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Five caves on one trail?! Yes, please! These caves on Mescal Trail are relatively easy to access, and offer some great views!
When we were in Sedona, Jay did a ton of research on the best unknown hikes in the area. Often referred to as social trails, the unknown hikes in Sedona time and again lead to caves, cliff dwellings, and epic viewpoints.
Jay read about Altar Cave and after finding it on the map, he thought it would be great for sunset. And let us tell you, it does not disappoint!
Even though the sunset is fantastic from Altar Cave, what really blew us away was that there are five other caves on Mescal Trail right on the way to Altar Cave. These five caves have remnants of cliff dwellings, and each offers great views across west Sedona.
A Little Disclaimer About Hiking to These 5 Caves
When you choose to do this hike, your safety is in your own hands. ArboursAbroad LLC, and Jason and Heather Arbour are not responsible for your safety, even if you follow this guide.
Remember you’re going off the main trails, hiking up red rock faces, and along the cliff ledges! Only do what you are personally comfortable with, and know your limits.
Two Must-Have Items For These Hikes
We strongly recommend you invest in some grippy trail shoes when hiking in Sedona. These are the trail shoes that both of us have, and you can find them for under $100 USD.
READ MORE | The Best Trail Shoes for Sedona + What Else To Pack
Secondly, we also strongly suggest you bring a headlamp with you. If you stay at Altar Cave for sunset, you’ll have no more daylight for your hike back. Having a headlamp allows you to light up the path while keeping your hands free to do the rock scrambles.
Check out this post for more gear recommendations and a complete list of what to pack for Sedona.
TOP RECOMMENDATION | Download the maps.me app before hitting the trail. Pin the coordinates for each of the caves where you leave the main trail. This will help you find your way easier!
Parking for Altar Cave + The 5 Cave Hike on Mescal Trail
- Trailhead Parking | Boynton Canyon Trailhead | 34.907473, -111.848660
- Cost | $5 or National Park Pass
The Boynton Canyon Trailhead is one of the busiest trailheads in Sedona. The trailhead parking lot is pretty small and fills up really quickly.
Down the road from the trailhead, past the three way junction, you can park all along the side of the road. In fact, there will likely be people parked up and down both sides when you get to the area.
Since we recommend doing this hike for sunset, you have a good chance of getting a parking spot in the trailhead parking lot, as a lot of people are actually getting off the trails and leaving around that time.
If you don’t have a national park pass, and don’t want to spend the money on the Sedona parking pass, parking along the road is a free option… just keep in mind it adds a little bit of extra walking to your hike.
The 5 Cave Hike on Mescal Trail
Alright, this might just be my favorite sunset hike in Sedona. With that said, we recommend starting this hike about an hour and a half before sunset. That will give you time to explore all five caves along the trail, a little bit of extra time to get lost in the rock scrambles, and then time to find the perfect sunset seat for yourself near Altar Cave!
You’ll be starting this hike from the Boynton Canyon Trailhead.
From the Boynton Canyon Trailhead, take the Boynton Canyon trail. At the “T” where you can go left into Boyton Canyon or right onto Deadman’s Pass, you want to go right.
Only about a minute of hiking along Deadman’s Pass, before you even get to any of the steps along that trail, you’ll be swinging another right onto Mescal Trail.
Mescal Trail is the trail that all of the social trails to each of the five caves spur off from.
First Cave On Mescal Trail
- Distance on hike | .83 miles in
- Coordinates for leaving main trail | 34.908043, -111.842942
The first cave to explore on Mescal Trail can actually be seen from the Boynton Canyon trailhead parking lot. It looks like a big dark spot on the red rocks, up to the right.
To access this cave and cliff dwelling, you have to do a short, but pretty steep rock scramble straight up the cliff. It’s not as sketchy of a scramble as other trails we’ve done in Sedona, but only do what you’re comfortable completing. We’ve found that these shoes help tremendously with gripping onto the rock.
This cave is pretty small, but offers the chance to see remnants of a cliff dwelling and a great view of Sedona. It’s only .1 miles out and back to the cave, so if you’re searching for the cave for a long time, head back down to the main trail and try again.
After you’ve finished enjoying this cave and cliff dwelling, return to the main Mescal Trail and continue down the path.
Second Cave on Mescal Trail
- Distance on hike | 1.05 miles
- Coordinates for leaving the main trail | 34.906951, -111.841549
This cave is a massive cave and cliff dwelling that you can easily see from Mescal Trail by simply looking up!
You’ll cross right over a dry creek bed, and as the Mescal trail begins to go slightly right, you’re going to instead hike right up the cliffside to the cave.
