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The saddle on the Cathedral Rock Trail in Sedona, red sandstone spires rising on the left and a sheer wall on the right with hikers standing on a ledge, looking out over green valley and distant mesas

Top 10 day hikes in Sedona, where a mile and a half gets you a summit

Cathedral Rock is 0.7 miles each way and climbs 600 feet to a saddle between two sandstone spires. That is the trade in Sedona: enormous views for very little mileage. Ten day hikes across the red rocks, ordered by how hard it is to park at each one.

DestinationsPublished August 30, 202615 min read

Photo: Coconino NF Photography — CC0

Sedona's most famous hike is under a mile and a half, out and back. The Forest Service gives the Cathedral Rock Trail as 0.7 miles one way with 600 feet of elevation change, and what you get at the end of it is a saddle between two red sandstone fins with the red rock country opening out underneath. The Forest Service allows an hour and a half for the round trip, which is a cheap price for one of the best views in the American Southwest.

That ratio is the thing about Sedona. The town sits in the middle of free-standing buttes, fins and mesas, and the trails go straight up the sides of them. There is no rim to walk out to first and no long approach to get out of the way. Doe Mountain puts you on top of a flat-topped mesa after 0.7 miles. Bell Rock has a wide, hard-surfaced path running past its foot. You are never far from the car, and you are almost always looking at something enormous.

The ten below span 1.4 miles round trip to about 11, and 50 feet of climbing to 2,400. Every trail distance and elevation figure in this piece comes from the Coconino National Forest's own Red Rock Ranger District Recreation Guide, which publishes a table of every named trail in the district. Where the walk in from a trailhead matters more than the trail itself, the figures are the Forest Service's or the City of Sedona's and I have said which. Where neither gives a number, I have not supplied one.

They are ordered by where you leave the car, which decides more about how a Sedona day goes than the climbing does. The list runs from trailheads you can drive to any day of the week down to two where the parking lot is closed to the public four days out of seven and a free bus is the way in.

Drive-up to shuttle-only

What are the best day hikes in Sedona?

Ten hikes in the Red Rock Ranger District of the Coconino National Forest, ordered by how easy it is to park at the trailhead. Distances marked one way are the Forest Service's own; its trail table lists one-way lengths and says to double them for anything that is not a loop.

Courthouse Butte near Sedona, a huge banded red and cream sandstone butte rising above a skirt of green juniper and scrub under a blue sky
Courthouse Butte, which the loop trail circles. Bell Rock sits just to the north of it.Photo: dconvertini — CC BY-SA 2.0
01

Bell Rock and the Courthouse Butte Loop

Village of Oak Creek, on State Route 179

Distance
Bell Rock Pathway 3.7 miles one way; the Courthouse Butte loop 3.6 miles
Elevation change
50 ft on the pathway, 250 ft on the loop
Trailheads
Courthouse Vista and Bell Rock Pathway/Vista, SR 179
Parking
Red Rock Pass or America the Beautiful

This is where to start, and where to send anyone who has never walked on red rock before. Bell Rock Pathway is a wide, hard-surfaced track running past Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte with both of them in view. The Forest Service gives it 50 feet of elevation change over 3.7 miles, though it also warns that a few of the hills on it are steep and that the ground close to Bell Rock is rocky and rough.

You can walk twenty minutes of it and turn round having seen most of the point.

The Courthouse Butte Loop is the fuller version: 3.6 miles with 250 feet of change, circling both the butte in the photograph above and Bell Rock. It is the rare Sedona hike where the interest is in going around something rather than up it. The Forest Service's own warning about it is worth carrying, because it applies to most of this list: the loop is mostly unshaded and can be hot in summer.

Bell Rock itself is a choose-your-own affair. The formation is a stack of sloping sandstone benches, and people scramble up as far as their nerve takes them and then come back down. The Forest Service publishes no route to the top; the only trail it lists on the rock is the Bell Rock Loop, 0.4 miles with 200 feet of change.

Parking is the easiest here of anywhere on this list. There are several signed lots along State Route 179 at Courthouse Vista and Bell Rock Pathway/Vista, both of them fee sites covered by a Red Rock Pass.

