The small town of Sedona, Arizona is known for formations of red rock that poke out from a sea of green. We’re more interested in the miles of single track that thread through the hills in the area, and the temperate, semi-arid climate that makes it such an excellent wintertime destination. During our recent visit, the temperatures varied from low to mid-50s with brisk nights ranging in the 20s in the evenings.
Our go-to accommodations are often in our car camping in locations away from town; as much of the public lands in the area are managed by the forest service, its easy to find spots to camp. Mornings can be cold, so dress accordingly. On this visit, we started our day at the Village of Oak Creek. After getting breakfast at a local spot, we headed across the street back to the Bike & Bean to decide on a route for the day. The guys at the shop recommend starting from the shop, and leaving our car there; that’s an easy option and we happily obliged. Heading up and across the street we began checking trails off our list starting with Made in the Shade.
Next time we’ll be hitting the Shade from north to south as it would have been significantly more fun in that direction.
After the brief stint on Slim Shady we headed left up Hiline. Originally built by local riders as an expert/ advanced ride, we weren’t sure what to expect since so many of the trail reviews build it up as this “hardcore” trail. Hiline wasn’t a sanctioned trail until recently, when it was adopted by the Forest Service.
Most of the trails are rated for difficulty based on the sheer exposure. Highline counts as one of these. It’s one of Sedona’s best though, one to put on any list. It’s not for everyone, but in a time when so many trails are being sanitized, it puts a warm glow in us to see good stuff like this sanctioned. There was a ton of signage, and with our map, getting around was really easy.
We had to stop quite often, as it was littered with hikers on foot, but the amazing views more than made up for it.
There are some legitimately technical sections coming down Hiline, and these put a rather large smile on my face astride my rock-devouring Santa Cruz Nomad.
From Hiline we turned right on Baldin, taking it to Templeton and back to the village on Slim Shady. Though it was technically a fairly short day of riding, a lot of our time was spent shooting photos and riding, which sucked up a considerable amount of the day.
Day Three: Mystic to Pig Tail
At this point of our road trip we’d been shivering through a few cold nights and testing the limits of our new sleeping bag. Though it was rated at 20º and kept us warm, a few days without a shower meant we were ready to get cleaned up. Before leaving town we decided to check out and experience the Pig Tail, which we had bypassed before due to concerns with running out of light.
The Pig Tail is basically Sedona’s take on a contemporary flow trail, and one of the only trail in town that had built up features (as opposed to purely natural). It was fun, but definitely short. Next time we’ll add it to the route when hitting up the H’s.
Three days is not enough time in Sedona with all the new sanctioned additions to the trail networks. When we were last there, most of the sweet new trail was unsigned and considered local secrets. Sedona has really grown into its own as a MTB destination thanks to the efforts of local trail advocates and the cooperation of the land managers.
There were so many new section of trail on the map we had yet to see that we felt like it was just a warm up. We’re already trying to figure out when we can make it back. (hopefully when it’s a bit warmer and the days are longer, so we can use our solar shower and get cleaned up at the end of the day)