Munds Mountain 6837′
Sedona
Total Time: 3:30
Distance: 6.4 miles
Elevation Gain: 1525′
Crux: Class 1
Companions: Holly, Cara and Steve Whittingham
Trailhead: Schnebly Hill Road, no services
Munds Mountain is one of the few trailed (if not the only) summits I had left to tick off in Sedona. Forming the eastern edge of town, the summit itself is along the rim of the Schnebly Hill formation, with the high point on the northern end of a broad flat plateau. With temperatures quickly rising across Arizona and the trailhead located off the notoriously rough Schnebly Hill Rd, it seemed look a good option to both escape the heat and practice social distancing. A couple trailheads could be used to access the peak, the most common being at a switchback along Schnebly Hill Rd above a formation called the Merry-Go-Round. But we decided to enter Sedona via Schnebly Hill Rd from I-17, allowing us to start our hike from a bit higher elevation at the Schnebly Hill Overlook.
The view point had a few trucks and OHVs parked with off road enthusiasts enjoying the view, and we quickly left them behind as we followed a much rougher road south. The wide road would have been a challenge for even well equipped UTVs in spots, although it did provide some excellent campsites along the rim looking into Sedona. About 2 miles into our hike, we reached the junction with the normal trail climbing up from the road, and we briefly entered a thick pine forest with single track trail.
The trail would emerge from the pines at various points along the rim, then dive back into pinyon, juniper and high desert scrub. We reached a notch and another set of trail junctions, one towards the “Hot Loop Trail,” the other descending into the Jack’s Canyon. Although the summit was only about 0.25 miles away, we still needed to steeply ascend about 500′ to the top.
The trail became far less defined as we switched up the slopes, a number of game and use trails making this section the only hard to follow portion of the day. The pines were replaced by small oak trees just below the summit, and we pushed through some overgrowth to reach the broad summit plateau, offering little in the way of views.
The group headed to the rim to look for shade and line of sight into Sedona, while I followed my GPS to the highpoint proper, finding a register a summit cairn placed by the famous climbers Barbara Lilley and Gordon MacLeod.
I signed us into the register, with only a handful of parties for year taking the time to seek out the true high point, then rejoined the group at the rim for a late lunch. The views were most impressive across Marg’s Draw into Uptown Sedona, with Mount Wilson and Capitol Butte serving as the backdrop to Queen Victoria, Morning Glory Spire and the spires around Steamboat Rock.
Finished with our snacks, we started back down the trail, only pausing to look at the baby horny toads that would scurry across the trail.
We found just as many people at the overlook when we returned as when we left, and we quickly hopped in the car for the painful bumpy and rough ride down Schnebly Hill into town. We wound up camping on Forest Service land to the southwest of town that night, and reclimbed Capitol Butte the following day, still standing as one of my favorite scrambles in all of Arizona.
