Cocodona 250 Chapter 20 — Walnut Canyon to Wildcat Hill | 1,200-Year-Old Sinagua Petroglyphs

Chapter 20 of 22 in the 2026 Cocodona 250 series.

Twelve hundred years ago, the Northern Sinagua carved spirals and bighorn sheep and human figures with raised arms into the basalt walls of a small canyon north of Flagstaff. Their meaning is lost. Their presence remains. The trail in this segment runs right past them, beneath the cinder cones of Wildcat Hill and Sheep Hill — reminders that I am not the first to run this country. Not by a long, long way.

The course leaves Walnut Canyon and works through doubletrack roads under Interstate 40, then briefly along Historic Route 66, before joining the Arizona Trail again. The Wildcat and Sheep Hill cinder cones rise to the north — remnants of the last volcanic eruptions in the Flagstaff area, about a thousand years ago. The whole San Francisco Volcanic Field stretches across this country: more than 600 cinder cones, lava domes, and small shield volcanoes, the youngest of which erupted in 1085 AD.

A left turn takes the course off the Arizona Trail and onto the Tom Moody Loop Trail, which runs past the Rio de Flag narrows, a small waterfall, and Sinagua petroglyphs whose meaning is lost to us, but whose presence reminds us we are running through a place that was loved long before.

This chapter walks through the segment in six sections — the numbers, the story, the route, a word for the road, the practical things to know, and the game plan for that aid station.

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⏱ Chapter Timestamps

00:00 — Opening
00:50 — The Numbers
02:30 — The Story
06:00 — The Route
06:45 — A Word for the Road
08:15 — Things to Know
08:45 — The Game Plan
11:00 — Next chapter

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📍 Segment: Walnut Canyon → Wildcat Hill
📏 Distance: 11.2 km (7.0 mi)
⛰ Elevation: +104 m / -91 m
🪨 Sinagua petroglyphs — 1,200 years old, on the Tom Moody Loop Trail
🌋 San Francisco Volcanic Field — 600+ cinder cones, youngest erupted in 1085 AD
🎯 31 km to the finish — sub-105 hour goal projected
⏰ Cutoff: 10:45 PM Friday
🎯 Projected arrival: 3:29 AM Friday (pre-dawn)
👥 Last crew contact + drop bag — Mark Vega's pacing duty ends here
🚫 Solo from Wildcat Hill to the finish — Forest Service mandate, Mexican Spotted Owl nesting on Mt Elden
⏱ 30-minute stop — last full reset before Heritage Square

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Some highlights along the way:

→ The Sinagua petroglyphs — twelve hundred years ago, spirals and bighorn sheep and human figures with raised arms, carved into basalt walls. Their meaning is lost. Their presence remains. Protected cultural sites — do not touch, do not photograph close-up, do not leave the trail.

→ The San Francisco Volcanic Field — more than 600 cinder cones, lava domes, and small shield volcanoes stretching across northern Arizona. The youngest, Sunset Crater, erupted in 1085 AD. The eruption darkened the sky for a season and forced the Sinagua people to abandon their settlements and migrate elsewhere.

→ The Tom Moody Loop Trail — past the Rio de Flag narrows and a small waterfall, into the canyon where the petroglyphs sit. The trail runs through a place that was loved long before.

→ Sub-105-hour goal — at Wildcat Hill, the projected finish at Heritage Square is 1:00 PM Friday, 104 hours into the race. Right on the sub-105 mark.

→ The end of pacing — Mark Vega's pacing duty ends at Wildcat Hill after 71 kilometers — the longest pacing assignment of the race. From Wildcat Hill to the finish, 31 km remain, all solo, all over Mount Elden.

→ Mt Elden ahead — climbing to 9,300 feet in the cold, in the dark, alone. Forest Service mandate — Mexican Spotted Owl nesting at the summit means no pacer is permitted on the next chapter.

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This is Chapter 20 of a 22-part audio walkthrough I made for myself before the 2026 Cocodona 250 — to map the course in my mind before I set foot on it, and to listen to during the race itself as a diversion from the suffering and a reminder of what matters in each segment.

Live tracking during the race (May 4–9, 2026) is available on the Aravaipa Running website.

▶ Series playlist: [link to your playlist]
▶ Previous: Chapter 19 — Fort Tuthill to Walnut Canyon — [link]
▶ Series Opening: https://youtu.be/Ev7xThcjKxk

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#Cocodona250 #UltraMarathon #SinaguaPeople #Petroglyphs #Flagstaff #UltraRunning #ArizonaTrail #Cocodona2026

Видео Cocodona 250 Chapter 20 — Walnut Canyon to Wildcat Hill | 1,200-Year-Old Sinagua Petroglyphs канала Paul James Johnson