Nathan Sauser

Arizona Hiking

Devil’s Bridge Hike in Sedona, AZ

Sedona hiking is some of the most exciting and enjoyable hiking in the desert southwest.  One of the most exciting hikes around Sedona is Devil’s Bridge.  It is a steep hike up to the largest natural stone arch in the Sedona, AZ area. This really is a great hike to do if you are in the Sedona area. If you are with a group this hike is a great one for photo opportunities as you can have your picture taken on the Devil’s bridge itself. I’ll admit, it is a little scary to be standing on the bridge made out of sandstone but it’s one of my favorite hikes in the Sedona area. Read on to see my review of the hike and also for driving directions & GPS coordinates to the trailhead. If you have a day to spend in Sedona, you need to make time to hike Devil’s Bridge, it is a must-see hike.

More great Sedona hikes can be found in this book:

Devil’s Bridge Sedona Hike Difficulty

How hard is the hike? In terms of difficulty, this is a moderate level hike.  It is a pretty steep climb at times but if you’re in decent shape, you’ll be fine.  It’s definitely not a good hike for your dog.  We took our black lab about 3/4 of the way before we realized there were some areas that needed some moderate climbing.  It wasn’t so much that he couldn’t get up we were just worried about him coming down and possibly getting hurt.

The hike is about 1 mile each way, 2 miles round trip.  As I stated before because of the steepness it is a pretty decent workout for being a relatively short hike. Expect the hike to take about an hour and that should allow for time to take in the red rock views.

Devil’s Bridge is a natural stone arch that is reachable with a moderate amount of climbing (up some 400 feet). It is about 1 mile to the arch and the view of the arch is well worth the climb. The trail splits about ¾ miles up. The right trail goes to the top of the arch and the left trail goes beneath the arch. You’ll be hiking up some steep natural stone steps (with no handrails) so if you have a fear of heights, you may want to be extra careful on this hike.

On the way up to Devil's Bridge Devi'ls Bridge - Sedona, AZ Devil's Bridge

Devil’s Bridge Sedona Directions

Directions: From the “Y” (the intersection of State Route 89A and State Route 179), drive towards Cottonwood 3 miles. Turn right on to Dry Creek Road. Stay on Dry Creek for 3 miles and turn right on FR 152. Proceed for 1.1 miles to the parking area on your right at GPS coordinates: 34° 54.172′ N; 111° 48.833′ W. FR 152 can be a very rough dirt road so a high clearance vehicle is recommended. These directions are based upon the assumption that you are already in or close to Sedona, AZ.

GPS Coordinates for the Devil’s Bridge Trailhead

Here are the exact GPS coordinates for the Devil’s Bridge trailhead: GPS coordinates: 34° 54.172′ N; 111° 48.833′ W

If you have any comments or would like to share your pictures, please leave a comment. Thanks!

Do you hike?

Do you use a website or service to do your research when planning your activities?

Shortly after our wedding, my wife and I decided we would take advantage of the wide variety of hiking opportunities that exist in Arizona.  That was a little over one year ago and we’ve really covered a lot of ground since.

We’ve been on the Woodchute Trail, Camelback – Echo Canyon, Humphreys Peak, and Badger Springs. We’ve hiked up in Sedona, The Grand Canyon, Page, Pine, and many other places and trails.

None of this would have been possible without my Garmin nuvi250, and my subscription to Trails.com.

I think the Garmin GPS goes without saying as most people know the features of a car based gps navigator.  One cool feature I found was being able to send Google Map coordinates directly to my GPS receiver.  There are benefits to being even a little connected!

The best investment we made in our new hobby was our annual subscription to Trails.com.  Trails is site that has an awesome database full of information for any type of hike, bike, or outdoor excursion.  Speaking of GPS, I noticed that the staff at Trails just recently added GPS features to their trail database.

What I found to be most helpful were the trail write-ups and the “my hike” features.  Trails uses excerpts from major publisher hiking and trail books.  You have to be a paid user in order to access the trail write-ups and topo maps, it’s $49.95 a year and in my opinion very worth it.  We’ve certainly gotten our money’s worth in one year.

The “my hike” features are really neat because you can add your comments about the hike or trail you just walked.  You can also add pictures and submit your comments and pages to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Do you use a different site, or have any suggestions on where to look for more information?