Soldier Pass Trail

Devil's Kitchen sinkhole, about a quarter mile in

The trail dips to cross a wash, then climbs to the Devil's Kitchen sinkhole just off the path to the right at about 0.25 miles. It's a collapsed limestone cavity, not a crater from an impact or an explosion as some retellings claim, and the Forest Service's own description treats it as a short detour rather than the main event. Most people glance in and keep walking; the sinkhole has grown gradually over decades as the underlying rock dissolves, and there's no fence or marker beyond the social trail worn to its edge.

The Seven Sacred Pools, another quarter mile on

After another quarter mile of level ground, a series of stone basins sits to the left of the trail: the Seven Sacred Pools that give this page its second owned key. They're carved into slickrock by centuries of monsoon runoff and hold water only after rain, so a dry spell before your visit means dry basins, not a broken promise. The name is a marketing invention, not a Forest Service one; the agency's own page never uses it, calling the feature only "the pools."

The wilderness boundary and the fork, 1.2 to 1.3 miles

At about 1.2 miles the trail crosses a jeep road, then forks near the wilderness area boundary at 1.3 miles. This is also where bicycles stop being allowed: the Forest Service permits bikes only for the first 1.3 miles, to this exact point, since the wilderness designation past it excludes wheeled and motorized travel entirely.

The right fork climbs steeply for a quarter mile to an arch with, in the Forest Service's own words, "great views." The left fork, and the main route most hikers take, continues toward Brins Mesa, reaching it at about 2 miles and meeting the Brins Mesa Trail a short distance further. Turning around at the mesa is what makes the round trip 4 miles; continuing on Brins Mesa Trail extends the day considerably and is a different hike, covered on the hiking trails list.

The cave the Forest Service does not mention

Soldier Pass Cave is one of this page's owned keys, and the honest answer is that the Forest Service's own trail description for No. 66 does not mention a cave at all. Not by that name, not by any name. What gets marketed online as Soldier Pass Cave is a rock alcove reached by an unmarked scramble off the maintained route, somewhere past the pools and before the fork, and no official Coconino National Forest page confirms its exact position, its distance from the trailhead, or even that the Forest Service considers it a named feature.

If you're chasing it, you're following a social trail and other hikers' directions, not a signed route, and this guide won't invent a mileage the agency itself doesn't publish.

The variable that decides your routing is the fork at 1.3 miles, not the total distance. Almost everyone who turns around early does it at the pools, well before the fork; almost everyone who goes the distance turns at Brins Mesa.

Soldier Pass Trailhead sits off Soldier Pass Road in West Sedona, and the Forest Service's own page for it is blunt: "this trailhead only has 14 parking spots and no trash or restroom facilities." That is a small number for one of the busiest trailheads in town, and it is not padded by a Red Rock Pass overflow system the way Cathedral Rock's lot is. This site simply is not on the Coconino National Forest's standard fee-site list, so there is no pass to buy that guarantees you a space.

The gate itself is timed: open 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. Arrive before opening or plan to leave after closing and the issue isn't a full lot, it's a locked one. Nothing on the fetched Forest Service page states what happens to a vehicle left inside after the gate closes, and this guide won't guess.

Once the 14 spaces are gone, the free Sedona Shuttle is the documented alternative: Thursday to Sunday, 7:00 am to 5:30 pm, no reservation, a 15 to 45 minute wait between pickups depending on the route. Whether the trailhead's own small lot is physically gated to private cars while the shuttle runs is not something any Coconino National Forest or City of Sedona page confirms one way or the other. The shuttle is documented as a free alternative, not as a replacement for driving yourself. Treat that as an open question, not a settled rule.

• 14 parking spaces, no restroom, no trash cans
• Gate open 8:00 am to 6:00 pm
• Not on the Red Rock Pass fee-site list. No pass required, no pass helps
• Sedona Shuttle backup: Thursday–Sunday, 7:00 am–5:30 pm, free, no reservation

The Forest Service's own warning for this trail reads: "the first half of this trail is often busy, and there is jeep tour and off-road vehicle traffic nearby." That traffic isn't trespassing. The jeep road that the trail crosses at about 1.2 miles is a legal vehicle route in its own right, and where the hiking trail and that road run alongside each other for the first mile, a licensed operator's private jeep tour is permitted to use it. Past the wilderness boundary at 1.3 miles, that changes completely: the wilderness designation excludes wheeled and motorized travel of any kind, which is also the exact point where the Forest Service stops allowing bicycles. A jeep can share the first mile with you; nothing on wheels goes past the fork.

What that means for a walker is mostly noise and dust on a busy afternoon, and for a rider it means the loose, rocky surface most hikers cross on foot without a second thought is the same surface the jeep is built to handle at low speed. If a crowded lot or the loose rock underfoot is the actual obstacle, not the walk itself, the jeep tour gets you to the same pools and the same views without either problem.

- This trailhead is not on the Red Rock Pass list at all. Most Sedona trailheads charge $5 a day through the pass program; this one simply isn't in the standard fee-site list the Forest Service publishes, so no pass helps and none is required [fs.usda.gov Red Rock–Coconino Passes Program, read 2026-09-09]. - The lot has exactly 14 spaces. The Forest Service's own trailhead page states this directly, with no restroom and no trash service either, smaller than almost any other trailhead lot in West Sedona [fs.usda.gov Soldier Pass Trail No. 66]. - The gate has fixed hours: 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. This isn't a suggestion or a recommended window; it's the trailhead's own stated operating hours [fs.usda.gov Soldier Pass Trail No. 66]. - Bikes are legal for exactly 1.3 miles, then banned outright. The cutoff is the wilderness boundary, and the Forest Service names the distance precisely [fs.usda.gov Soldier Pass Trail No. 66]. - "Soldier Pass Cave" isn't in the Forest Service's own trail description. The agency's page covers the sinkhole, the pools, the fork and the arch, and stops there. The cave is a name that circulates on travel blogs, not on fs.usda.gov [fs.usda.gov Soldier Pass Trail No. 66, checked 2026-09-09].

Get to the trailhead by 8:00 am if you're driving yourself; the 14 spaces and the busy first half mile mean the gap between "plenty of room" and "full" is narrow. Walk to the Seven Sacred Pools and back if 45 minutes is all the morning allows, or push on to the fork and Brins Mesa for the full 2.5-hour round trip. If the lot is already gone when you arrive, the free Sedona Shuttle or the private jeep tour both solve the same problem from opposite directions.

One gets you there without a car, the other gets you there without walking. Boynton Canyon and Doe Mountain are both a short drive away for an afternoon second hike, and the full hiking trails list ranks everything else in town by difficulty and pass requirement.