Why it's here: The gentlest walk on this list, doable with children in tow, and you spend the whole of it looking at several hundred feet of red sandstone. Wear real shoes anyway. Sedona Fire attends hundreds of trail falls a year.

Bear Mountain seen from the Doe Mountain Trail, a broad red sandstone massif of stacked cliff bands rising above a plain of juniper and scrub, with a paved road crossing the middle distance under a blue sky with high cloud
Bear Mountain, looking northwest from the Doe Mountain Trail. It is one of the landmarks the Forest Service says you can pick out from the mesa top.Photo: Coconino NF Photography — CC0
02

Doe Mountain

Boynton Pass Road, west of Sedona

Distance
0.7 miles one way, so about 1.4 miles round trip
Elevation change
400 ft
Trailhead
Bear/Doe Mountain Trailhead, Boynton Pass Road
Parking
Red Rock Pass or America the Beautiful

Four hundred feet of climbing in 0.7 miles buys you the top of a mesa. The trail switchbacks directly up the north side of it, and then the ground simply stops going up: you step out onto a broad, flat summit plateau, which the Forest Service says is 1.3 miles around the edge. A layer of erosion-resistant cap rock is what gave the mountain that shape.

That wandering is most of the value. The summit is an area rather than a viewpoint, and the Forest Service's own list of what you can see from it runs to Bear, Maroon and Wilson mountains, Loy, Boynton and Secret canyons, Chimney Rock and the Cockscomb, with Sedona off to the east and the Verde Valley to the south.

It shares a trailhead and a parking area with Bear Mountain, which is directly across the road and roughly four times the hike. Two very different days start from the same fee site, which is worth knowing if you have people of mixed appetite in the car.

Why it's here: The best view-per-foot-of-climb on the list. If you have one spare hour in Sedona and you are not up for a scramble, spend it here.

A red dirt trail leading toward the mouth of Fay Canyon near Sedona, banded red cliffs rising ahead behind green oak and juniper under a deep blue sky
The Fay Canyon trail, heading in. The Forest Service gives it 1.1 miles one way and 150 feet of elevation change.Photo: Coconino NF Photography — CC0
03

Fay Canyon

Boynton Pass Road, west of Sedona

Distance
1.1 miles one way, about 2.2 miles round trip
Elevation change
150 ft
Trailhead
Fay Canyon Trailhead, Boynton Pass Road
Parking
Red Rock Pass or America the Beautiful

The flattest walk here, and the one that behaves least like the postcard. Fay Canyon runs into a small hidden canyon rather than up anything: 150 feet of elevation change across 1.1 miles, with red sandstone walls towering overhead on both sides and trees along the wash. Watch the cliff on the right about half a mile in and you should find a natural arch in it.

That cover matters more than the numbers suggest. Shade in Sedona comes down to topography. Canyon floors have trees and slickrock has nothing, and Fay puts close walls on both sides of you for a short, level walk. That is not the same as a shaded trail, but it is the nearest thing on this side of town.

It ends where the canyon does, at a red Supai sandstone cliff, and the walk back out faces the opposite direction and looks like a different place. The Doe and Bear Mountain trailhead is less than a mile further along the same road, so it pairs neatly with either.

Why it's here: A short level walk with the walls close on both sides, on a list otherwise full of exposed climbs. Keep it in your back pocket for a tired group.

The view from high on Bear Mountain near Sedona, layered red cliff bands falling away to the left and a wide green valley with distant red buttes on the horizon under a clear blue sky
High on Bear Mountain. The Forest Service gives 1,800 feet of elevation change over 2.5 miles.Photo: Coconino National Forest — CC0
04

Bear Mountain

Boynton Pass Road, west of Sedona

Distance
2.5 miles one way, 5 miles round trip
Elevation change
1,800 ft
Trailhead
Bear/Doe Mountain Trailhead, Boynton Pass Road
Parking
Red Rock Pass or America the Beautiful

Eighteen hundred feet in two and a half miles is the steepest sustained climb on this list. Only Cathedral Rock is steeper per mile, and that one is over in twenty minutes. It is the hike where Sedona's short mileage stops being a joke. The Forest Service calls it strenuous, mostly unshaded and difficult in places, and describes the climb the way it feels: a steep switchback section, a plateau, another steep section, and then a false summit before the real one.

