Hello friends!
John (my husband) and I have moved to Arizona! Payson, in fact. And yes, we are loving it here and how kind the weather has been to us. It makes for some pretty rad weekend trips! Read on to know how we took on some of the best hikes in Sedona all in one day!
We are REALLY ambitious and we may have gotten a little too excited about all of the hiking :) But, we ended up with some really good beta on what to see!
Cathedral Rock Trail
Don't waste your day! Get up early to see the sunrise from the trail of Cathedral rock! And also seriously get up early to find a parking spot...it can be that crowded.
This trail is 1.5 miles up and back with some really fun rock scrambling. Nothing exposed or scary. A pro tip for this climb is to do more exploring once you reach the trail's end sign! You can wind your way through the pillars of rock to find some really cool viewpoints. My favorite spot was left of the trail sign and curving behind the wall. If you scramble between the two large walls on either side, you will top out at a viewpoint with a totem pole style pillar! We got on this trail at 7:30 am and it was already busy with people.
Birthing Cave Trail
This trail is an off-shoot of the Long Canyon trail. We parked roadside and found it easy to find a spot even 9:30 am when we started. By this time, many popular trails are starting to fill up and finding parking is rough. My Strava shows about 2.6 miles round trip, but we did a little extra exploring. The "cave" is more of an overhang, but it truly feels like a womb! I highly recommend slab climbing up to the belly button!
Soldier's Pass Trail and Cave
Heads up, parking is a bit tricky and this is probably best done in the early morning! We clocked in at around 7.5 miles, but the trail is actually shorter (we had to walk to a far away parking lot which added a mile). My favorite thing to see on the trail was the 7 sacred pools! They make for a nice rest and they are a very aesthetic photo.
There is a little elevation gain to the cave and you can actually go inside the cave!
Most people are pretty nervous about the height, so we had to be careful to give other folks room to climb up. Not everyone loves heights like rock climbers :) This trail would make for a good trail run!
Bear Mountain Trail
Ok! This hike was seriously amazing! And as we would find out a local favorite. It is just long enough and a little more remote that it doesn't draw the crowds like the other shorter hikes. This was the perfect way to end our day with a challenge! 5 miles out and back and over 2000 feet of elevation gain. The trail ends at the top of Bear mountain and we were able to make it up and back in 2 hours instead of the recommended 5 hours. So, for the trail runners like us, this is really good training for quick elevation gain.
