Sedona

Sedona is a small city of about 11,000 people at 4,500 feet in northern Arizona, surrounded by the red sandstone buttes of the Coconino National Forest. The city's tourism office counts about 200 trails around it. The best things to do in Sedona are outdoors: the trails to Cathedral Rock and Devil's Bridge, swimming at Slide Rock, and the dark night sky.

The rocks are national forest, not a national park, so the rules are the Forest Service's and the city's. We checked every fee, timetable and closure below on 26 October 2026, on the city's, Recreation.gov's and Arizona State Parks' own pages. The Forest Service's own pages could not be reached from where we checked, and the gaps are named where they matter.

When do you need a Red Rock Pass in Sedona?

The Red Rock Pass is needed when you leave your car at one of the Forest Service fee sites around Sedona: the trailheads and picnic areas that Recreation.gov lists, about twenty of them, including Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock, Boynton and Little Horse. It costs $5 a day, $15 for seven days or $20 a year. A daily pass runs until 11:59 p.m. on its date.

The pass is sold on Recreation.gov, where it is digital and checked against the licence plate, and from vending machines at the fee sites. The America the Beautiful pass is accepted instead of it. Neither covers the concession-run sites, such as Crescent Moon Ranch at Red Rock Crossing, Grasshopper Point and the West Fork car park, or the state parks.

Riders of the free trailhead shuttle need no pass, according to the city. Recreation.gov lists 11 November, 26 November and 25 December 2026 and 1 January 2027 as fee-free days at the Red Rock Pass sites.

How does the free Sedona Shuttle work?

The Sedona Shuttle is free, and it is the easiest way to the busiest trailheads, because two of them close their car parks while it runs. It leaves from three park-and-ride lots, where parking is free:

• North SR 179 lot, 1294 State Route 179: to Cathedral Rock and Little Horse.
• Posse Grounds lot, 20 Carruth Drive: to Soldier Pass.
• West SR 89A lot, 905 Upper Red Rock Loop Road: to Dry Creek Vista, for Devil's Bridge, and Mescal.

The shuttle normally runs Thursday to Sunday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., every 15 to 45 minutes, and every day in peak periods, as it did from 26 February to 26 April 2026 and over the 2025–26 Christmas holidays. While it runs, the Cathedral Rock and Soldier Pass trailhead car parks are closed. The shuttle's own news page had published no 2026 Thanksgiving or Christmas timetable by 30 October 2026; its last holiday notice was for 2025.

The city's on-demand Sedona Shuttle Connect costs $2 a ride, $1 for those over 60, from Thursday to Sunday, 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sedona's own airport has no commercial flights.

Which Sedona hikes are worth doing?

Sedona's classic hikes are short trails to red-rock landmarks. The lengths below are the Forest Service's own one-way lengths for each named trail, from its trail data. They do not include the walk from a car park or shuttle stop, which can add a good deal.

The city advises staying off the trails between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on hot days and carrying at least a quart of water per person per hour. It also asks hikers to keep to trails the Forest Service recognises rather than the informal paths between them.

Is Oak Creek Canyon open after the Pocket Fire?

Oak Creek Canyon, north of Sedona on State Route 89A, was hit by the Pocket Fire, which started on 19 June 2026 and was fully contained on 30 July. State Route 89A through the canyon closed for a time and had reopened by 16 July. After the fire, flooding from the burn scar closed Oak Creek and the swimming area at Slide Rock from 17 July to the end of September.

State Route 89A closed again in the storms at the start of November 2026. On 1 November Arizona's AZ511 feed listed a flooding closure near Wilson Canyon Road, at milepost 375, and a second closure near milepost 397, both with no end date. Both rows were still listed on 3 November without an update, so check AZ511 before driving the canyon road.

The West Fork Trail stays closed from 1 November 2026 through 28 February 2027, together with all forest land within 100 feet of the West Fork of Oak Creek, under a Coconino National Forest order signed on 22 October 2026. The forest gives rockfall and flood debris after rain as the reason.

On 30 October 2026 that was the only closure order for Oak Creek Canyon on the forest's alert list. On 30 July the city had also listed Call of the Canyon, Grasshopper Point, several picnic sites, Manzanita Campground and Oak Creek itself as closed; the November order names only the West Fork Trail. Check the forest's alerts before planning on West Fork.

A separate sewage spill sent between 1,000 and 5,000 gallons of untreated effluent into Oak Creek in town, at 671 State Route 179, on the evening of 25 October 2026. That is downstream of the canyon and Slide Rock, and the city is testing the water.

How does Slide Rock State Park work?

Slide Rock State Park is a natural water slide on Oak Creek, an 80-foot chute in the sandstone, about seven miles north of Sedona on State Route 89A. Half a mile of the creek is open for swimming, wading and sliding, with no lifeguard and no glass allowed.

Entry costs $30 per vehicle of up to four people from May to September and $20 from October to April, plus $5 per extra person. It is by car only, with no walk-ins, drop-offs or bicycles. The park has about 156 parking spaces; since 1 May 2026 the lot closes when full and cars may not wait on the highway, so the park warns a wait can take hours. Cards are preferred, and cash must be exact change.

The park opens from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. until 20 November, with last entry and swimming until 5 p.m., and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from 21 November to 30 January, with last entry at 4 p.m. On Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve it opens from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and it closes on Christmas Day.

The park's pages showed no swimming closure on 30 October 2026, and Arizona State Parks had issued no press release on the swimming area since announcing, on 31 July, a closure through September.

What else is worth seeing in Sedona?

The Chapel of the Holy Cross and Red Rock State Park are the two other stops most visitors make, and both are a short drive from town.

• Chapel of the Holy Cross: a chapel built into a red butte in 1956, on national forest land. It opens from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, last entry 4:45 p.m., with only 45 parking spaces and no RVs. The Shuttle Connect stops nearby at the Mystic Trailhead.
• Red Rock State Park: a 286-acre nature preserve on Oak Creek with five miles of loop trails, open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for $10 an adult.

Sedona was named the world's eighth International Dark Sky Community in 2014, the year its council adopted a dark-sky policy and a lighting plan. In Uptown, two lots are free all day and four free for three hours, while the meters on Main Street charge from $2 an hour, by card or app only.

When is Sedona too hot?

Sedona is too hot for midday hiking from June to September, when highs reach the 90s. The table gives NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals for the Sedona station, at 4,220 feet.

Sedona averages about 19 days a year at or above 100°F, and June is the driest month. July and August bring the monsoon rain, and in 2026 Arizona State Parks named flash flooding over the Pocket Fire burn scar as the main risk. Spring and autumn are the comfortable seasons.

What taxes are added to a Sedona bill?

Sedona adds its own 3.5 percent sales tax and a 3.5 percent bed tax on lodging. On a short-term rental the total comes to 13.9 percent in the part of the city in Coconino County and 13.325 percent in the part in Yavapai County, because the city straddles the county line. Our guide to sales tax in the USA explains how these appear on a bill.

How far is Sedona from Phoenix and the Grand Canyon?

Sedona is about 115 miles and a little over two hours from Phoenix by road, on our own routing, and about 30 miles from Flagstaff. The Park Service puts it 119 miles from the Grand Canyon's South Rim. Phoenix Sky Harbor and Flagstaff are the nearest airports with commercial flights, and a shuttle company runs between Sedona and Phoenix several times a day.

Arizona keeps Mountain Standard Time all year, so Sedona does not change its clocks. Sedona is one of the stops in our guide to Arizona, between Phoenix and the Grand Canyon National Park.