TRAILHEAD · SEDONA RED ROCK COUNTRY · ARIZONA
The red rocks of Sedona hold heat from the previous day the way stone holds memory, slowly and completely, releasing it back long after the source has moved on. By mid-morning in summer the sandstone radiates upward and the air between the formations shimmers. But at 5:30am, when the temperature is still in the mid-fifties and the canyon wrens have just started, the rocks are something else. They catch the first light and turn a color that does not have a name in English. Something between red and gold and rust and fire.
This is the only time to run Sedona in summer: before the heat arrives, before the tourist shuttles start their circuits between the vortex sites, before the trailheads fill with people who have driven from Phoenix for the photographs and have not brought enough water.
The Cathedral Rock to Bell Rock connector is six and a half miles of the most visually concentrated trail running in the American Southwest. You begin at the base of Cathedral Rock, a formation of Schnebly Hill sandstone that rises 1,200 feet from the valley floor and is one of the most photographed natural structures in the United States. Move south through a mix of slickrock and singletrack, crossing Oak Creek once, climbing three false summits before reaching Bell Rock, which sits alone on the valley floor like something placed there.
The trail surface changes constantly. Reading slickrock requires a different technique than packed dirt; your shoes need to grip laterally, not just vertically. The sandy washes between formations demand a shortened stride and acceptance of lateral slide. The technical ledges near the Cathedral summit require hands. This is trail running that asks for your full attention for six consecutive miles.
The Yavapai people have lived in and around the red rock country for centuries. The land here was and is a ceremonial and cultural site. The vortexes that New Age tourism markets as energy centers are, in the Yavapai tradition, places of specific and respected significance. Running here is permitted and the trail system is maintained; it is worth knowing what you are moving through.
TRAIL MAP · CATHEDRAL ROCK TRAILHEAD · SEDONA, ARIZONA
A Red Rock Pass ($5/day, $15/week) is required for parking at most Sedona trailheads. Carry a minimum of 24 oz water per hour of running in summer. Slickrock sections require shoes with friction rubber. Start before sunrise. Be off exposed sections by 9am in summer. A sun hat and merino base layer regulate temperature better than cotton on slickrock terrain.
Sedona is a place that gets a lot of interpretation layered over it: spiritual, commercial, geological, recreational. Strip all of that away and what remains is the rock itself: 300-million-year-old Permian sandstone, deposited as desert dunes, compressed, uplifted, and then carved by 20 million years of erosion into something that no other place on earth has produced. You run through deep time here. That is not a metaphor. That is what the rock is.
