Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T! If you are seeing this on Twitter or Facebook, please visit the blog to see all of the photos and read the story by clicking the link.
The Coconino National Forest surrounds the towns of Sedona and Flagstaff in Arizona with landscapes ranging from red rocks and deserts to pine forests. We were staying in Sedona for part of our Arizona vacation and had stumbled upon the Devil’s Bridge hike when researching things to do in the area.
It didn’t occur to us at the time that this striking red rock terrain was actually part of a national forest, so we didn’t find the Devils Bridge webpage. Instead, we asked at our hotel about it and they pointed us in the general direction with a map. Even with the map, we had a hard time finding the trail head at first. There is trail head parking just off Vultee Arch.
There is an easy green trail marked on the map at the trail head. There is also a moderate blue trail and difficult red trail. The trails are not themselves marked by color. We opted for the easy trail.
The easy trail is the dirt road just before the parking lot that the jeep tourism companies use. It is uphill, sandy, hot and dry…so ‘easy’ is a relative term. The whole 3-mile hike was a piece of cake for my husband (who runs Spartan Races) but not so much for me and my daughter.
In three-quarters of a mile, the dirt road meets up with the path to Devils Bridge. From there, it becomes more difficult. It’s another climb of about three quarters of a mile with some steep natural stone steps and very little shade.
There are wonderful views of the valley and surrounding mountains on the way up.
The natural bridge is a 50-foot high sandstone arch and looks perilous as you approach it, but it’s wider than it appears as you walk out on it. Fearless people do jumping jacks for selfies in the middle of the bridge.
I stood there long enough for a photo, fighting the urge to crawl back to safety, trying not to look down at the sheer drop on either side of me.
To see my other Sedona posts, click below:
- Devil’s Bridge
- Bell Rock (coming soon)
- Chapel of the Holy Cross (coming soon)
Location: Devil’s Bridge Trail, Sedona, AZ 86336
Designation: National Forest
Date designated or established: 7/2/1908
Date of my visit: August 23, 2014
Whoa! Amazing colors and incredible scenery! Adding this to my future “to do in Arizona” list 🙂
Thanks Diana 🙏🏻
So beautiful!!
Thanks 🙏🏻
Looks like you had a great hike and awesome weather too!
Love Sedona!
Great photos, by the way!
Thanks 🙏🏻Yes, it was a perfect day!
Beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing. Allan
Thanks Allan 🙏🏻
Beautiful park! Thanks for sharing!
👍👍
Beautiful 💕
Thanks!🙏🏻
I think that’s a hike we did once. It’s such a beautiful area. Thanks for the reminder!
Thanks for commenting! Yes, Sedona is beautiful 🧡
Very interesting for me as I’l planning a trip to Sedone later this year. I’m glad I saw this post. 🙂
Great! There are two more Sedona posts scheduled
I’m really looking forward to your Sedona posts. If we go there – it’s not yet been fixed – we’ll stay in Sedona for 5 nights [that will be on a programme with a group], and after that do our own trip of the four corners area, with sightseeing and bicycling.
Hope you make it to Sedona…it’s so nice!
We’ll wait and see, but we hope so, too.
Pingback: Coconino National Forest: Devil’s Bridge — National Parks USA | ravenhawks' magazine
We never made it here on our Sedona trip… not sure why. But I wish we had!
It is off the beaten path…I had stumbled across a pic somewhere and asked at the hotel. Never would have found it otherwise.
Good reason for us to go back. We loved the Sedona area!
I really enjoyed your Blog about Devil’s Bridge, it brought back great memories the Devil’s Bridge hike my wife and I took about the same time last year:) https://bwsummers.wordpress.com/2019/03/04/great-hikes-devils-bridge-sedona-arizona-march-1-2018/
Your photos were beautiful.
Thanks! I’m glad you liked it! Thanks for the link…I will visit!
Pingback: National Parks USA Coconino National Forest: Chapel of the Holy Cross
We are touring the Coconino right now. Yesterday we hiked the beautiful Bell Trail near Montezuma Well. Will definitely add Devil’s Bridge to our itinerary. Weather great here right now. Thanks fo the tip.
Have an awesome trip!
Pingback: National Parks USA Coconino National Forest: Bell Rock Trail
We didn’t get to spend much time in AZ on our long road trip last year. Your Cononino posts area really making me regret that! Hopefully this year I’ll get out there. Great blog – I look forward to reading more!
There’s so much to see in AZ, we need to go back too!😊
After reading your blog we hiked to Devils Bridge in April. Great hike!. Thanks for the tip.
That’s awesome! Happy to help!
Pingback: National Parks USA National Parks With T’s Top 2019 Posts