Sedona parking and the free shuttle, trailhead by trailhead

Parking is the hard part of hiking in Sedona. The popular trailheads have small lots, and on busy days the city closes some of them to cars and runs a free shuttle instead. This page puts the rules in one place. It is not run by the city or the Forest Service, so check their links before you go.

The short version

• The Sedona Shuttle is free, and so is parking at its park-and-ride lots. You do not need a ticket or a reservation.
• It runs Thursday through Sunday, year-round, 7 AM to 5:30 PM, and every day during spring break and some holidays.
• There is no service at all on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day. On those two days the lots below are the only way in, and they fill.
• On shuttle days, the Cathedral Rock and Soldier Pass trailhead lots are closed to cars. You must ride the shuttle to hike from those trailheads.
• Monday through Wednesday (outside spring break), you can drive to those trailheads, but the lots fill early.
• Most trailheads on Forest Service land need a Red Rock Pass ($5 a day) or an America the Beautiful pass on your dashboard. You do not need one if you arrive by shuttle.

The three shuttle routes

Buses run 7 AM to 5:30 PM on service days, and parking at the park-and-ride lots is free as well.

Route	Trailheads	Park-and-ride
11	Dry Creek Vista, Mescal	West SR 89A, 905 Upper Red Rock Loop Road (91 spaces)
14	Soldier Pass	Posse Grounds, 20 Carruth Drive, West Sedona (260 spaces)
15	Cathedral Rock, Little Horse	North SR 179, 1294 SR 179 (65 spaces)

How often a bus comes differs by route and changes with the season, and the shuttle keeps those times in its rider guide rather than on a page we can check. Look up your route before you go.

Service ends at 5:30 PM, but the last bus back from a trailhead leaves earlier than that and the time is different on each route, so check it before you start walking. Soldier Pass is the one to arrive early for: it is the smallest trailhead of the three and the lot fills first. No RVs, campers or buses in the lots, and no overnight parking. Each route has its own schedule page on sedonashuttle.com.

Fire note. Routes 11 and 14 were suspended in July 2026 during the Pocket Fire. As of our verified date the shuttle site lists all three routes, but the trails they serve may still have closures. Read the trail closures page too.

Trailhead by trailhead

Cathedral Rock (Back O’ Beyond Road). Lot closed to cars on shuttle days. Ride Route 15. On non-shuttle days the lot is small and full by mid-morning. Red Rock Pass required.

Soldier Pass. Lot closed to cars whenever the shuttle is running. Ride Route 14. The trailhead and its lot are always closed between 6 PM and 8 AM by Forest Service rule, so the gate hours work out as Monday to Wednesday 8 AM to 6 PM, and closed Thursday through Sunday. Do not park on the neighborhood streets outside the gate.

Little Horse (Bell Rock Pathway). Served by Route 15. The lot stays open to cars on shuttle days. Red Rock Pass required.

Dry Creek Vista and Mescal. Served by Route 11. Neither is subject to the shuttle-day closure that shuts Cathedral Rock and Soldier Pass, and both are Red Rock Pass sites, so you can still drive to them. We found no current Forest Service order either allowing or banning roadside parking on Dry Creek Road toward Devil’s Bridge, so take the posted signs as the answer.

Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte (Village of Oak Creek). No shuttle. Several lots along SR 179. Red Rock Pass required. These are the easiest to reach from Cottonwood and Camp Verde.

Red Rock State Park. Not a shuttle stop. A park entry fee applies instead of a Red Rock Pass, and last entry is 4:30 PM. See the park listing.

Palatki. Reservation required. See the Palatki listing.

Red Rock Pass

The Red Rock Pass pays for trailhead upkeep on the Coconino National Forest around Sedona. You buy it at machines in the lots, at visitor centers, and at some stores. An America the Beautiful pass works in its place.

Prices. $5 a day, $15 a week, $20 a year, as the Forest Service had them on its own pass page when that page was last updated in June 2026. The increase to $10, $30 and $60 proposed in 2025 does not appear there, so as far as the agency publishes, the old prices still stand. An America the Beautiful annual pass ($80) works in place of the Red Rock Pass, as do the senior passes.

Where it does not work. Five nearby fee sites are run by a concessionaire and take neither the Red Rock Pass nor America the Beautiful: Call of the Canyon at West Fork, Crescent Moon, Grasshopper Point, Beaver Creek Day Use, and Lower Lake Mary Picnic Area. Expect somewhere around $12 to $15 a vehicle. The Forest Service names these five sites but does not publish their prices, so call the district at 928-527-3600 or read the sign at the gate rather than trust a number from us. Red Rock and Slide Rock state parks charge a state entrance fee instead. The rule that triggers all of it is simple: if you leave your vehicle while recreating at a fee site on the Coconino National Forest, you need a pass.

Uptown parking

Uptown Sedona is the shops on SR 89A north of the Y. The city counts six free public lots there: two where you can stay all day and four with a three-hour limit. Some are leased from private businesses, so read the signs for spaces marked for employees. There are also meters on Main Street, which charge from 9 AM to 6 PM every day and are free outside those hours.

Meter rates climb the longer you stay: the first 15 minutes are free, then $2 for each of the first three hours, $4 for the fourth and $6 for the fifth. Two hours costs $4; five hours costs $16. Payment is by card or the PassportParking app, zone 846, with a 10 cent app fee. The meters take no cash. An accessible space in the metered zone still has to be paid for, with the plate or placard displayed. These rates are what the city published on its own Uptown parking page, checked 22 September 2026; they were under council review during 2026, so check the pay station.

If you have read that Sedona has a parking garage in Uptown: one has been in the works, and local reporting in September 2026 said its opening had slipped to the winter. The city’s own parking page still lists only the free lots and the Main Street meters, so do not plan around a garage yet.

Tlaquepaque has its own lots, and they fill on weekends. Its site says parking there is free but limited, and for people visiting the village. It also points visitors at the Sedona Shuttle, which can be boarded at the municipal lot at Jordan and Schnebly.

Tips from the valley side

• If you are coming from Cottonwood, Clarkdale, or Camp Verde, the Village of Oak Creek trailheads on SR 179 are closer and have no shuttle rule.
• Weekday mornings before 8 AM are the most reliable time to drive to Cathedral Rock.
• The shuttle is also the easy way to do a one-way hike, since the routes link several trailheads.

Data on this page comes from the City of Sedona, the Sedona Shuttle, the U.S. Forest Service, Arizona State Parks, and local news reports. The city’s own pages are the final word.