No joke, I spent less than $30 on a day trip/camping one night in the beautiful Sedona. How did I do it? I have friends who know how to camp, as a start. But as my friend explained to me, you can do Sedona one of two ways. 1) You can do an easy hike and walk around the adorable shops and eat at fancy restaurants and stay in beautiful hotels or 2) you can hike until your feet want to fall off and sleep outdoors on the ground and fill the role of a granola girl. We opted for option #2 which is how we spent next to no money on this trip. Keep reading to learn what hikes we did and how we camped for $0.
Travel Tips
It took ~2 hours to drive to Sedona from my friend’s home in Phoenix. My friend wanted to start with a trail on the north side, so we sidestepped the actual town of Sedona on the way there to save time.
Drive though Sedona if you get the chance. The iconic red-rock mountain landscape blew me away. The views are ethereal and I had a hard time comprehending them. I’ve never seen a town that has such gorgeous views right out in the open. Normally you’d have to hike 10 miles to see that type of beauty, but in Sedona, it’s in plain site.
Bring a cooler of water, Propel, and snacks. You will need them. Trust me. Also bring bandaids and extra comfy shoes. Sedona is ~10 degrees cooler than Phoenix, though, which is a plus.
You can camp for free in Sedona in grounds called Dispersed Camping Spots. You drive up to these designated spots, park your car, and can sleep there for free. Bring your own toilet paper and an extra change of clothes, because there is literally nothing there besides other cars. I slept under the open sky full of stars and woke up with the sunrise to hot air balloons floating across the Sedona landscape. It was pretty incredible.
Hiking Tips
West Fork Trail:
We first did the ~8 mile hike called West Fork Trail. This trail would be ~6.5 miles but we hiked even deeper into the stream than most others. This hike follows red rock cliffs and steep canyons that leads to a stream carved into the gorgeous cliffs. It is a moderately easy hike, but it does take a couple hours to complete. Once you hit the stream ~3.5 miles in, you can wade deeper and deeper into the canyons which is a very unique experience. Tip: bring water shoes you can walk in, though, because I went bare foot in the water and it hurt like heck.
This trail was pretty popular up until the stream, and then there was barely anyone there. Also, it was mostly shaded which was a huge plus. The trail swerves across the river a few times, so you have to jump on rocks to avoid your shoes getting soaked. Highly recommend doing this one first. Also, it cost $11 to park here.
Steamboat Rock Trail:
I’m not sure if the next hike we did even classifies as a real trail, but nevertheless we did it. It is called Steamboat Rock. This dang trail, where do I even begin. First off, we went at sunset, and there were no other hikers there. Just me and my two friends trying to get to this massive rock to catch the sun setting. It was ~4 miles because we did get turned around a few times. This hike is way harder than West Fork in my opinion. At one certain point around 1.5 miles of going straight uphill, it seemed like we couldn’t go any higher because the rock was too steep. But my friend is a photographer and Arizona native, and he was determined to keep going. So we hoisted each other up this cliff and had to climb on all fours to keep steady on the mountain. It was seriously insane — we definitely could have gotten hurt.
Once we got to a landing, the panoramic views of the redrock mountains was nothing like anything I’d ever experienced before. It was so isolated up there, and it seemed like we had touched a part of nature that no one else had. In this day and age, that feeling is so rare because everything is usually congested with other humans. We kept going up until we reached the side of Steamboat Rock and collapsed on the edge of the peak to watch the sunset. On the way down, we had to scoot on our butts so we didn’t fall over the side of the cliff. This is not for the faint of heart, and I only recommend you do it if you have experienced hikers with you. Like I said, my friend is an Arizona native and even he said that this was probably one of the craziest hikes he’s ever done. Make sure you get back to the parking lot before dark, because you would be screwed if you tried to come down in the pitch black darkness.
We did both of these hikes on the same day, and were absolutely exhausted by the end. If you want to find unique hikes that not every Sedona website / tourist knows about, try these out. Please be safe on Steamboat Rock though, because it is actually pretty dangerous.
Food Tips:
This is going to be a short food tips list, because we only spent food at the Sedona Chipotle. We were going to try to find a cool restaurant to go to, but we were dirty and starving, and a bowl from Chipotle sounded heavenly, so we went. The views from that Chipotle are actually amazing, though. Tip: refill your huge water bottle at the Chipotle so you don’t run out or have to spend more money on water.
We brought chili with us to cook with propane, but we were too tired to eat by the end of the day so we just went to sleep. The next morning we cooked oatmeal over the propane mini stove my friends brought and that was basically all we ate.
We brought protein bars and trail mix with us on the hikes, so don’t forget to bring those either.
I only spent money on parking at west fork, Chipotle, and gas. And it was all less than $30 for a day and a half. The key is to come prepared, like my friends and I did. Sedona is a magical town — you have to visit at some point in your life. Whether you want to do Sedona more or less bougie than us, everyone can agree that the nature is spectacular. Plan a trip out west and make this place a priority. You only need a day or two here, but my oh my is it worth it.
xx Gracie
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