Echo Canyon Loop - Chiricahua NM, AZ

This scenic loop hike at Chiricahua National Monument comprises three trails: Echo Canyon, Hailstone, and Ed Riggs. This description is of a counter-clockwise loop, starting on the Echo Canyon Trail (the most impressive segment). It can be combined with other connecting trails in the Monument to create a longer hike. See the map for details.


At the Echo Canyon parking area, follow the trail that takes off behind the Echo Canyon Loop info sign. This trail soon splits into the Echo Canyon and Ed Riggs Trails. Take the Echo Canyon Trail, which heads southwest across the high, rocky mesa. Naturally sculpted stone hoodoos and balanced rocks begin to increase in both quantity and size, as the trail heads for the upper end of Echo Canyon. The first attraction you'll come to is the Echo Canyon Grotto, at around 0.5 miles. The Grotto is a stone hallway of sorts, worn between a grouping of large boulders. Soon after, the trail descends into Echo Canyon and a wonderland of enormous stone pillars. Some of the C.C.C.'s most impressive trail work is found here. At Wall Street, trail crews widened some existing fractures in the bedrock to create a narrow passageway through imposing hoodoos. This truly awesome stretch of the trail comes to an end all too soon, beneath the towering pines at Echo Park.Beyond Echo Park, the trail contours through the forest, before arriving on an open ridge overlooking Rhyolite Canyon, at 1.5 miles. The Echo Canyon Trail ends at 1.6 miles, where it meets the Upper Rhyolite Canyon and Hailstone Trails. This loop follows the Hailstone Trail.

There is little elevation change on the Hailstone Trail, and this easy stretch affords fine views up and down Rhyolite Canyon. At 2.4 miles the Hailstone Trail ends at the Ed Riggs and Mushroom Rock Trails. Keep left and follow the Ed Riggs Trail, which gradually ascends a wooded ravine back to the top of the mesa.

At 3.1 miles you'll pass the junction with the spur trail to Massai Point. Stay on the Ed Riggs Trail, which soon arrives on top of the mesa and rejoins the Echo Canyon Trail. A short distance later the trail arrives back at the Echo Canyon trailhead/parking area.

2007-12-29 PrestonSands