Echo Canyon Grottoes: Best Easy Hike in Chiricahua National Monument

Echo Canyon Grottoes is a short and easy trail inside the Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona. Even though it is short, this trail is packed full of beautiful sceneries as it snakes through naturally sculpted stone hoodoos and balanced rocks and passes by the Grottoes. The Grotto is an interesting hallway of sorts, weaving between a grouping of large boulders. It’s super fun to explore, especially if you have small children or just love scrambling around. The Echo Canyon Grottoes is part of a few longer and harder hikes such as the Echo Canyon Loop or the Big Loop Trail. So, if you still feel like hiking after stopping at the Grottoes, you can make this into a full-day adventure.

Note: Please make sure to respect this beautiful place and the surrounding areas. Always practice LEAVE NO TRACE. This means no loud music, no graffiti, no taking artifacts or fossilized items, and pack out what you pack in! Please help us protect this place for generations to come!

Stats

Where

Echo Canyon Loop Trailhead
32.012000, -109.315917

Parking

Decent sized, paved parking lot in front of the trailhead

Restroom

There are vault toilets at the trailhead

Fee

It is free to enter!

Distance

1 mile R.T.

Elevation Gain

78 ft

Level

Easy

Time:

20 minutes – 1 hour

Pet-friendly

Dogs aren’t allowed on this trail

Ideal Time

This trail is beautiful to hike at any time. However, since there are minimal shades along the hike, we recommend hiking this during the cooler time such as morning or evening.

Weather

Video

Getting to the Trailhead

To get to the Grottoes, you’ll want to use the Echo Canyon Loop Trailhead. It is located inside the Chiricahua National Monument. Once you’re inside the monument, take the scenic Bonita Canyon Drive almost all the way to the end until you see signs for Echo Canyon. Turn right to get to the parking area. The trailhead is located at the end of the parking lot.

The Start of the Echo Canyon Trail

As soon as we left the paved parking lot, the trail turned into a dirt and rocky trail. A short distance in, we came to a junction with signages. We followed the sign to go right toward the Grottoes. If you want to do the loops, whether it’s Echo Canyon Loop or the Big Loop, you can go either way. However, if your goal is to go to the Grottoes, go right.

After this point, the Echo Canyon trail to the Grottoes starts to get interesting. It became rockier as we hiked and the scenery was also getting better. The trail snakes through pine trees and big stone hoodoos and boulders. These boulders seemed to get bigger and denser as we hiked further along. It was hard not to stop and take photos at every corner we turned.

Wonderland of Rocks

There were a few super cool balanced rocks right next to the trail. We kept stopping to admire nature’s handiwork. These boulders and stone hoodoos here remind us of Bryce Canyon, but also very different. The hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park are all red, but the ones here are stone colors. They are also covered with green moss, giving them a very unique look. The green moss seemed to sparkle when the sunlight hit it at a certain angle. It was very interesting to see.

Along the way, the Echo Canyon trail to the Grottoes snakes through a short hallway created from tall boulders from both sides. It was one of our favorite parts here. Since it was only 0.5 miles each way, we quickly came to a small sign for the Grottoes. The Grottoes is actually this alcove on the right-hand side of the trail. If you’re not paying attention, you might missed it.

The Grottoes

It’s hard to capture the essence of the Grottoes in videos or photos. It is quite interesting and more fun in person. This is because you can scramble around and climb up and down. It was fun to explore all the hidden passages and all its nooks and crannies. We actually went all the way up to the top of the Grottoes. You’ll need to do some squeezing between the bushes and some climbing but it wasn’t that bad. From up here, we can see the trail and the canyon below. It was definitely worth spending our time. We highly recommend it, but please be careful when climbing up here.

Once you’re done here, you can either continue on to the bigger loop of either Echo Canyon Loop or the Big Loop. We actually hiked past the Grottoes twice on our trip. The first time, it was as part of the Big Loop Trail. However, we didn’t have as much time to check out the Grottoes as it was getting dark. So, we came back the next day to hike this again. If you love hoodoos, check out our Navajo Loop to Queens Garden Hike in Bryce Canyon National Park. If you love beautiful rocky caves, check out our blog for the Subway Hike, Robber Roost Cave, Cave Trail, or Soldier Pass in Sedona.

These are the gear that we personally use and find them helpful for this particular adventure. Don’t forget to check out our Recommended Gear section as well.