HI
I am doing a trip to Sedona in Arizona this weekend and wondered if any of you knew of some offroad tours to do within and around Sedona. I am mainly looking for mild offroading and dirt roads as the wife is coming along. Is Sedona canyon open to private 4WD or is it just a few companies that have access to it?
Thanks
Carsten

 

A few years ago I had fun following the pink heeps on the Broken Arrow trail-it is a pretty fun trail. Not much chance of body damage, except maybe on the stairs at the end.

 

Broken Arrow and Soldiers Pass are the only 2 trails in town. You can run both.

 

you can rent a TJ(newer wranglers) with BFG MT's from Farabees. I was there this past summer and rented from there. They are really good people, very nice. we rode broken arrow and some other trails. We mainly just used 4 wheel lo. I was/am relativley inexperienced in off-roading and i did it no problem. http://www.sedonajeeprentals.com/
thats the link to farabees jeeps. GOod luck

Heres one pic that i took in sedona


Matt

 

A Red Rock pass ($5.00) is required if you stop to sightsee in the Sedona area. You can purchase one in town.

Oak Creek is accesable via Hyw 89A. It's a paved two lane w/ pullouts. The fall colors are pretty nice right now in the canyon.

A good alternative with great veiws is Schnebly Hill Rd., (http://www.desertusa.com/mag02/aug/sed1.html) which is suitable for any stock vehicle.

Check out Jerome, AZ. while your in the area- it's an old mining town southwest of Sedona-

Later

 

I have to agree with doing the "Broken Arrow" trail, it's got some great views and some fun little challenges. I did it a couple of years ago on one of my trips down that way. If you can get around having a pink Jeep in half of your photos, you will come back with some good ones.

I also have to agree with visiting Jerome while you are in the area. It's a funny little town with a lot of history. It clings to the side of the mountain and is experiencing a third or fourth rebirth as a kind of funky little artists colony now.

 

Directions to Broken Arrow Trail.

http://azbackcountry.com/Trails/View.asp?T=3

FYI:

We are expecting a major winter storm Wednesday thru Thursday. It might be worth your while to take Hyw 89A on thru Oak Creek to Flagstaff to get some awesome veiws of the San Fransisco Peaks (12,611' Elevation) covered w/ fresh snow. On a side note, the red clay turns to grease when wet, so expect a little mud here and there. Broken Arrow is pretty much all slick rock like Moab, so mud shouldn't be a problem.

 

Thanks a lot for the recommendations and links guys. Broken Arrow sounds like good fun. Jerome is already on our list as we have 3-4 days in the area. I might also go check out the impact crater (can't remember the name) and Fransisco peak. Fall colors would be a bonus as I don't see much of that here in San Diego.
Cheers,
Carsten
PS: are the vermillion cliffs worth the long drive?

 

nope - unless you plan on going to the North Rim (and it "could" be closed by snow) it's a LONG drive.

Meteor Crator is cool- but even cooler is Walnut Canyon Nat. Park - it's on the way east of Flagstaff. It's got Indian ruins that you can walk thru down in the canyon.

Broken Arrow has a small "gate keeper" rock at the start of the trail. If you can't make it over easily, don't take the trail.

The road to the Snow Bowl (highest point you can drive on the Peaks - 9500') is on Hyw 180 to the Grand Canyon from Flagstaff - should be pretty SNOWY

Also in Flagstaff is the Museum of Northern Arizona- great stuff. It's also off Hyw 180. It features Geology, Native American Art

Prescott is west of Jerome on Hyw 89A- it was the original Territorial Capitol in 1862. There is a great little museum 2 blocks west of the Courthouse Square - the Sharlot Hall. It features buildings from the Territorial days including the original Govenors Mansion.

The Verde Valley (inbetween Sedona and Jerome ) also has two Nat. Parks with Indian Ruins. Tuzigoot, in Clarkdale (close to the road to Sedona from Jerome) and Montezuma's Well, north of Camp Verde off I-17. Historic Fort Verde, one of most important Forts of the Apache Wars, is also an interesting place to visit.

Enjoy your time!

 

Crawler
Thanks for all the cool tips
Carsten

 

broken arrow is fun, schnebly hill road is a fun one as well (not very difficult) never actually driven soldier pass. if you head up to flagstaff there is a ton of trails up there. even head out to the cinder hills.

 

Schnebly hill also has a small jeep trail right before you start heading down. we used to go up and camp there before riding our mt bikes down to Sedona.

 

Thanks for the input. I'm out of here

 

Did Ya Have Fun?

 

Crawler
Thanks for the recommendations. We had a great time in Sedona. What a great place for outdoor activities. We did a good deal of hiking and a little off roading.
I got to run Broken Arrow and scratched up the hitch some more. The Staircase part looked worse than it was, I am not sure that I would run it bottom to top though. It was really a fun trail with some amazing views. We did run into a few jeep tours and most of them were nice. I got some funny views from people on the jeep tour, one guy mentioned he would not even take his lifted 4x4 Ram up this rock, then what the heck did he get it lifted for?

Schnelby hill road was closed due to the rain so we ended up just hiking in that area. We also took a daytrip up to the Wupatki ruins north of Flagstaff and fund lots of snow at Snow bowl (my dog loves the snow). We also went out to the Palatki ruins and did some hiking on Bear Mountain (really great views). We stopped in Jerome on our drive to Sedona and enjoyed a great burger at Hounted Burger.

The 8h drive back to San Diego wasn't much fun. I wish we could stay longer in Sedona, but I am sure we will be back there in the future.
Cheers
Carsten

 

Cool!