The reward is proportionate. From the upper slopes you are looking down the length of the red rock country with Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte reduced to lumps in the far distance, which is a completely different relationship with the landscape from the one you get standing under them.

This is the trail the water arithmetic was written for. The Forest Service recommends a minimum of a liter per person per hour in hot conditions, and on a four-to-five-hour round trip with no shade that is four or five liters a head before you have accounted for anything going wrong. In summer this hike is a dawn start or nothing.

Why it's here: The hardest of the ten, and the only one that will properly test somebody. Also the one most likely to go wrong if you start it late.

The walls of Boynton Canyon near Sedona, deep red banded sandstone cliffs stepping up on the right with a pale cream-coloured caprock formation visible behind, green junipers on the slopes below
Boynton Canyon's walls. The trail runs the length of the canyon floor between them.Photo: Coconino NF Photography — CC0
05

Boynton Canyon

Boynton Canyon Trailhead, west of Sedona

Distance
2.5 miles one way, 5 miles round trip
Elevation change
450 ft
Trailhead
Boynton Canyon Trailhead
Parking
Red Rock Pass or America the Beautiful

Same mileage as Bear Mountain, a quarter of the climb, and an entirely different day. The Forest Service calls Boynton one of the most scenic of the box canyons that made this country famous, and says the walking on the canyon floor is pleasant and easy. It runs a long way back into the cliffs, and the cover thickens as the walls close in.

The canyon walls are the reason to come. They step up in bands on both sides, red below and pale above, and because you are walking between them for two and a half miles you get to watch the light move across them rather than looking at one face from a distance.

The first stretch skirts a luxury resort, which surprises people who expected wilderness from the first step. The Forest Service's own description of the trail opens with it. Keep going. The developed section is short and the rest of the canyon is the point.

Why it's here: The best long-ish walk here that does not involve a climb, and the one that keeps getting better the further in you go.

The West Fork of Oak Creek canyon in autumn, tall red and cream sandstone walls above a canyon floor of pines and bigtooth maples turning orange and gold
West Fork of Oak Creek in autumn. The Forest Service photographed the maples turning here on 12 October.Photo: Coconino National Forest — CC0
06

West Fork of Oak Creek

Call of the Canyon day-use site, State Route 89A

Distance
3.3 miles one way, 6.6 miles round trip
Elevation change
230 ft
Trailhead
Call of the Canyon Picnic Site, SR 89A
Parking
$15 a day. A Red Rock Pass and an America the Beautiful pass are not valid

The outlier, and the one people remember. West Fork is a narrow, wet side canyon of Oak Creek: 3.3 miles in with only 230 feet of elevation change, repeated stream crossings on stepping stones, walls that lean in overhead, and a canopy that the Forest Service describes in autumn as ablaze, with red and gold leaves floating in the pools. It is one of the most popular trails on the whole Coconino, and the closest thing in the area to a hike that is cool by default.

It has its own money, which is the thing that catches people out. Call of the Canyon is one of five concessionaire-managed sites on the Coconino where neither the Red Rock Pass nor an America the Beautiful pass is accepted. The Forest Service lists the daily fee at $15, payable on the gate, and the only pass that covers it is the Coconino Hospitality Annual Pass, which can only be bought in person at one of those five sites.

Check it is open before you drive out. On 31 July 2026 the Forest Service closed all National Forest land within 100 feet of the West Fork drainage under Forest Order 03-04-00-26-005, to protect people from flash flooding through a watershed burnt by the Pocket Fire. West Fork Trail #108 and the Call of the Canyon site are both inside that closure. That order runs to 30 September 2026.

Closures like it get issued and lifted on their own schedule, and the forest's alerts page is the only place that knows the current answer.

Why it's here: Shade, water and autumn color in a place that otherwise offers none of the three. Worth the separate fee and worth checking the alerts page for.

