Hiking and Mountain Biking the Red Rocks

Local Trails Info from a Sedona Insider, Dana G. Mayer

Steve and I have been on the Red Rock area trails for 11 years or so. Here’s a little about where we think you might want to go and what to expect. If you have questions, contact me. Our guests get free travel planning advice. I keep it brief and not too kooky.

Full disclosure: If you’re looking for tour info there is plenty of it available on the Internet, you will not find it here. I share the basics and a few suggestions you’re not likely to find on a card in the rack in a hotel lobby. I don’t promote tourist or timeshare-type activities. I like to save money and avoid crowds. If you’d like to scratch the surface of the local area and have an authentic experience, read on, Traveler.

SECTIONS
Trailheads / Maps / Day 1 Hike / Other Hikes / Mountain Biking / Nature & Birding / Park Links

THE BASICS. Recently named one of the top five destinations in the U.S. by TripAdvisor, Sedona is known for its great hiking and mountain biking. There are trails for every skill level and bike rentals are available by the day.  Or go play in a “natural” water slide at Slide Rock State Park located on Oak Creek. Slide Rock is a red rock formation that is not only beautiful, but also works as a red rock water slide.  While in the Oak Creek area, take the kids fishing, swimming or simply enjoy the natural beauty.

Speaking of natural beauty, the Grand Canyon is just a few hours from Sedona and makes the perfect day trip.  Drive or catch the Grand Canyon Railway.  An authentic steam engine train, the railway takes out from Williams to the Grand Canyon and back.  The trip itself is filled with great scenery.

At the risk of sounding like your mother, please be aware that the temperature can vary as much as 40 degrees during a typical day hike. Every year, hikers in Boynton Canyon and other places with sharp elevation changes succumb to hypothermia simply because of poor planning. They go out at midday when it’s sunny, without water or another layer of clothing and when night falls, they get lost and don’t always hold up to the cold and dehydration. Don’t let this happen to you. Take a long sleeved shirt even if you expect it to be 100 degrees. And take plenty of water and snacks. You may not get a clear signal for your mobile phone in some areas, so why take unnecessary chances? If you’re not familiar with “The 10 Essentials” it is a must have list for hikers. If you’re prepared, you have options. You can always go for a longer hike or decide at the last minute to drive to the next town and take a second hike. Okay, enough with the Boy Scout training, let’s get on to the fun stuff.

TRAILHEAD PARKING. All Sedona area trailheads charge $5 USD to park your vehicle, unless you have an annual pass displayed inside your windshield. Guests of EcoLuxury get use of a Grand Annual Pass during their stay which means parking and access to trailheads is FREE at most sites.

Hang the pass from your rearview mirror while you’re in town and just take it out of your vehicle before you head home. You may notice the expiration date looks odd, that’s because the passes are recycled and our pass has been reissued a few times. It is currently valid. We promise.

 Do not be fooled into thinking that because there is no guard or gate at some trailheads that you can get away with parking there and not get a ticket. Rangers patrol the lots regularly and issue tickets without exceptions to anyone parked for more than 15 minutes. Over $800,000 in annual revenue is produced from these fees, so they’re serious. According to the park service, the fees go to preserve “high impact recreational areas.”

The pass you get as our guest is valid for use as a parking permit to recreate in National Forest Land in Red Rock Country including these sites.

• Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock, Airport Mesa, Oak Creek Canyon/West Fork, and all National Park trails that are not developed campground or fee areas.
• Banjo Bill
• Grasshopper Point (good for a short walk along the creek)
• Crescent Moon (good for hummingbird/butterfly garden, handicapped accessible paved trail, short walk with Red Rock views
• Palatki Ruins and Rock Art (requires some dirt road driving to get to, ok with passenger cars that have clearance of 6” or more. Highly recommend you see this or one of the following two ruin sites.)
• Honanki Ruins
• V-Bar-V Heritage Site
• The Grand Annual Pass is not valid for the use of other fee areas and developed campgrounds such as Slide Rock and Red Rock Crossing. If you have a National Parks Annual Pass, you may be able to enter without paying the fee at those sites. If you’re not sure what pass you have, pictures are posted at this link. The pass you get at the casita is yellow/gold.

MAPS. Guests will find maps and trail guides in the casita, including those in the book Top Ten Hikes which we highly recommend you use to plan your hikes.  Guests will also be sent a “Welcome Letter” with details about nearby trails.  But if you just can’t wait ‘til you get to Sedona to plan your hikes or you’re just curious, read on for a few highlights from a local’s perspective.

The only map most people need for hiking and mountain biking is the Coconino National Forest Map. Click on the link, look for the shaded box on the far right side of your screen, scroll down to the jpg links for “North Half” and “South Half.” Print or make your plans from the “South Half” map which has most of the trails in the area.

DAY 1 HIKE.  If you haven’t been to Sedona before or haven’t done much hiking, you may want to start out with the trails around Airport Mesa.  The most visited spot in Sedona is the Airport Mesa Sunset Parking Area.  You can drive to this lot and watch the sunset with 25 to 100 other people. Or for an experience with more nature and fewer cars, hike the trails around the mesa.

The Airport Loop trail passes by a famous “vortex” and has views of most Sedona area landmarks including Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock, Thunder Mountain, Courthouse Butte, Sycamore Canyon, and Red Rock Loop.  The views will give you a feel for how the area is laid out and help you determine where you might like to hike on Day 2.

Bandit, Sunset, Airport Loop, and Carol Canyon trails all go along or around Airport Mesa.  The trails will be very hot in summer, so avoid hiking for more than an hour from 11 AM to 4 PM.  The wash in Carol Canyon will be somewhat cooler at these times as there are some trees and it is a wash.  Do not go in any washes, also called  arroyos (say “a-roy-oh”) when it is raining.  It may look like a dry riverbed, but it will fill with a wall of water in heavy rains.

