Hike Hangover Trail

The Trail

Hangover Trail is a popular and potentially long hike with an incredible payoff at the end. Just east of Uptown Sedona, about half the trail runs along Schnebly Hill Rd which is a crowded unpaved rough road with ATV and Jeep tour traffic. Having said that, the hiking trail is mostly far enough away from Schnebly Hill Rd to still be a good and safe hike. This is especially true once you start the transition from Munds Wagon Trail to Hangover Trail and start your climb!

This hike’s difficulty rating is double black diamond, depending on the path and distance chosen. Both trail options involve some moderate elevation climbing, but the long-hike option has some scrambling up/down large slide rock. Regardless of the option you choose, you will need a Red Rock Pass to both park in the parking lot or to park along Schnebly Rd (as far as I understand).

Option #1 - The long hike

The main yet longer trail option is to park at the Munds Wagon Trailhead parking lot and walk the entire 7.8 miles out-and-back. You will need a Red Rock Pass to park here and there is a kiosk onsite. I would highly recommend getting here early as the parking lot is usually full by 9am. Jump on any of the trails to the east of the lot and make a right onto Munds Wagon Trail. The first mile and a half or so is a pleasant and mostly flat stroll through the Damfino Canyon.

You pass several small rock structures that often have a bit of flowing water running down them. The deeper you go, the more the towering canyon walls surround you. At about the 1.7 mi mark, you will see a split for Hangover Trail to your left. Take this trail and start your climb up!

This is where the trail gets challenging. The elevation rise isn’t that bad yet, but as you get closer to Pointed Dome on your right (~2.3 mi in), the trail narrows and there are some fairly steep cliffs you will need to carefully walk over. There will be a slight climb to get to the crest but once you do, the view that comes into sight is breathtaking.

If you are only looking for a short 5 mi out-and-back, this is where you should turn around. The trail gets significantly harder after this. If you decide to keep going, you will turn to your right and begin your climb up towards Pointed Dome. Follow the white painted trail markers on the slide rock and work your way up (this can be a little confusing, but as long as you follow the markers and keep an eye to your left for the trail, you should be fine). The markers will take you to the left and loop you around Pointed Dome. This is where the trail gets more narrow and dangerous. It’s about another mile until you reach the Hangover Trail lookout.

Once you are at the lookout, you have two options:

You can turn around and do an out-and-back.
You can continue along the south side of Hangover Trail, down the mountain, and make a right back onto Munds Wagon Trail after crossing Schnebly Hill Rd. Follow that west to get back to the trailhead!

Option #2 - Off-road shortcut

If you happen to have a Jeep, 4×4 truck, or a UTV, you can skip about 5 mi of hiking by continuing to drive up Schnebly Hill Rd once the pavement ends. As I mentioned, the road is heavily traveled by other vehicles, especially various Jeep Tour companies so be ready to pull over and share the road. The road is quite rocky but not terribly technical. We took this trail in our Chevy Colorado Z71 with about 9″ of ground clearance with no issues. Cars and many smaller SUV’s may have issues though.

After about 2.7 miles of off-road driving, you will come to a small pull out area to your right where you can park. You will see the Hangover Trail across the road to the north. Take that trail. Unfortunately, on our hike, we encountered a rather large rattlesnake that someone who threw a large rock onto it had killed. We get it, if you encounter something dangerous and defensive on a wilderness trail, you have to protect yourself. But if you can safely do it (from a distance), please try to scare the snake away by stomping your feet, simply give it time to slither off, go around it if you safely can, or just take a different trail. You are not doing ANYONE a favor by killing wildlife. Read more about what to do if you encounter a snake on a trail here.

Once you hit the flat rock sections, the climb becomes steeper and more dangerous. There are not as many sheer drop offs as there are on the north side of the Hangover Trail (Option #1 above) but you still need to be careful. As you approach the base of the lookout, the climb gets a bit steep but following the white markers will switchback you up relatively easily. Once there, take in the views, have a snack, and enjoy the beauty of Sedona!