With how massive this cave is, it’s easy to create your own path of least resistance to the cave. However, if you pay attention, you’ll find that there is somewhat of a social trail formed. Look for rocks that are compact or lines in the rocks from the wear of people’s shoes.
This cave faces back towards Boynton Canyon, and if you look closely in the red rocks across the way, you’ll be able to spot more caves and cliff dwellings along the opposite ledge!
When leaving the second cave, you don’t have to go all the way back down to the main trail. Instead, go down a layer in the rocks that you’re comfortable walking on. The next three caves/cliff dwellings are right around the corner on this same rock formation.
We went down to the next “level” or “shelf” of the red rock and hiked back up to the top shelf where the caves are. The “shelves” will make more sense when you see the area in person!
Third Cave on Mescal Trail
- Distance on hike | 1.3 miles in
- Coordinates for leaving the main trail | 34.905337, -111.840788
If you’re not comfortable walking along the upper “shelves” to the next set of caves, head back down to the main trail and continue walking. You’ll soon see two massive boulders, one on each side of the trail.
At these boulders, peel off to the left and start the scramble up the wash. If you start to loop around the red rock, you’ve gone too far on Mescal Trail and have missed the wash up the red rock face.
Scrambling up the wash, you’ll eventually get to the base of a straight red rock ledge. It’s about six feet tall, so it’s hard to just climb up it. Instead, look for the faint trail that goes right by a tree.
You’ll use the tree and a couple of good hand holds in the red rock to boost yourself up the shelf.
Once you’re up on the shelf, take the path of least resistance up the red rock ledge. It’s slanted, but not too bad. We hiked it easily with these super grippy trail shoes.
If you go to the right, you’ll find panoramic views of West Sedona. There’s a big ledge to sit on and enjoy the views from. Looking back at the red rock wall, you’ll see the third cave on Mescal Trail.
This cave is pretty small and has very little remnants of the cliff dwellings that used to be here. After you check out that cave, don’t worry, there’s no more scaling rock faces to see the next caves! They’re all along this same shelf!
Altar Cave | Fourth Cave on Mescal Trail
Altar Cave is right along the same shelf as the third cave on Mescal Trail. You don’t need to go back down to the main trail to access this cave. Instead, when facing the third cave, head left (back towards Boynton Canyon) along the red rock cliff.
Be careful as you’re walking. While the red rock is super grippy, especially with these shoes, it’s easy to trip and fall.
Walking along the base of the red rock wall, you’ll soon run into Altar Cave. This cave is big enough to climb into, and makes for some epic sunset photography!
Altar Cave might just be my favorite cave hike in Sedona!
The Fifth and Final Cave on Mescal Trail
Just past Altar Cave, you’ll find the last cave on this section of the trail. This cave is way too tiny for me to be comfortable climbing in, however, it has some really cool cave formations to look at!
Inside this tiny cave, you’ll find stalactites “growing” from the roof of the cave. These are formed when water mixes with the minerals of the cave. We’ve seen them before in Lehman Caves in Great Basin National Park, but it was super cool to see them here in Sedona too!
After taking a quick peek inside this wee cave, head back to Altar Cave for watching the sun go below the horizon. After the sun dips below the horizon, head back to the third cave on this ledge, and sit and watch the colors of the clouds and red rocks of Sedona change as the light disappears.
Make sure to have a headlamp with you, so you can hike back the same way you came. You’ll head down to Mescal’s trail and then retrace your steps all the way back to the Boynton Canyon Trailhead.
5 Caves Within 1.5 Miles of Boynton Canyon Trailhead
Can you believe all five of these caves and cliff dwelling sites are within a mile and a half of the famous Boynton Canyon Trailhead?!?!
What’s even more insane, is that while you’re sure to see literally hundreds of people if you hike into Boynton Canyon, you’ll likely see only a handful of people while doing this multi-cave hike.
AND, the people you’ll see will likely just be doing the main Mescal Trail, not actually going up to the caves and into the cliff dwellings.
It’s totally wild to me that you can find your own peace and quiet within about a mile from one of the busiest trailheads in Sedona!
More On Sedona
We spent an extended amount of time in Sedona, hiking, biking, and camping. While there were things we didn’t like about Sedona, we found that it wasn’t actually too difficult to get away from the crowds of people and find our own secret spaces in Sedona.
Below, you’ll find some of our more popular Sedona posts, or you can head to our Sedona Travel Guide, where you’ll find all our Sedona posts in one place!
Where To Camp For Free In Sedona
The Perfect One Day Sedona Itinerary
Keyhole Cave in Sedona | Another Epic Secret Cave Hike
