See options All photos (629) Top ways to experience Boynton Canyon Trail Recommended I hope you find the cave and enjoy your adventure. What can you do to take the stress out of parking? Want to visit Fay Canyon? Hi Samantha, glad to hear you're heading to Sedona! Hideout Cave Hike Robbers Roost Trail to Hideout Cave in the far northwest of Sedona for the quietest and most secluded cave in town. We used the buddy system and went one after another, lending a hand and passing the pack up and down. Thanks for sharing the map! There are two places you can park for hiking Robbers Roost Trail to Hideout Cave. If you dont have either, buy a 1 day or 7 day pass at the ticket machine or online at recreation.gov. The bonus of an early start for best light is that you will arrive to the Boynton Canyon parking lot around first light which means you should get parked without issue. If you enter it into Google Maps it will take you right to it. You will meander along the wash for three-quarters of a mile or so and you will know when to start going up to the cave as you will see it to your right when the time comes. Keep following the curving dry river bed for about 0.75 miles as it snakes north toward Keyhole Cave. How to get around Sedona is small but youll need a car to access the best hikes to the north and south of town. Not only will you have to forge your own path through wilderness, but you must also climb into Keyhole Cave using hands, feet and core strength. There are no marked trails leading to the cave and there are several lightly beaten paths you can choose between. Given. Want to visit Birthing Cave? If you want to get to the hard to reach places, you should hire a jeep.When to visit Spring and Fall are the best seasons to visit Sedona, but they come with a higher price tag and more crowds. In addition, thorns and cacti can cause problems and the trail is not marked. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you cant get into the most convenient lot, where will you park? During the busiest periods in Sedona from Spring through Fall you need to be at parking lots by first light to give yourself a chance at getting a space. Karabou Adventure + Travel is a participant of the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Hola! The pass can be purchased at the machine at the trailhead (credit card only). Set your Google Maps or Apple Maps to "West Fork Oak Creek Trailhead" or "Call of the Canyon Picnic Site". Sedona's Keyhole Cave is located right in the heart of Sedona. Arriving early to trailheads is essential for the best chance of getting parked. Unless you strike it lucky with timing of a drop off, you probably won't be able to take one. Avoid going too early in the morning or early evening as the light will be away and the hike may be extra dangerous with little sunlight. This is where you are headed! This cave is 1 of 5 amazing caves within the Sedona Wilderness Ive hiked to. Take your time, watch your steps and you will arrive safely at the base of the cave. Keyhole Cave Park at Sugar Loaf / Teacup Trailhead which has 14 spaces. Looking for hiking inspiration? The cave is southwest facing, which means the gaping hole entrance will flood with more light in the afternoon. Use this guide to familiarize yourself with the exact locations and hiking trails for each cave you want to visit during your time in Sedona. Keyhole Cave is accessed via Teacup Trail to begin but you will spend three quarters of this hike on unmaintained land with rough vegetation and no clear path. I would strongly recommend you wear fully covered clothing like pants because theres a good chance you may have this problem too, not to mention that there are animals like snakes in the area and just wearing more protective clothing is safer in general here. PARKING PASS: Required for parking at the trailhead. If you want to explore some of the Caves in Sedona, you may know about Keyhole Cave Sedona as being one of the most challenging ones to hike. Thank you for supporting the free content we provide! Keyhole Cave is a southwest facing cave located in Coconino National Forest to the north of downtown Sedona. Winter is a fantastic time to avoid both.Where to stay in Accommodation is expensive in Sedona, but there are plenty of very high quality places to stay including Matterhorn Inn, Lantern Light Inn, Arabella Hotel, Whispering Creek B&B and The Suites at Sedona.Popular things to do Sedona is one of the best places to hike in the US. There wasnt a lot of information online that I could find, and trying to follow others vague directions proved to be ineffective. Dont try to cross this ledge in icy or overly wet conditions. The cave is accessed via significant off-trail hiking, which means forging a path through rugged desert wilderness. Read our complete guide to hiking Robbers Roost Trail into Hideout Cave for in depth details and directions for how to access the cave. Now there are 2 ways to navigate your way to this: 1) The first way is visual: Again, you will be able to see the cave from the parking lot and you can see the direction in which its at and keep heading in it. We highly recommend adding this fun off-trail hike to your Sedona itinerary. Want to visit Keyhole Cave? You could even use our images during your hike to keep track of where you are along the adventure to Keyhole Cave. We're Mark and Kristen Morgan, former career scientists turned travel, hiking and photography experts after an 18 month honeymoon around the world forever changed our lives. Generally considered a challenging route. 