Park at Shelby Road across from the Recycling Center and hike Carol Canyon Trail to Airport Loop or stay in the canyon.  Or enter at Sunset Park across from the Seventh Day Adventist Church on S. Sunset Drive.  Sunset  turns into Shelby, making a horseshoe shaped road off 89-A.  This is the best entrance for Airport Loop and Bandit Trails.

The trailhead for Airport Loop is visible from the parking lot of the Seventh Day Adventist Church at the top of the hill on Sunset to the left. Services are held there on Saturdays and there is a sign that says no parking at the church parking lot without permission. During daylight hours there is parking across the street at Sunset Park.

For a 20-60 minute hike with great views, take the trail from the church parking lot (Airport Loop) and when it forks left AND right, take Bandit Trail to the right headed SW. It forks again to go to the top of the mesa, where you’ll have spectacular views of Cathedral Rock, Court House Butte and much of Sedona. When you see the airport wind cones in the distance, turn around and come back the way you came. Much more fun than a StairMaster.

For a longer trip, continue around the mesa in a loop back to the fork. This takes 90 minutes to three hours to complete from the beginning depending on how many stops you make to take in the view and how fast you hike.

Or go to the Ridge Trail and explore Carol Canyon. The paths are somewhat rocky, but there are many places to rest along the way and enjoy the vistas. It is a moderately flat trail with only one steep but short stretch.

OTHER DAY HIKES.  One of my favorite in-town hikes is to Devil’s Kitchen and the Seven Sacred Pools. It’s a close, easy, short hike with all the special effects and sacred energy for which Sedona is known. The trails were recently redone so hikers can walk without being run down by the jeep tours as they were in the past. IMPORTANT caveat here: unless you like to hike with a mob, this hike is miserable on the weekend or holidays. Go early morning or dinner time. Otherwise, the place is crawling with jeep tours. The gate locks at sunset, so if you go at dinner time, make sure it’s when it stays light out.

A little further out-of-town and rarely-crawling-with-tourists hike is Doe Mountain, off Dry Creek Road. You’ll feel like you got a good workout, but it doesn’t take more than 90 minutes to three hours. Most people can do this hike. If you’re in top physical shape and have had time to adjust to the altitude, go across the street from Doe Mountain and hike Bear Mountain.  Bear takes 3-6 hours, depending on your fitness level and stops along the way.  It is a good warm weather hike because you’ll cool off when the elevation changes.  Very strenuous hike.

 

MOUNTAIN BIKING. The easiest trails to find, park and ride without restrictions are any of the numerous trails around Bell Rock and Airport Mesa.

NATURE AND BIRDING. You will see many birds here and a few lizards, if you’re lucky. Gambel’s quail, hummingbirds, goldfinches, and bluebirds make the juniper grove their home and can be seen almost everyday from the casita. At night, you may hear coyotes howling on the mesa. To help you identify area birds use the Guide to Birding in the Verde Valley Area and look here to identify local plants.

Javelina (say, “have-a-leena”), an animal similar to a wild boar, but smells worse, occasionally run through the arroyo (wash) in the morning and evening, look for them out the kitchen window. Stay out of their way and do not feed them, especially if they have babies! They do not see well. Generally, javelina do not attack unless they feel threatened, but like all the wildlife in the area, it is best to respect them at a safe distance. If you’re out hiking, you’ll probably HEAR or SMELL the javelina before you see them. Be still or walk quietly away without staring at them and they’ll probably run from you. Javelina are peccaries, more like deer than pigs.

Birds spotted here, depending on the season, include colibrí, both broad-tailed and black-chinned, and western bluebirds, finches, lots of Gambel’s quail and towhees—spotted, canyon and Abert’s, road runners, pinyon jays, western scrub jays, gray jays, ravens, Clark’s nutcracker, flycatchers, woodpeckers, white capped sparrows, Bewick’s and house wrens, pyrrhuloxia (looks like a cardinal), bush tit, mountain chickadee, pygmy nuthatch, brown creeper, and doves. All of which are eaten by the sharp-shinned hawks who nest nearby and hunt feeder birds.

SNAKES. Many visitors come to Sedona for years and never hear or see a rattlesnake. The snake’s keen sense of smell alerts it to the scent of humans on well-used trails, and it will avoid these areas. Additionally, the rattlesnake found in the Sedona area is smaller and less aggressive than its cousin to the south.

In the summer, you have a 50/50 chance of hearing one on the rocky trails. The less used the trail, the more likely you are to have an encounter. Most often you will hear and not see it. If you do see it, move away without sudden movements. Most often, you’ll see the rattlers off-road, in the evening when they lie on the road to soak up the heat.  The backside of Airport Mesa is less travelled, so you may encounter a rattler on Brewer Trail or the far side of the Loop Trail at dusk or dawn when they hunt mice and rats. I’ve never seen one, but my neighbors have reported them. 

SCORPIONS. These insects like rocks and dark spots. Their sting is painful, like a bee sting, but rarely deadly. If you see a scorpion, just get away from it, like most animals, they sting only to defend themselves. They tend to live in colonies and hang out in garages. The casita is not located near a known colony and I have never seen one at the casita.

TARANTULAS. These slow-moving, gentle giants can be spotted crossing streets and trails. Leave them alone and they’ll leave you alone, they’re not aggressive.

LINKS TO PARKS

Red Rock State Park - 928-282-6907
Slide Rock State Park - 928-282-3034
Sedona Parks & Recreation - 928-282-7098
Grand Canyon/National Park Service
Grand Canyon Lodging
Grand Canyon Private Tours
Arizona National Parks

 

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