Arizona - Sedona - Hot Loop (upper part)

A trail with some of the best views.

The Schnebly hill road will take you in about 25 minutes to the upper Munds wagon trailhead parking. This rough road is for high clearance vehicles only, a regular SUV should be fine.

Take the Schnebly hill trail, hike downhill along the road and you find the trailhead on the left side of the road.
Follow this trail in about 45 minutes (one way) to the Hot loop trailhead.

At the first tank, that you will reach almost immediately, turn right and hike along the fence.
From this point on, the trail is well marked.

The trail goes gradually downhill but stays almost level, until you reach the second metal Hotloop sign. This is another traihead that maybe accessible by car.

At this point the trail starts descending, more and more.
The trail condition is a bit lower than usual, but not too bad.
Some gravel at the beginning, making the hike a bit slippery going down.

Below you see the beautiful Woods canyon. The Woods canyon, is at this point, a lot more scenic than on the Woods canyon trail.

Next are plenty of slick / pancake rock the more yellow kind, that reminded me of Bear Mountain.

The stop is where we stopped on the lower part of the Hotloop.
Around the closest point to the Woods Canyon.

This is one of my favorite hikes, but it's rather long.

A warning: This is NOT a loop. It's a long one way hike and not suitable for warm days.
Don't overestimate your hiking capabilities, this is a long long hike.
The hike is fully exposed to the sun.
You may not meet other hikers on this trail.

The Schnebly hill road me be seasonally closed, it was opened April 23 in 2010.
In April 2009 it was open all month.

The closing point was the merry go round gate, that's a 15 minutes hike from the Schnebly hill trailhead.

Hiking time: 5 Hour 30 Minutes. (return) From the Hotloop trailhead to stop = halfway the Hotloop trail.
7 Hour 10 Minutes. (return) From the Schnebly Hill trailhead / road to stop.