5 of the best Sedona Caves and how to find them, Hiking for Beginners 101- The Best Guide for New Hikers, Visit these 4 Sedona Wineries all in one day, Keyhole Cave in Sedona and EXACTLY how to get there. At the bottom turn right and you will find the first cave. Many paths criss-cross over undulating hills and through rough vegetation. You can get amazing photos from the bottom of the cave too. That is exactly what happened to us during our visit to Sedona. As you reach closer, along the way, you can see the gaping mouth of the cave in the distance. Kachina Cave is a tall teardrop shaped cave located atop a steep and unmarked spur trail around one third of the way up the Boynton Canyon hike in Sedona. Trail Length: 2 miles out and back Trailhead Location: Long Canyon Trailhead Exact GPS Location for Birthing Cave: 3454'46.9N 11150'10.0W ; Hiking Time: 2 hours total Permits: None.Note: Any trailhead with toilets requires a Red Rock Pass ($5-day use fee). Youll take Teacup Trail which starts right at the trailhead. If you plan to hike more trails around Sedona over a period of 2 7 days, you should buy the 7 day pass because you will need it at many other trailheads in the area. After the climb, you will land on a ledge, from where you will be in the cave. Teacup Trail to Coffeepot Rock. Once you are at the entrance, you can see how gigantic Keyhole Cave is and mystic. We are kicking things off with the popular instagrammers favorite Sedona Subway Cave! If you only plan to hike to caves in Sedona and no other trails, you will need to display a pass for the following caves: You can buy a Red Rock Pass at this specific recreation.gov site in advance, or you can buy one from a ticket machine in select parking lots. This lot is also known as Teacup Trailhead and is located in a residential area on Buena Vista Drive in north Sedona. Subway Cave is east facing which means you should try to access the cave as early in the day as possible for best light. Sugarloaf Mountain looms tall to your right side as you walk through desert vegetation and junipers. Heres the list of places around Sedona you will need to display either a Red Rock Pass or America the Beautiful Pass in order to hike. If you click on one, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Getting into the Sedona Keyhole cave is difficult. Overall, Birthing Cave is suitable for all hikers with a good level of fitness. There is a way to climb out of the upper back cave portion to stand on top of the red rock formation containing the cave. The view out of Keyhole Cave is spectacular and you can get far enough back inside the formation to easily frame the background through the cave entrance. Are you a regular visitor to US National Parks and Monuments? This popular hiking trail heads about three miles into a deep box canyon and includes ancient Sinaguan Indian ruins along the way. But that said, you can also take the trail in the north which goes to the cave. 1. A great recommendation is the bring a good rope to help everyone up and especially down. Posted on Last updated: December 18, 2022. View full map. Winter and Summer are comparatively quieter periods in Sedona but they are still overcrowded. You'll probably see a good amount of hikers here as there are a lot of popular routes in the area. You can of course follow misc small trails North going at the cave and at some point you will get to it. Boynton Canyon Exactly how to find the famous Subway Cave on Boynton Canyon Trail, the most photographed cave in Sedona. Also, be on the lookout for rattlesnakes! If you want to get to the hard to reach places, you should hire a jeep.When to visit Spring and Fall are the best seasons to visit Sedona. For the best light conditions, plan to be here in the late morning or noon to get splendid pictures. As I adventure around the Southwest I aim to inspire you to get outdoors while sharing knowledge and skills to do so safely! The cave features one large east facing oval window and one much smaller south facing circular window known as Robbers Roost. We hiked part of the route inside the wash but most of it by going more direct to save time. Keyhole Cave is one of only a few caves that are actually geotagged on Google. You can of course split it up and take one of the many small trails back from the cave if you want more of an adventure and to not use the same wash trail you use to get there. Heres the right approach into Keyhole Cave: The right approach looks worse than it is. Hideout Cave is one of the caves that looks more attractive