Bring your wading shoes for this one. You’ll be wading clear, cool Oak Creek early in the hike. According to historians, this trail was built to provide cattle grazers a means of getting their stock from water on the canyon floor to pastures on the canyon rim. Today, it is used by hikers and horsebackers for access into the heart of a landscape most people see only through their telephoto lens.
After crossing Oak Creek, the trail leads a short way up the floor of Casner Canyon before turning up the canyon’s north slope. It then continues a long and sometimes steep climb to the canyon rim about a half-mile north of the Schnebly Hill Road overlook. The route it follows is a scenic one, right through the middle of some of the rock formations that make up the spectacular view from Sedona and Highway 89A. Because shade is sparse, this can be a hard, hot climb on a sunny day. Bring lots of water along with your camera. (Trai orignally built in the late 1870’s by Mose and Riley Casner. The trail connects Oak Creek Canyon with upper Schnebly Hill Road.)
The Hike House Sedona Trail Rating System provides actual hiker feedback and ratings of each of the Sedona hiking trails. The cumulative trail ratings for the Casner Canyon Trail submitted by fellow hikers is located above with the Trail Data. Your trail feedback and ratings are an important resource for fellow hikers and provide a personal account of your trail experience from which others may learn. So please hike Sedona, help others, and rate a trail today!
Scenic at Schnebly Vista (top). The flat part takes some watching for man-made cairns.
Steep but fun. Creek crossing was chilly but not treacherous. In my top 10 of Sedona.
Poorly maintained trail and at times hard to tell where the trail is. Has great views however very little shade so can get hot during summer.
Easy trail, though it is difficult to find the trail markers in some of the rocky areas. Be patient. The river crossing is refreshing in the low season, and the views are phenomenal from the top. Low grade but a long way up; a bit of scrambling up rocks but nothing major.