Looking down Oak Creek Canyon from the North Wilson Mountain Trail, tall ponderosa pines in the foreground and pale cream cliffs above red rock in the distance
The upper Oak Creek Canyon country from the North Wilson Mountain Trail. The climb leaves the red rock behind and finishes among ponderosa pine.Photo: davidpinter — CC BY 3.0
07

Wilson Mountain

Midgley Bridge, State Route 89A

Distance
5.6 miles one way, about 11 miles round trip
Elevation change
2,400 ft
Trailhead
Midgley Bridge, SR 89A
Parking
Red Rock Pass or America the Beautiful

The big one. At 2,400 feet, Wilson Mountain has the largest elevation change of any trail in the Forest Service's Sedona-area table, and at 5.6 miles one way it is the only entry here that will take most of a day rather than part of one.

It is also the hike that changes ecosystem underneath you. You start in the red rock and the juniper, climb out of it, and finish on a broad forested top. The Forest Service says the view from up there stretches over hundreds of square miles and takes in Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Coffee Pot Rock, Capitol Butte, Sterling Canyon and the Verde Valley. Nothing else on this list gives you that overview.

There is a shorter way at the price of a longer drive. The North Wilson Trail, which the Forest Service calls the cooler route, starts just north of the Encinoso picnic site three miles up Oak Creek Canyon, runs 2.0 miles with 1,450 feet of change, and joins the main trail midway up the mountain. Check before you count on it: Encinoso is one of the sites named in the current Oak Creek closure order, which runs to 30 September 2026.

Both trailheads are Forest Service fee sites, and the Midgley Bridge lot is small, so it is not a place to arrive hopeful in the middle of a Saturday morning.

Why it's here: Every other hike here is over before lunch. This is the one that fills a day and shows you the whole area from above.

Devil's Bridge near Sedona, a long natural red sandstone arch spanning a wooded gully with red rock country and distant cream-capped buttes visible beyond
Devil's Bridge. The span itself is short; the walk to reach it is the part people underestimate.Photo: Mfield (Matthew Field) — CC BY-SA 3.0
08

Devil's Bridge

Dry Creek Vista and Mescal trailheads — Sedona Shuttle Route 11

Distance
About 4 miles round trip from Mescal, roughly two hours (City of Sedona)
Elevation change
350 ft on the Devil's Bridge Trail itself, 0.8 miles one way
Trailheads
Dry Creek Vista or Mescal — Sedona Shuttle Route 11
Parking
Red Rock Pass or America the Beautiful if you drive

The largest natural sandstone arch in the Sedona area, by the Forest Service's reckoning, and one you can walk out onto. It is also the Sedona hike whose numbers get quoted wrong most often. The Devil's Bridge Trail proper is 0.8 miles one way with 350 feet of change. But that trail starts at the far end of a rough forest road that the Forest Service says requires a high-clearance vehicle, and almost nobody begins there.

The City of Sedona publishes the honest versions. From the Mescal parking lot it is approximately 4 miles and two hours. From Dry Creek Vista it is approximately 6 miles and three hours via the Chuckwagon and Devil's Bridge trails, or approximately 4 miles and two hours via Forest Road 152C, with little shade either way.

The Forest Service's own figures for the first two agree (4.0 miles round trip from Mescal, 5.8 via Chuckwagon), and it adds a caution the city's page does not: the unpaved stretch of Dry Creek Road is a popular jeep trail and is not recommended for walking.

The city also says, plainly, that Devil's Bridge generates among the most emergency calls of any Sedona hiking trail, and asks people to plan for a few hours and possible mishaps. Two practical notes from the same page: cell and GPS reception is unreliable in the terrain, so carry an offline map or photograph the one at the trailhead; and after heavy rain or mountain snow, start from Dry Creek Vista rather than Mescal, because water flowing in Dry Creek can make the crossing difficult or impossible.

Why it's here: The picture everybody comes for, and the trail the fire department knows best. Worth remembering the second part on the way to the first.

The view east from the Cathedral Rock Trail over a wide green valley toward long red cliff walls and the free-standing block of Courthouse Butte, with slickrock and a small cairn in the foreground
The view from partway up the Cathedral Rock Trail, looking across to Courthouse Butte.Photo: Coconino NF Photography — CC0
09

Cathedral Rock

Cathedral Rock Trailhead — Sedona Shuttle Route 15

Distance
0.7 miles one way, about 1.4 miles round trip
Elevation change
600 ft
Trailhead
Cathedral Rock — Sedona Shuttle Route 15
Parking
The lot is closed to the public whenever the shuttle is running

Six hundred feet of climbing packed into 0.7 miles, most of it on bare slickrock. The Forest Service rates it strenuous and calls it more of a rock climb than a hike: unshaded, steep and difficult in places, ascending over bald rock and up a shallow cleft with a few toeholds notched into it.