with light. Hiking Sugarloaf Mountain via Teacup Trail. All other caves are located in the most popular hiking areas of Sedona and remain busy year round. Learn more here. If the lot is full you can try waiting a for a little to see if anyone leaves. Read our guide on why America the Beautiful national parks pass is one of the best things you can buy if you plan to visit multiple parks in the next year. You will begin your hike in Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness before passing into Coconino National Forest. Your email address will not be published. Eventually you will find that the wash narrows a bit and becomes filled with fallen trees and rocks to climb over. Keyhole Cave is stunning, but its one of many others which I will one day do a post on, but in the meantime, heres a few other hikes, including cave hikes you can try: I have more posts on Sedona which you can find by simply using the search on my site, but just know that if youre not feeling the hike to Keyhole Cave after what you saw here, dont do it as there are so many other cool and safer hikes to try out in Sedona. Youll have to duck to move around the cave network but you can shoot some interesting photos here. You use the Sugarloaf Trailhead, which starts with the Teacup Trail, it is located in a little neighborhood just 15 minutes from downtown. Keyhole Cave is in Sedona Arizona, specifically 1.1 miles north from Sugar Loaf trailhead. Remember and follow the 7 principles of leave no trace when hiking to caves in Sedona: From our own experience in Sedona, we found people were not always disposing of waste correctly, but perhaps more surprisingly we noticed people were not planning ahead before hiking. April, May, September and October are peak tourist months in Sedona. You just never know when youll lose your footing on these desert rocks. It is located along the popular Boynton Canyon Trail but 99% of hikers on this path are headed to Subway Cave and probably dont even know Kachina Cave exists. It is best to get down on the right side, the same way you went up. Now this is again where I have to warn you about the dangers: I do not recommend climbing in this part of the hike. From there is where it gets harder. I will check it out. Read more in ourdisclosure policy.*. One of the most dynamic trails to be added to the Sedona Hiking Trail System in years. Which cave or caves should you visit if you only have a one day Sedona itinerary? All the stops we make are close to the Interstate. The turnoff is about 2 miles into the trail. Check out Hiking for Beginners 101- The Best Guide for New Hikers to get started! document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Hi! Aim to be inside Soldier Pass Cave between 1pm and 5pm for the best light. It is best not to go all the way into the cave if you have a fear of heights. It was still difficult due to the sand and slippery rock, though. This site uses cookies to offer you a better browsing experience. It is important to know the Sedona trails you are hiking so you can safely navigate to caves. You still need to be organized and plan effectively otherwise youll spend your days frustrated about not being able to park anywhere. You can find the exact location of the cave on Google . Read more in our disclosure policy.*. Suggest edits to improve what we show. It is pretty easy to get off trail so we recommend using AllTrails. In this guide we will show you: Where to park for Keyhole Cave Which pass you need to display It looks quite far away but it wont take you long to get back. Most importantly, wear a good pair of hiking shoes that will facilitate an easier hike overall. The wash is extremely rocky so be careful of your footing the entire way while looking out for snakes. I personally loved this hike, but its not for everyone and I hope these instructions (and warnings) are helpful to you! America the Beautiful national parks pass, Soldier Pass Trail into Soldier Pass Cave, best sunrise and sunset photography locations in Sedona, best things to do on and off the Las Vegas strip, best things to do in Valley of Fire State Park, Subway Cave is one of the most photogenic landmarks in Sedona, Four other popular hikes nearby with connecting trails, Have to figure out the right place to turn onto spur trail, Most will miss it in favor of Subway Cave, Much quieter than other caves and hikes in Sedona, Very quick and easy to access Birthing Cave, Stunning views from the very back of the cave, Devils Kitchen and Seven Sacred Pools are fantastic additions to the hike, The new shuttle should significantly improve parking issues, Very popular trail means it is always busy, The cave is a little tricky to climb into, Theres not a lot of room inside the cave if it is busy, One of the most impressive caves in Sedona, One of the quietest caves you can visit in Sedona, Accessing the cave can be a little tricky, Not much room to maneuver at the formation, Very deep dark shadows in morning after Subway Cave. 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