Spring is a great time of year to visit the dramatic mesas and canyons of the Sedona area. Fay Canyon is a beautiful red rock canyon that extends to the southeast from the summit of Bear Mountain. Typical of much of this region, there are both prehistoric ruins and a natural arch within easy reach of the main trail. 

The Fay Canyon trail is an easy hike with great views of redrock country. Courtesy photo/Ron Smith

Travel to Sedona via Hwy. 89A, across the Mingus summit. It takes about 1.5 hours. You could also get there from Prescott by way of Hwy. 169, I-17, and Hwy. 179. As you come from the west or east into the business center of West Sedona, turn north at the traffic signal at Dry Creek Rd. At 2.0 miles Dry Creek Road (FR 152) leaves the pavement and goes north. However, stay left on the paved road for another 2.9 miles to a stop sign. This is the junction of the Boynton Pass Road and Long Canyon Road. Turn left onto the Boynton Pass Road and go for another 1.7 miles to the junction of the road access to Boynton Canyon. Stay left here and go for another 0.5 on the dirt road to the Fay Canyon parking area on the right of the road.

The trail up Fay Canyon is wide, gentle and has a smooth tread. You'll get an eyeful of spectacular landscapes for the meager effort required for this 2.4-mile roundtrip trail. Massive cliffs of red sandstone and shales border the trail on both north and south. Coconino sandstone, perhaps the most pervasive geologic formation in this entire region, forms a buff-colored cap rock. As you continue up the trail watch for some small rock cairns on the right of the trail at about the half-mile point. Rock cairns sometimes get scattered, so watch on the right for a short spur trail that goes to Fay Arch. This side trail is rocky and a steep scramble, but the reward is a view of Fay Arch and the panorama of red rock cliffs in every direction. Low walled ruins lie just below the arch in a shallow cave.

Click map to enlarge.

After returning to the main trail, continue on for another half mile to where the passable trail ends at a sandstone fin. I went no farther except to climb up the slippery slope of the fin to gain a photographic view of the entire canyon. You can also venture up the canyon to the left of this fin and explore more caves and fragmentary ruins.

Here’s a website that will give you someone else’s spin on this beautiful area: www.greatsedonahikes.com/faycanyon/faycanyon.html. Also check out www.redrockcountry.org/passes-and-permits/index.shtml to learn more about the Red Rock Pass Program. You must display either a purchased $5 daily use pass or one of the various “Passports” such as the Golden Age Passport. There are machines at many locations throughout the Forest that dispense these passes, including one at the trailhead for Boynton Canyon located only a half-mile north of the Fay Canyon trailhead.

(Ron is the author of A Guide to Prescott and Central Highlands Trails, available at local book and outdoors gear stores.)