Hiking Cathedral Rock, Sedona

Cathedral Rock from Oak Creek

There are many access point to hike Cathedral Rock, one of the many beautiful hikes in Sedona. For our hike, we took the Cathedral Rock Trail from Hwy 179. The hike is 3.5 miles round trip with 600 ft ascent. I love this hike because for such a short time, the scenic rewards are simply amazing. Though this hike will not take all your day, but it is not devoid of challenge. First, there is really no formal trail, but rock cairns. You ascend mostly on rocks, more like rock climbing but safe enough not to ask for ropes. 

Hiking @ Cathedral Rock

If you feel like it is not safe to walk normally, you can go slow and walk on four ( uphill ) or five ( downhill). 

A Lady Hiker Walking on Five ( or butt walk )

In the middle of the hike, there is a section where you really have to scramble, or crawl, and only one hiker could pass at a time. It probably is the most challenging part of the trail where some hikers give up and not continue. Even if not making it to the saddles of Cathedral Rock though, the hike is still beautiful because there is wide vista everywhere.

Scenery One Will See While on Cathedral Rock Trail

However, that section is actually very manageable, as long as you scramble slowly if you fear for your safety. If you manage past this challenge, the climb up to the saddle becomes easier as you gain more self-confidence of being able to make it. Also, you will be entertained by the magnificence of the red rock formations around you. The pictures below are some of our pictures from this very fun hike. I would love to do this hike again. 

 View from the Saddle

 Hubby

Me

Looking Down @ the Valley

A lot of people would turn around from here, thinking that this is already the end of the hike. However, if you continue on the left side, there would be another short steep climb. 

 It's my most favorite part of the hike, I guess, because very few people were there, compared to the first saddle.

 Looking Back Where we climbed from the first saddle

 this maybe another saddle

 Sheer Walls of Cathedral Rock

Though I look like going uphill here, but this was only a pose on our way down to show my dirty pants from the walking on five, :) super super love this hike! 

Hiking is like a celebration of our success. We struggle, but we think harder and focus how to overcome the challenge, then, we are rewarded with a celebration of success. Aside from getting nature therapy, in hiking, we get physical, mental and emotional exercise. We never can make it, if we stop taking steps, haha, applies to anything in our lives.

Anyway, Cathedral Rock is in Sedona, a beautiful town in Arizona known to be the day hike capital of US, in such a small town, there are just soooooooo many hikes to take! We hope to come back to this place to do more hikes. The other hike we did here during our spring vacation was Devil's Bridge, that was another fun hike. I will share Hiking Devil's Bridge in my later posts.

♥♥