Sedona (Cathedral Rock)

Rock FormationsArizona,United States

Red sandstone spires in Arizona standing over a creek that doubles them when it runs still, their colour nothing but rust in 280-million-year-old dune sand.

September·Peaking now

Sep–Nov

Autumn is the other peak: the monsoon fades through September and the creek settles back to a mirror. The days cool and the post-storm skies run clear.

Year-round The four red spires stand over Oak Creek at Red Rock Crossing every day, and the Thursday-to-Sunday car closure holds all year. But the mirror reflection needs a low, still creek and is not year-round.

Cathedral Rock is the face of Sedona and the most photographed rock in Arizona, and the picture is nearly always the same: red spires standing over Oak Creek, doubled in the water at Red Rock Crossing. The towers are thin walls and pointed spires of red sandstone, and their shape is what gave the rock its name. Most people go to the creek rather than up the rock. At sunset the low light sets the spires burning orange, and when Oak Creek runs low and still the whole formation lands upside down in the water. The red in the stone is hematite — rust — held in grains laid down about 280 million years ago as coastal dunes. The climb is short and steep: 1.2 miles round trip from the Back O' Beyond trailhead, about 740 feet of gain, ending in a narrow chute you pull yourself up with both hands. It comes out at the saddle between the spires, where the Verde Valley opens below and wind funnels through the gap. A third group of visitors comes for neither the climb nor the photograph, because Cathedral Rock is one of Sedona's four best-known vortex sites, and people sit quietly on these ledges for hours. The same red rock builds the rest of the country around Sedona. Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte stand a couple of miles south-east, and north of town Oak Creek cuts a shaded canyon down through it. Sedona became the world's eighth International Dark Sky Community in 2014, and the town has kept its lights low ever since. On a moonless night the core of the Milky Way stands up directly behind the towers.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The mirror image needs a low, still creek — it comes best in late spring and in autumn; monsoon runoff between July and September leaves Oak Creek high, brown and rippled.
The trail is barely a mile round trip but climbs steeply over bare slickrock — one chute takes both hands, and smooth soles slip on the sandstone. Wear grippy shoes and carry water.
Thursday to Sunday, cars cannot park at the Cathedral Rock trailhead — a free shuttle runs there from the highway lot, and the lot reopens to cars once the shuttle stops for the day.
Come back on a moonless night — there is no lighting on the trail or at the creek, so the spires cut black against the stars with the town's faint glow behind you.

Things to do

1
Claim the bank at Red Rock Crossing for the reflection
Come down to Red Rock Crossing well before sundown and pick your spot on the near bank while the rock is still in shadow, because the classic angle fills with photographers an hour out. Wade a few steps over the flat streambed stones to line the spires up squarely with their double, then hold that frame as the creek goes still. Aim for late spring or autumn, when Oak Creek runs lowest and the mirror is cleanest.
2
Scramble the chute to the saddle between the spires
The trail leaves the desert floor and climbs straight up bare sandstone, and near the top it squeezes into a steep crack where you haul yourself through on hands and boots. The saddle at the end sits right between the towers, with the Verde Valley spread out far below and wind pouring through the gap.
3
Circle Bell Rock at its base
An easy loop rings the foot of Bell Rock, and a longer one, about four miles, goes on around Courthouse Butte behind it. The rock changes as you walk — layered and stacked from one side, an even dome from the next. Juniper and pinyon scratch at your ankles, and the red slopes look best under a bruised monsoon sky.
4
Walk the West Fork into Oak Creek Canyon
The West Fork trail leaves the highway north of Sedona and follows a side canyon narrow enough that the walls hold shade for most of the day. It crosses the stream thirteen times in three and a half miles, on stepping stones or on a fallen log. Bigtooth maples crowd the crossings and the side drainages, and they hold their orange through the second half of October.
5
Stand under the Milky Way at the spires
Walk in at the trailhead once your eyes have adjusted and the spires turn into a flat black cut-out against the star field, with the galaxy band running up behind them. Bring a red headlamp, keep your back to the faint glow over town, and listen for the creek somewhere below.
6
Walk the Hiline bench for the west face
Hiline runs just over three miles along a shelf cut into the slope above the Verde Valley, narrow enough in places that the drop is a step away. It climbs from the Yavapai Vista side, then tips into slickrock chutes steep enough that many people walk them. It ends on the Baldwin loop under the west side of Cathedral Rock, the face the Red Rock Crossing photograph never shows.

Watch

Nearby

146 km