Great trail, but mileage listed is incorrect. It's also considered a "difficult" trail. It's about 4 miles to Vultee Arch from Sterling Pass Trailhead on 89A.
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Absolutely beautiful. While it does run along a new resort for a little while, the trail is partially shaded and gorgeous. Don’t miss going up to Subway Caves at the top-find the scramble thru the trees up instead of up the Subway. Caves are worth it!
Vortex at base is stunning also.
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What an awesome hike! Challenge enough, beautiful views, interesting sights. Highly recommend!
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We saw a lot of bear scat, largest pinion trees/forests I have ever seen, and beautiful manzanita. We basically followed a ravine that had beautiful rock walls.
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It’s a slow climb at first and steepens under the mesa. Beautiful views on top of mesa. Soldiers cave is just below on the left. Great hike!
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Well maintained trail, good mix of dirt path and large rocks to maneuver. Beautiful scenic landscapes. Mud and snow covered a large section of the trail. Make sure to have gps activated on map as the trails are not marked. With the snow the trails weren’t clear. We initially missed the turn to the cave but backtracked pretty quick. Then a downed tree and another well worn path took us off course again. Without gps this would have been almost impossible to navigate given the conditions. Multiple separate groups of hikers dealt with the same issue. Once at the cave the views are worth the hike. There were roughly 10 other groups when we were there not overcrowded and everyone was considerate and friendly. You can climb the steep rock in the middle to get into the cave or hike around the left side and up and around the ledge into the mouth of the cage.
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Great! Nice mix of views and twisting through scrubby forest. Devils Bridge was crowded but worth the climb, otherwise not too many people on the Brins Mesa and Chuckwagon trails. Had a near encounter with a carnivore (mountain lion?) on Brins Mesa, so keep an eye out.
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Best in Sedona. Stunning panoramic views and less people so it was incredible
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This is a fun, but challenging hike due to the elevation changes. It’s a steep, narrow, and rocky trail. Fantastic views and great shade throughout the majority of the hike. This is the quiet road less traveled to Vultee Arch. One you will not regret taking!
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Took Cibola pass trail to Soldier Pass trail and did the caves and then we explored around and cut over to Brins Mesa Trail and did the entire Brins Mesa Trail and then we explored up a large wash that somewhat parallels the latter part of Brins Mesa Trail just before the parking lot. The wash required lots of boulder hopping. We were hoping to get up to the Cliffs but it was further than we expected.
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Brin’s Mesa with the girls of yellow flowers at this time is pretty spectacular! I much prefer the hike up from Jordan trail head. The trail down soldiers pass is rocky and lose comparatively.
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Best in Sedona. Stunning panoramic views and less people so it was incredible
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Interagency pass not accepted here. Not sure why since it appears to be USFS administered.
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I did this hike a decade ago and it has always sat in my memory as one of my favorite Sedona hikes. I did a quick hike up to the edge of the mess tonight for a refresher and can confirm it’s a great hike still. Starts off as a great warm up, wide path and a gentle incline for about the first mile. It then stepped into a meandering staircase climb to the base of the Mesa in the last half mile. The scenery is stunning. Great views west to steamboat rock and the fin, and easy to morning glory spire, the mitten and Brin’s Butte. To the north you look into the canyon bounding Willson mountain. At the Mesa you get views further north and west and, heck, 360 degrees all around. The return trip down hill has bites off uptown Sedona and the formations to the south including snoopy rock and bell rock in the distance. Hard to beat!
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Nice hike. A lot more greenery today over the last time I hiked (about 8 yrs ago). Too bad the resort just keeps growing and growing.
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Crowded and easy hike with good views. Not as special as some other nearby hikes.
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Easy hike through the Junipers to a cutout in the rocks called the Birthing Cave. The cave itself is more of a cutout rather than the cave but it photographs well. This is a busy place and finding parking can be difficult on busy days.
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Good views, a nice mix of flat and challenging terrain. Nice hike for beginners and those with more experience. The views are terrific toward the end. Lots of bikes so be aware if you are hiking.
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Great hike for views of Sedona and Wilson Mountain. It combines Cibola, Jordan, Soldier Pass and then Brins Mesa for the loop.
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Very beautiful easy hike with many water crossings. Saw a Red Start (bird).
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Cool feature to hike to but when we went it was like waiting for a ride at Disneyland. Very busy and a line of people waiting to take a picture with the arch
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Great hike with awesome views. Lots of foot traffic. Everyone we encountered was friendly and at the bridge itself everyone took turns taking pictures. If you are going in the middle of the day, like we did, there are plenty shade opportunities to take a break a long the way. Watch out for the off-road vehicles if you are hiking from the parking lot.
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This hike has everything! You will need a 4x4 to get to the Trailhead, as the 4 mile road back to it is rough. There was nobody else here at all. The hike has an elevation gain of 530’, and has sand, slick rock, riparian forest, washes, and of course the arch! Early morning or later evening would be the best times to hike. When we finished it was 102 at the Trailhead, but we finished at noon. Our 6 year old finished with no trouble, but remember to bring lots of water!
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This is by far my favorite Sedona trail. There are 13 creek crossings until the end of the formal trail. After that, you can continue up the creek bed if you are willing to wade into the water to barely knee height. So worth it to continue on for at least 0.5 miles. Easy, minimal challenges aside from shallow creek crossings and climbing over a few fallen trees. It’s easy to miss creek crossing points, but you figure it out quickly when the trail runs out. Shaded throughout. During COVID on a weekday we saw very few people on the trail (arrived in the parking lot around 9:15 AM). Needed a light jacket for the first 30 minutes because of the breeze and cool water.
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My “exercise hike”. I do this one at least once a week. VERY heavily trafficked in tourist season.
Bring plenty of water for this one in the summer.
There are few places to hide from the sun. Paramedics hang out in the parking lot with IV bags for those who don’t heed the signs to stay hydrated.
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This is a great loop trail that hits the must-see attractions on Soldier’s Pass, but it has the advantages of abundant parking and outstanding views from Brin’s Mesa (exceeding any of the views on Soldier’s Pass IMO). This loop included a stop at the arches/cave as well.
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Fun little hike to a wonderful natural bridge. Easy, flatish hike from the paved road. At the end there are some exciting steps up the hillside to add that frisson of fear. The only drawback was the crowd at the top waiting to take pictures. Just more reason to come back when there aren’t so many people.
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2019-03-13
Great hike. The views keep getting better the higher you climb. My total travel Tim was about 4 hours, with about 1 hour of rests/photos/food. Left the trailhead at 1pm, back by 6pm.
There was light snow at the top, a nice way to cap the trail.
The trail is quite a scramble, so if that’s not your thing maybe do a different one. But the effort involved is totally worth it for the views.
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