Red Rock Pass Cost: Current Prices
These are the prices the Forest Service charges today for the Red Rock Pass, and exactly what a single pass buys.
| Pass | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Daily | $5 | One calendar day, per vehicle |
| Weekly | $15 | Seven consecutive days, per vehicle |
| Annual | $20 | Twelve consecutive months, per vehicle |
The figures on this page change only when the Forest Service’s do. When that happens, our dated log of programme changes shows exactly what changed and when.
What One Pass Buys
The pass is priced per vehicle, not per person. One daily pass covers the parked car and everyone who arrived in it for one calendar day; the weekly runs seven consecutive days; the annual runs twelve months. Nobody in the car pays individually, and walk-up admission is not what is being sold — this is a parking fee for designated day-use sites with amenities.
What it is not: it is not a reservation, so a full lot is still a full lot. And it does not apply everywhere — the four concession-run creek sites near Sedona (a fifth, Lower Lake Mary, is near Flagstaff) and the two state parks charge their own separate fees and do not accept it. Those exceptions have their own pages on this site.
Is the $20 Annual the Smart Move?
The arithmetic is short. An annual pass costs the same as four daily passes, or one weekly plus one daily, and only $5 more than a single weekly. So it wins once you will park at fee sites on five or more days in twelve months — a trip with more than a week of trailhead days, a second visit with a couple of hiking days, or a few day trips a year from within driving range. For one short visit it does not: one or two trailhead days cost $5 or $10 in dailies, three cost $15 whether you buy dailies or a weekly, and the weekly covers up to seven.
Whichever length you settle on, the pass is sold the same four ways — Recreation.gov, the fee machines at the sites, the Red Rock Ranger Visitor Center and the Sedona Chamber — and the where-to-buy guide ranks those channels by reliability, including the plate-registration details for buying online.
Count parking days, not trip days. A day on the free shuttle, at Slide Rock or at the concession-run creek sites puts no car at a Red Rock Pass site. The side-by-side pass comparison works through five common trip shapes.
One caution on names: the $50 Coconino Hospitality Annual Pass is a different product for a different set of sites — the five concession-run areas the Red Rock Pass does not cover. It is a complement to the $20 annual, not an upgrade of it.
Why You See Different Numbers Online
Stale figures survive for years on travel blogs and forum threads. The discontinued Grand Annual Pass — $40, later $45 — still appears on plenty of sites even though it has been replaced by the $50 Coconino Hospitality Annual Pass, and outdated concession-site rates circulate too. When numbers conflict, trust a dated source; the table above tells you when it was last checked, and the update log records every change we have verified.
The Proposed $10 Day Pass Is Not in Effect
If you have seen a $10 Red Rock Pass quoted, it probably traces to a proposal rather than a price. In 2025 the Coconino National Forest proposed raising the standard Red Rock Pass sites from $5 to $10 a day, $15 to $30 a week and $20 to $60 a year. Public comment closed on September 5, 2025, and the proposal goes to a citizens’ advisory committee before the Regional Forester decides.
As of October 17, 2026, we have found no published decision, and the Forest Service’s own passes page and fee-site pages still list $5, $15 and $20. Until a decision is announced with an effective date, those are the prices you pay. If the increase is approved, this page and the update log will carry the date it takes effect.
One genuine $10 day fee does exist in the program: Upper Lake Mary, near Flagstaff, sells its own day pass at $10. It also honors a Red Rock Pass or America the Beautiful pass, so a Sedona pass already on your dashboard covers it.
Price Questions, Answered
How much is a Red Rock Pass?
Is the price per person or per vehicle?
Is America the Beautiful cheaper?
Does the Red Rock Pass cover camping?
No. The pass is a day-use parking permit — it covers leaving your vehicle at a fee site while you hike, picnic or sightsee, and nothing else. Camping is billed separately. The Forest Service campgrounds in Oak Creek Canyon run $30 a night for one vehicle and up to eight people, with a second vehicle adding $10; they are operated by Coconino Hospitality and booked through Recreation.gov. Campground availability shifts with the season and with fire and flood closures, so check the campground listings on Recreation.gov before you plan around one. Stays are capped at seven days, and holders of a Senior or Access interagency pass pay half the nightly rate.
One honest caveat: the Forest Service does not publish an explicit statement that a Red Rock Pass is not also required at a campground. No campground page mentions one and the pass is described throughout as day-use parking, so we read it as not required — but that is our reading of the silence, not a published rule.
Can I sleep in my car at a trailhead, or camp for free near Sedona?
Not in the Sedona corridor. A standing Forest Service order — 03-04-06-23-03, in effect until January 2033 — prohibits camping on national forest land across Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon except inside the Pine Flat, Cave Springs, Manzanita and Chavez Crossing campgrounds. Sleeping in a vehicle counts as camping.
West of town a separate order confines camping to eight designated dispersed areas: Rockview, Angel Valley, Javelina, Surprise, Windmill, Cockscomb, Greasy Spoon and Nolan. That order was renewed as order 03-04-06-26-04, in effect from August 31, 2026 to August 31, 2028, with the same eight designated areas.
Pass-change alert
Rules and fees around Sedona change often
Rather than re-check this page yourself, hand us the checking. We re-read the Forest Service’s own pages on a monthly cycle, and you get one email on the day something actually changes — a fee, a covered site, or a closure. No speculation.
One email when it happens. No newsletter, no tour offers, unsubscribe in one click. See our privacy page.
- Coconino NF: Red Rock & Coconino Passes Program — current $5/$15/$20 tiers and where each pass is sold
- USFS Red Rock Recreation Guide (PDF, July 2024) — calendar-day, seven-consecutive-day and twelve-consecutive-month validity; per-vehicle rule
- Coconino NF: Proposed Changes to Recreation Fees — the proposed $10/$30/$60 tiers and the review process
- Coconino NF: Upper Lake Mary — $10 day fee; Red Rock Pass and America the Beautiful accepted
- Visit Sedona Red Rock Pass Q&A — program mechanics
- Sedona & Oak Creek Canyon camping and campfire restrictions (USFS) — Sedona/Oak Creek camping prohibition, in force to January 2033
- West Sedona camping and campfire restrictions, order 03-04-06-26-04 (USFS) — the eight designated dispersed areas west of Sedona, August 31, 2026 to August 31, 2028
- Cave Springs Campground (Recreation.gov) — Cave Springs Campground nightly rate and booking