No technical skill is needed and no rope, but you will use your hands, and the friction of dry sandstone is doing a lot of the work, which is why it is a bad idea when the rock is wet.

The top is a saddle between two of the fins, and it is the view in the photograph at the top of this article: spires either side, valley below, the rest of the red rock country running off to the horizon. An hour and a half of effort buys all of that.

The parking is the catch, and it is absolute. The Cathedral Rock trailhead lot is closed to the general public whenever the Sedona Shuttle is operating, and reopens after the shuttles go out of service. The shuttle runs Thursday to Sunday year-round, plus daily during spring break and some holidays, so for a good part of the week the free bus from the North SR 179 Park and Ride is how you get to the trailhead.

Little Horse trailhead, incidentally, is not an overflow lot for it, and the city says so directly.

Why it's here: The best short hike in Sedona and probably the best short hike in Arizona. Turn up on a Saturday expecting to park at the trailhead, though, and you will not.

The Devil's Kitchen sinkhole on the Soldier Pass Trail in Sedona, a deep collapsed hollow in banded red sandstone with fallen slabs at the bottom and a red butte rising behind
Devil's Kitchen, the sinkhole near the start of the Soldier Pass Trail. The Seven Sacred Pools are a little further on.Photo: Coconino NF Photography — CC0
10

Soldier Pass

Soldier Pass Trailhead — Sedona Shuttle Route 14

Distance
2.4 miles one way, 4.8 miles round trip
Elevation change
450 ft
Trailhead
Soldier Pass — Sedona Shuttle Route 14
Parking
Lot closed Thursday to Sunday; gate 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Wednesday

The most eventful two and a half miles in Sedona. A quarter of a mile in the trail passes Devil's Kitchen, which the Forest Service calls the area's largest natural sinkhole, and a quarter of a mile after that the Seven Sacred Pools, a run of basins in the rock that hold water after rain.

It runs on in the partial shade of Arizona cypress, and then, in the Forest Service's words, becomes increasingly steep and rocky as it climbs to the pass, which looks south over Sedona and north into the wilderness.

It is also the hardest trailhead in Sedona to reach, and the reason behind that explains the whole shuttle system. The trailhead sits in a residential neighborhood and has fourteen parking spaces, and the Forest Service permit that lets the city's shuttles serve it caps Route 14 at 300 passengers per service day. That cap is a deliberate limit on how many people reach this canyon, and it is why the buses come less often here than anywhere else.

The parking rules are the strictest on the list. The Forest Service lot is closed to the public whenever the shuttle is operating, which is Thursday to Sunday. On Monday to Wednesday the gate opens at 8 a.m. and shuts at 6 p.m. Both agencies say the same thing about the rest of it: per Forest Service regulations the trailhead and the lot are always closed between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m., so there is no sunrise start here and no evening one either.

Why it's here: A sinkhole, a set of rock pools and a pass, in under five miles. The Forest Service still calls the first half often busy. The 300-a-day cap limits how many arrive by bus, not how many are on the trail.

When is the best time of year to hike in Sedona?

Spring and autumn, by a wide margin. The Forest Service tells summer visitors to the Coconino to avoid hiking between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. altogether, which takes the middle out of a summer day, and the City of Sedona says hundreds of hikers have to be rescued from these trails every summer because they were not ready for the heat. March through May and late September into November give you a full usable day instead of two ends of one.

Autumn has a second argument. The Forest Service says color usually starts appearing in late September and peaks through October, and on its fall-color page the Red Rock Ranger District gets exactly two walks: West Fork of Oak Creek and the Huckaby Trail. West Fork is the one with a season of its own.

Winter is quieter and colder than people expect, and snow does reach the red rocks. The Forest Service tells hikers not to attempt Bear Mountain when there is significant snow on it, and describes West Fork in winter as a place where icicles hang off the overhangs and snow lingers in the cool shadows. Wet rock also gets slick, which matters most on the slickrock scrambles like Cathedral Rock. Short days, cold mornings, and almost nobody about.

