Which Sedona Trailheads Require a Red Rock Pass?

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 Spotted something outdated?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

Ask three sources which Sedona trailheads need a Red Rock Pass and you will get three different lists. The Forest Service’s own fee-site table settles most of it. This page follows that table, adds the Sedona-specific notes it leaves out, flags what is closed as of October 17, 2026, and shows where other lists disagree instead of papering over it.

How to read the table

Sites are grouped the way you will actually meet them: the in-town trailheads first, then picnic and observation sites, Oak Creek Canyon, the heritage sites, and finally the Flagstaff-area entries that appear on the Forest Service list but are nowhere near Sedona. Every closure flag carries its date — closures in 2026 have moved in phases since the Pocket Fire, so check the linked Forest Service page or call (928) 203-2900 before driving to anything marked closed.

Rows tagged film link to SedonaReady’s free trail preview page for the trail that leaves from that lot. The full first-person film, shot start to finish, is sold separately on SedonaReady.

Every Forest Service row for the Sedona area appears in the table, under the Forest Service’s name or a noted variant. Two rows are our own additions and are flagged: Soldier Pass, which many visitors expect to be a fee site but which no official list includes, and Banjo Bill, which is closed. The reconciliation section below explains both.

Four of Sedona’s busiest destinations — Crescent Moon, Grasshopper Point, West Fork, and Beaver Creek — are deliberately absent from this table. They are concession-run and the Red Rock Pass does not work there at all; they are covered on our page about sites that charge separately. Likewise, the Oak Creek Canyon picnic rows above are just the summary — the closure detail and reopening picture live on our Oak Creek Canyon picnic sites page, and the reservation rules for Palatki, Honanki, and Crane are on the heritage sites page.

How the pass behaves across these sites

Whichever rows apply to your plans, the mechanics are the same everywhere in the table’s Sedona groups. The pass belongs to the vehicle, not to a person or a trail: one valid pass on the dashboard — or one plate registered through an online purchase — covers everyone who arrived in that car, at any designated fee site, for as long as the pass runs. There is no per-trailhead ticket and no need to re-pay when you drive from Bell Rock Vista to Doe Mountain the same afternoon. The exceptions are structural, not per-site: the two shuttle-hours lot closures below, the Palatki reservation noted in the heritage rows, and the Flagstaff-area entries, where the Lake Mary sites sell their own $10 day pass alongside honoring a Red Rock Pass.

One warning that follows from the vehicle rule: an America the Beautiful pass substitutes for the Red Rock Pass at every standard amenity row in this table, but display still matters — enforcement checks the windshield or the plate, not your glovebox. A valid pass nobody can see is, for citation purposes, no pass.

The 19-versus-26 problem, and the list that settles it

Here is the discrepancy most guides never mention. The Sedona Chamber’s materials state that the Red Rock Pass covers 19 day-use sites. The Chamber’s own accompanying list contains 26 entries. Three of those 26 — Lava River Cave, Upper Lake Mary, and Lake Mary Narrows — sit in the Flagstaff area, and the Lake Mary sites sell their own $10 day pass. Remove those three and you still do not land on 19.

The Forest Service’s own table resolves most of it. The “Sites That Require Passes” section of the Coconino National Forest’s Red Rock & Coconino Passes Program page, last updated June 17, 2026, lists 32 posted fee sites: 25 where a Red Rock Pass or America the Beautiful pass works, five concession sites that take only the Coconino Hospitality pass, and two state parks. Of the 25, 22 are in the Red Rock Ranger District and three are the Flagstaff-area sites above. Much of the remaining gap between lists is naming: the same patch of dirt shows up as “Bell Rock Pathway/Vista” in one list and “Bell Rock Vista” in another; “Courthouse Vista” and “Courthouse Butte” are one site; “Bear/Doe Mountain” is the Doe Mountain lot; and the Forest Service table’s “Dry Creek Trailhead” is Dry Creek Vista.

So the table above now follows the Forest Service list, with two flags of our own. Soldier Pass is not on it, nor on the Chamber’s 26-entry list, and its Forest Service trail page names no pass requirement — so no official source we can find requires a pass there; follow any signage at the lot. Banjo Bill is not on it either, because it has been closed under a two-year order since January 2025. We have asked the Red Rock Ranger District for written confirmation of the roster, and will log the answer with a date when it arrives. Until then, the practical rule holds at every site in the table: designated fee site, pass on the vehicle.

Devil’s Bridge: the trailhead that is not on the list

Devil’s Bridge is Sedona’s most photographed arch, and people search for its “parking pass” constantly. The catch: there is no Devil’s Bridge fee lot to put a pass on. The common access is the Mescal trailhead — a designated fee site, in the table above — or the Dry Creek Vista/Mescal shuttle route, which requires no pass at all. If you park at Mescal, you need a valid pass on your vehicle exactly as at any other fee site.

Huckaby: one trail, two fee lots

The Huckaby Trail #161 is the table’s other quirk. It has no single home: you reach it either from the Huckaby Trailhead on Schnebly Hill Road or from the Midgley Bridge Observation Site, and both are designated fee sites — so whichever end you start from, the vehicle needs a pass. As of October 17, 2026, neither lot shows a closure on its Forest Service page, but we have not been able to verify the trail’s own post-fire condition. If Huckaby is the plan, check with the Red Rock Ranger Visitor Center at (928) 203-2900 before you go.

Cathedral Rock and Soldier Pass: when a pass is not enough

These two trailheads carry a flag no pass can clear. Whenever the Sedona Shuttle is operating, both lots are closed to private vehicles entirely — a Red Rock Pass, an America the Beautiful pass, any pass. The gates reopen to the public only after the shuttles stop for the day. During shuttle hours your options are to ride, or to hike in from elsewhere. Our shuttle page covers which trailheads the shuttle serves and when riding it beats buying a pass outright.

Frequently asked questions