Fee-Free Days at Sedona Trailheads

By Phalen Vitas — Sedona-based hospitality professional. Spotted something outdated? Tell us.

Ten days in 2026, the Forest Service waives its day-use fees nationwide — meaning you can park at Sedona’s pass-required trailheads with nothing on the dash. Two of those days are still ahead this year. Here is the full list, what the waiver actually includes, and the catch nobody advertises.

All ten 2026 dates

What the waiver covers

Standard amenity day-use fees — which around Sedona means the Red Rock Pass requirement at Forest Service fee trailheads, vistas and picnic sites. Park, hike, leave; no pass, no plate registration, no display.

What stays paid

Two exclusions matter here more than almost anywhere else in the country. Concession-operated sites — Crescent Moon and its siblings — may not participate; that caveat comes from the Forest Service itself, so don’t count on a free gate at the creek. And the state parks never take part: Slide Rock and Red Rock State Park charge their normal entry fees on every date above, because federal waivers don’t reach state land.

A longer list on the Red Rock Pass sales page

One official source disagrees. The Red Rock Pass listing on Recreation.gov — the page where the Forest Service sells the pass online — carries its own “Fee Free Days” list for Red Rock, and it is longer than the national list above. Besides those ten dates it names New Year’s Day; the Martin Luther King Jr., Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends; Juneteenth; August 4; Columbus Day; Thanksgiving; and Christmas. For the rest of 2026 that adds two dates on that page — Thursday, November 26 and Friday, December 25 — plus January 1, 2027.

We cannot reconcile the two yet. The Forest Service’s national page lists ten 2026 dates and was updated for the June 6 addition, while the Recreation.gov list includes days, such as Juneteenth and August 4, that are not on the 2026 national list. Until the Red Rock Ranger District confirms which applies, treat October 27 and November 11 as the dates you can rely on. If you plan to park at a fee site on Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Day without a pass, call (928) 203-2900 first — or buy the $5 daily and treat it as insurance. The Sedona Shuttle does not run on Thanksgiving or Christmas, so the Cathedral Rock lot follows its normal non-shuttle rules on both days.

The catch: everyone else read this page too

A waived $5 fee is modest bait, but a free day can still bring more cars to the popular lots than an ordinary weekday. Both dates left in 2026 fall midweek — Tuesday, October 27 and Wednesday, November 11 — and the Sedona Shuttle’s regular schedule is Thursday through Sunday. On a normal non-shuttle day the Cathedral Rock and Soldier Pass lots are open to private vehicles, so on these two dates they should be both drivable and fee-free. Check the shuttle schedule and lot-closure rules the week before in case holiday service is added, and plan an early start: a waived fee does not hold a parking space.

Forest Service dates are not the national park dates

Search for 2026 fee-free days and the first list you meet is usually the National Park Service’s, which is a different calendar. The Park Service list adds June 14, the July 3–5 weekend and August 25, leaves out Martin Luther King Jr. Day, National Trails Day, National Get Outdoors Day and National Public Lands Day, and — new in 2026 — applies to U.S. citizens and residents only. None of that governs Sedona’s trailheads. The Coconino National Forest follows the Forest Service list in the table above, and the Forest Service’s passes page attaches no residency condition to its fee-free days.

Common questions