One piece of timing worth planning around whatever the season: the Coconino waives day-use fees at many recreation sites on a list of dates each year, published on the forest's passes page. If your trip happens to fall on one, the Red Rock Pass question answers itself.

A panorama of the red rocks near Sedona seen from a quiet paved road, a long line of red sandstone buttes and cliffs capped with pale cream rock rising above a broad plain of green juniper
Looking north up Dry Creek Road; the openings in the cliff line are Fay, Boynton, Long and Secret canyons. The Forest Service credits Doe Mountain's flat top to a layer of erosion-resistant cap rock, and the same pale caprock runs along this skyline.Photo: Brady Smith; Coconino National Forest — CC BY-SA 2.0

Which Sedona hikes have shade, and which have none?

Cover here is a matter of topography rather than luck. Canyon floors have trees and sometimes water; slickrock and open bench have neither, and that is where the rescues happen.

Canyon floor, closed-in walls, real cover

  • West Fork of Oak Creek — a canopy over the canyon floor, stream crossings, walls that lean in overhead
  • Boynton Canyon — opens in scrub, and the cover thickens as the canyon narrows
  • Fay Canyon — a short, level walk with towering walls close on both sides and trees along the wash
  • Soldier Pass, first mile — the Forest Service notes partial shade from Arizona cypress before the climb

Open slickrock and bench, no shade to speak of

  • Cathedral Rock — the Forest Service's word for it is unshaded, from near the start
  • Devil's Bridge — the city's own description of the approach is little shade
  • Bear Mountain — 1,800 feet of climbing, mostly unshaded by the Forest Service's account
  • Doe Mountain — short, but exposed switchbacks and a bare summit plateau
  • Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte — the Forest Service calls the loop mostly unshaded and hot in summer
  • Wilson Mountain — there is shade on parts of it, but enough open ground to make it hot work

What does a day of hiking in Sedona cost?

$5
Red Rock Pass, one day

Or $15 a week, $20 a year. It covers everyone in the vehicle.

$0
Sedona Shuttle fare

Trailhead routes are free and take no reservation.

1 liter
Water per person, per hour

The Forest Service's stated minimum in hot conditions.

300
Daily riders allowed to Soldier Pass

A cap written into the city's Forest Service permit.

Do you need a Red Rock Pass, and what does it cover?

Only to park, and only at a fee site, which is most Sedona trailheads. The Red Rock Pass costs $5 for a day, $15 for a week or $20 for a year, covers everyone in the vehicle, and is valid only on Coconino National Forest land. There is no permit to hike, no quota and no reservation for any trail on this list.

An America the Beautiful pass does the same job at most of those sites, so if you already own one for $80 a year you do not need to buy anything else. Either way the cardholder has to be present, and a Red Rock Pass cannot be moved between vehicles.

What neither covers is the short list of concessionaire-run sites. Call of the Canyon, which is the West Fork trailhead, plus Crescent Moon, Grasshopper Point, Beaver Creek and Lower Lake Mary all charge their own day fee and take neither pass. Only the Coconino Hospitality Annual Pass covers those, and it can only be bought in person at one of the five. Arizona's state parks (Slide Rock and Red Rock State Park) are separate again and charge their own entrance fee.

Buying one is easy at any hour. There are kiosk machines at the fee sites themselves, and Recreation.gov sells the pass online against your license plate rather than as a printed card. The Red Rock Ranger District visitor center on SR 179 sells daily and weekly passes, and the Sedona Chamber of Commerce sells them too.

Red Rock Pass vs America the Beautiful vs the Hospitality pass

Three different pieces of paper cover Sedona parking, and the one that catches people out is the trailhead none of the cheap ones reach.

Red Rock PassAmerica the BeautifulCoconino Hospitality Annual Pass
What it costs$5 a day, $15 a week, $20 a year$80 a yearSold in person at the sites it covers
Where it worksCoconino National Forest sites onlyStands in for a Red Rock Pass at most Sedona-area Coconino sitesThe five concessionaire-run sites on the Coconino
Covers the West Fork trailhead?NoNoYes. Call of the Canyon charges $15 a day
Covers Arizona state parks?NoNoNo

For nine of the ten hikes here, a Red Rock Pass or an America the Beautiful pass is all you need. West Fork is the exception, and Slide Rock and Red Rock State Park charge their own entrance fee on top of all three.

