. So I'd plan on maybe an hour round trip if youre in decent shape. Plenty of views once you do a bit of scrambling, definitely one of the best trails in Sedona.
I love ur videos! They are exactly what a beginner hiker is looking for. Your videos show the whole trail and what it all entails, to see if I can handle it or not.
Thank you! That was my goal when making these videos, hopefully to encourage people to get out - but also to provide a realistic look at what the hike is like
Thanks for posting! I appreciate how informative and straightforward this trail video was. Looks like the crowd factor was low. Did you hike it in late November?
Wow that place is so beautiful. Every time I see a video it makes me want to pack my stuff and go out that way. Hopefully I can head out that way sometime this year and get some footage for my channel. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thanks, this is probably my favorite hike based on the effort in Sedona. If you have the time and ability, I highly recommend hiking Bear Mountain though. It's a heck of a hike, but the views are well worth it!
We did the trail from the other side. Pretty challenging for a couple of 60 year olds, but we made it. There are a few spots where we thought "jeez, this is a bit more dangerous than we anticipated "! Lol. Hope to do it again soon.
It's such a iconic Phoenix hike, you really can't go wrong with either approach. Echo Canyon is my preferred way up, although it feels quite a bit more strenuous.
