Little Horse Trail begins as part of the Bell Rock Pathway. Follow this wide trail southward for ¼ mile. Here, at a signed fork, take the old jeep road branching to the left and marked with basket cairns. The road drops to cross a dry streambed, climbs a bit and ends at the ¾ mile point. The trail continues to the left and climbs moderately, topping out on a large, flat expanse. Turn to the right here. The level trail leads into a stand of Arizona cypress and intersects a trail on the left coming from the chapel as it nears the “Madonna and the Nuns” spires. Nice views. At 1.4 miles, it passes through a gate. Continue for 150 yards passing the base of the knobs of Chicken Point on the left. Take the path left for a short climb onto the bare rock for wonderful views. This point is used by jeep tours via Broken Arrow Road. Return by the same route for a 3 mile roundtrip hike . The hike can also be extended eastward from the base of Chicken Point into the Wilderness area (no bicycles allowed) on the Jim Bryant Trail. Little Horse Trail is mostly unshaded and hot in summer.
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Great, close-in trail. Nice uphill and Chicken Point is one of my favorite places for views and being high up and in the middle of the red rocks. Go early in the day before the jeeps disrupt the serenity. If not in my top ’10’ hikes of Sedona, it is very close. Only misses the top of the list due to the high volume of hikers and jeeps.
An early hike, besides beating the jeep and bike traffic (only at Chicken Point), affords wonderful views of the sun coming up over the rim and surrounding rock formations. At this hike time of day this would be in everyone’s top 10.
While true that you can’t get the “away from it all” feeling on this trail, it is easy but pleasant and has spectacular 365 degree views the whole way. I parked at 10AM and only 1/4 of the spaces were full (although rain was forecast). I passed 5 groups of hikers/bikers and saw one jeep tour total. I had plenty of time to sit completely alone at Chicken Point and soak in the splendid views.
This was one of two hikes recommended to us at The Hike House to start with. It’s an easy enough hike, with good views. Feels intense in summer what with the sun and with temps in the mid-90’s by 11am. The trail is not shaded at all.
Even if you go in the morning, you’ll probably see Jeep tours out. We saw four of them- I actually thought it was kind of funny. Felt like we were in a party room.
Shout out to the “Sedona Hiking Guide Book” by The Hike House, which was totally accurate in describing every hike we did during our time in the area.