Our Top 4 Sedona Trail Books
Sedona hiking is amazing and even if you’re a mountain biker, it’s worth adding a hike into your Sedona plans. Whether you’re staying at a hotel or a Sedona Airbnb, it’s easy to throw in a quick hike. Here's our top 4 Sedona trail guidebooks that'll make your hike-and bike-route planning a breeze!
Sedona Hikes
The ultimate hiking guide to Sedona! No other book offers nearly every hiking trail in Sedona, along with different combinations of trail links to make a great loop. Going beyond the most popular trails that get the most traffic, this book is a great source to find the less crowded trails. If there’s any negatives here, it's that there’s too many choices! With so many great options, it can be hard to pick just one. Speaking of picking the right trail, the author does a great job of organizing the trails by neighborhood. This way you can easily find all the hike options based on where you’re staying in Sedona. Additional book features include: trail descriptions, directions, maps, color photos, and a great index of all the trails: from A to Z and by level of difficulty. There are hikes for all levels from beginner to the skilled adventurer.
Sedona’s Top 10 Hikes
Great book that accurately guides you to the true top 10 hikes in Sedona. The author has organized the hikes into 5 categories of length and difficulty. There is valuable information like parking, GPS coordinates, highlights, pictures, maps, average Sedona weather, and restroom availability. There is a lot of detailed information presented in an easy to use book that will fit nicely into your backpack. The author is smart to be on the cautious side of how he classifies these trails, and focusing on day hikes that the average visitor can accomplish while here in Sedona. The only negative on the Top 10 here is that these hikes are truly popular for this reason, expect to see many other hikers out on these same trails. The most crowded hike on this list would be either devil’s bridge Sedona or cathedral rock Sedona. If you’re looking to avoid crowds, using the Sedona Hikes book above provides way more options to find less crowded trails. But if you’re visiting Sedona for a couple of days with limited time, this book easily gets you to amazing hikes.
What is a Vortex?
We get asked all the time! The author does a great job of delving into the characteristics of what makes up a vortex and where they are in Sedona. Even if you are not into the metaphysical effects of a vortex, they are still beautiful sites nonetheless, that are worth a visit. Naturally, these sites have some of the best views in Sedona and would be popular whether they are a vortex or not. This book does a great job of getting you to these sites, with practical background information, all in a compact book that easily fits in a backpack. The author probably could have made this book much thicker with vortex theories and conspiracies, but we appreciate that he kept this book on the more practical end - well, at least as practical as you can. Reading this book is a great way to make the most of your trip to Sedona!
Sedona Singletrack Trail Map
This topography map is made by Beartooth Publishing, and is by far the best topo map we’ve seen of Sedona. If you have any appreciation for cartography, you’ll agree this is a great map! Many times, topo maps can have too much information crammed into a small area. Beartooth does a great job of zooming in at just the right view and removing all the unnecessary info to make the info that counts all the more visible. Seeing how trails can link together, how roads get to parking lots, showing paved and unpaved roads, all spread out nicely on a big fold out map - really helps make navigation as good or better than any app can. In addition, trail mileage and accurate trail ratings are printed on every single trail. There is even a section of suggested rides, complete with mileage, elevation gain, and directions - giving enough info to make this map double as a guide book! This map is really the go-to for Sedona mountain biking, but considering it’s layout that includes most wilderness areas, we highly recommend this map for Sedona hikes as well. Another alternative of this map is the Sedona Outdoor Recreation Map, also made by Beartooth Publishing. This map gives you a much more zoomed out view of Sedona, showing the wilderness areas (like Secret Wilderness and Mogollon Rim) and OHV dirt roads just outside of Sedona. If you plan to explore with a 4x4 vehicle, this is the best option out there.
Conclusion
By foot or by wheel, the trails in and around Sedona offer something for everyone! Our personal recommendations; for a strenuous uphill hike into the wilderness where mountain biking is not allowed - check out Bear Mountain Trail. For an easy hike to take the kids or whole family, check out Bell Rock trail Sedona or Buddha Beach. For a hike involving a vortex, check out Mescal Mountain trail Sedona. For a quick hike to catch a sunset, check out Doe Mountain trail or Sugar Loaf Summit trail. And for a rocky intermediate level hike with 360 views of Sedona, check out Airport Loop trail Sedona. We hope these books and recommendations get you on the right path!