How do you ride the Sedona Shuttle to a trailhead?

The shuttle is free, takes no booking, and on the days it runs it is how you reach two of the ten. The city says it exists to relieve parking pressure at the busiest trailheads and the effects that had on the neighborhoods around them, and it serves five trailheads: Cathedral Rock, Little Horse, Soldier Pass, Dry Creek Vista and Mescal.

  1. 01

    Check the day before anything else

    Trailhead routes run year-round on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 7 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. They also run daily during spring break and on selected holidays.

    The supplemental and holiday calendar changes every year, and it lives on the shuttle's own site.

  2. 02

    Drive to the right park and ride

    There are three, and each one serves different trailheads. North SR 179 Park and Ride goes to Cathedral Rock and Little Horse. Posse Grounds, on Carruth Drive in West Sedona, goes to Soldier Pass. West SR 89A Park and Ride, on Upper Red Rock Loop Road, goes to Mescal and Dry Creek.

    No overnight parking, and RVs, campers and buses are not allowed in the park and ride lots.

  3. 03

    Turn up and get on

    There is no reservation, no ticket and no fare. You board at the designated stop, and that is the whole procedure. Route 14 to Soldier Pass runs least often, because the Forest Service permit caps it at 300 passengers per service day.

  4. 04

    Work backwards from the last bus

    Service finishes at 5.30 p.m., so plan the return around that rather than around sunset. At Soldier Pass there is a second deadline: Forest Service rules close both the trailhead and its parking lot between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. every day of the year.

  5. 05

    If you have no car at all

    Sedona Shuttle Connect, the city's on-demand service, runs half an hour either side of the trailhead route hours and will pick you up from a hotel and drop you at any of the three park and rides for a $2 flat fare.

Which Sedona trailheads need a pass, and which need the shuttle?

Every trailhead on this list, and the two other stops the shuttle serves, against what it costs and how you get there.

TrailheadParkingWhat it costsShuttle route
Bell Rock Pathway / Courthouse VistaSeveral signed lots on SR 179Red Rock Pass or America the BeautifulNone
Bear / Doe MountainShared lot on Boynton Pass RoadRed Rock Pass or America the BeautifulNone
Fay CanyonSmall lot on Boynton Pass RoadRed Rock Pass or America the BeautifulNone
Boynton CanyonTrailhead lotRed Rock Pass or America the BeautifulNone
Call of the Canyon (West Fork)Gated day-use site on SR 89A$15 a day. Neither pass is valid hereNone
Midgley Bridge (Wilson Mountain)Small lot on a bend of SR 89ARed Rock Pass or America the BeautifulNone
Dry Creek Vista (Devil's Bridge)Trailhead lot, also a shuttle stopRed Rock Pass or America the Beautiful if you driveRoute 11 from West SR 89A Park and Ride
Mescal (Devil's Bridge)Trailhead lot, also a shuttle stopRed Rock Pass or America the Beautiful if you driveRoute 11 from West SR 89A Park and Ride
Little HorseTrailhead lot. Not an overflow lot for Cathedral RockRed Rock Pass or America the BeautifulRoute 15 from North SR 179 Park and Ride
Cathedral RockClosed to the public whenever the shuttle is runningRed Rock Pass or America the Beautiful outside shuttle hoursRoute 15 from North SR 179 Park and Ride
Soldier PassClosed Thursday to Sunday. Gate 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to WednesdayNot on the Forest Service's list of fee sitesRoute 14 from Posse Grounds Park and Ride

Fee-site status is from the Coconino National Forest's Red Rock and Coconino Passes Program page; parking restrictions and routes are from the City of Sedona. Both change, so check them the week you travel.

Gear that matters on red rock

Three things do most of the work in Sedona: something to carry four liters of water in, shoes that grip dry sandstone, and a way to drink while you are moving.

Best Day Hiking Backpacks of 2026

Best Day Hiking Backpacks of 2026

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Best Hiking Shoes of 2026

Best Hiking Shoes of 2026

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Sedona day hiking, answered

Do you need a permit to hike in Sedona?

No. There is no hiking permit, quota or reservation for any trail in the Red Rock Ranger District. What you need is parking: most Sedona trailheads are Forest Service fee sites, so you display a Red Rock Pass ($5 a day, $15 a week, $20 a year) or an America the Beautiful pass in the vehicle.

Is the Sedona Shuttle free, and do you have to book it?

The trailhead routes are free and take no reservation. They run year-round Thursday to Sunday, 7 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., from three park and ride lots, and serve Cathedral Rock, Little Horse, Soldier Pass, Dry Creek Vista and Mescal. Service also runs daily during spring break and on some holidays.

Can you drive to the Cathedral Rock trailhead?

Only when the shuttle is not running. The City of Sedona states that the Cathedral Rock trailhead parking lot is closed to the general public whenever the shuttle is operating, and reopens once the buses go out of service. Since the shuttle runs Thursday to Sunday, that means most weekends are shuttle-only.

How much water should you carry hiking in Sedona?

The Forest Service recommends a minimum of one liter per person per hour in hot conditions, and its Red Rock Ranger District guide asks for at least a gallon (about four liters) per person per day. The City of Sedona adds a turnaround rule: head back once you have drunk half of what you brought.

What is the hardest day hike in Sedona?

Bear Mountain is the steepest of the longer ones, climbing 1,800 feet in 2.5 miles with almost no shade, and the Forest Service rates it strenuous. Wilson Mountain is the biggest overall: 5.6 miles one way and 2,400 feet of elevation change, which is the largest figure on the Forest Service's Sedona-area trail table.

Is the West Fork of Oak Creek trail open?

It was closed on 31 July 2026 under Forest Order 03-04-00-26-005, along with the Call of the Canyon day-use site, because the Pocket Fire left the watershed prone to flash flooding. That order runs to 30 September 2026. Check the Coconino National Forest alerts page before you drive out, because this kind of closure is issued and lifted on its own schedule.

Does a Red Rock Pass cover the West Fork trailhead?

No, and neither does an America the Beautiful pass. Call of the Canyon is one of five concessionaire-managed sites on the Coconino that charge their own fee, $15 a day here, and the only pass that covers them is the Coconino Hospitality Annual Pass, which is sold in person at those sites only.

Can you take a dog on these trails?

Yes, leashed, and dogs can ride the Sedona Shuttle in a carrier or muzzled and leashed. The city advises against hiking a dog at all once it reaches 90°F, notes that ground temperatures can hit 140°F, and suggests booties, shade breaks every 30 minutes and water for the animal.

Sources

Facts on this page were checked against these. Conditions, fees and rules change — check the official page before you go.

  1. Red Rock Ranger District Recreation Guide (trail table, one-way lengths) — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  2. Trails: Red Rock Ranger District trail descriptions and status — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  3. Red Rock & Coconino Passes Program — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  4. Passes: fee-free days and which sites charge — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  5. Brave the Elements: summer, monsoon and winter hazards — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  6. Oak Creek Temporary Area Closure (Forest Order 03-04-00-26-005) — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  7. Pocket Fire Temporary Area & Trail Closure (Forest Order 03-04-06-26-003) — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  8. Forest alerts and closures — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  9. Cathedral Rock Trail No. 170 — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  10. Soldier Pass Trail No. 66 — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  11. Devil's Bridge Trail No. 120 — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  12. Bear Mountain Trail No. 54 — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  13. Doe Mountain Trail No. 60 — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  14. Boynton Canyon Trail No. 47 — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  15. Wilson Mountain Trail No. 10 — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  16. West Fork Trail No. 108 (fees, restrictions, closure) — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  17. Fall Colors on the Coconino — USDA Forest Service, Coconino National Forest · checked August 29, 2026
  18. Sedona Shuttle Trailhead Routes — City of Sedona · checked August 29, 2026
  19. Sedona Shuttle FAQ: routes, park and rides, trailhead parking restrictions — City of Sedona · checked August 29, 2026
  20. Summer hiking safety tips — City of Sedona, with the USDA Forest Service and Friends of the Forest Sedona · checked August 29, 2026
  21. Trail maps for trailheads served by the Sedona Shuttle — City of Sedona · checked August 29, 2026

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