The Sterling Pass Trail follows a side canyon of Oak Creek Canyon along the north face of Wilson Mountain. The trail climbs to 6,000 foot Sterling Pass, then descends into Sterling Canyon, a quiet canyon with ponderosa pine, oak and maple trees. The trail leads to Dry Creek Basin at the end of Forest Service Raod 152. A side path leads to a large slab of red rock with an overlook of Vultee Arch, a large 40-foot-high natural bridge stretching 50 feet across the north wall of Sterling Canyon at the base of East Pocket Mesa.
The Hike House Sedona Trail Rating System provides actual hiker feedback and ratings of each of the Sedona hiking trails. The cumulative trail ratings for the Sterling Pass Trail to Vultee Arch submitted by fellow hikers is located above with the Trail Data. Your trail feedback and ratings are an important resource for fellow hikers and provide a personal account of your trail experience from which others may learn. So please hike Sedona, help others, and rate a trail today!
Must do in Sedona! Started at 9 a.m. at the end of April. Perfect weather for this hike. Definitely wear good hiking shoes as the footing going up and most especially coming down was slippery from loose rocks and gravel. Also very windy up at top of pass. At Vultee Arch you can go out on the arch if heights do not scare you. Kim went out on the arch but Ron did not. Amazing views up on and by the arch. Again the footing going to the arch was slick . A great hike with some difficulty and amazing views. Vultee arch is a must see.
Started at 9 am on September 30th. Took about an hour and 45 minutes to reach Vultee Arch, mostly because we kept stopping to look at map and at the views. Lots of nice cool shade on a hot day. Nicely maintained trail – lots of stone steps, but lots of scrapes on bushes. Almost completely dry – would be impressive earlier in the year. No other hikers on trail until we got to the Arch(coming from the easier path), but then we had it to ourselves for 30 minutes. The incline back to Sterling was very gradual. Made it back to the car in 90 minutes. Wasn’t sure where to park our car – had to walk 10 minutes from a pull-out on road.
Please note: Vultee Arch is accessible from Oak Creek Canyon (89A) or FR152. The route from Oak Creek is strenuous and approximately 3.5-4 hour roundtrip. If accessing from FR152 then the trail is moderate and 1.5 hours roundtrip. (Note: FR152 does require a high clearance vehicle)
Great workout, first 45 minutes are straight up followed by a long downhill run. After the first ascent all you think about is that the downhill portion is going to hurt on the way back. The arch is worth the pain and due to the difficulty you will encounter few hikers. Do this trail for the vista and the workout and don’t be put off by the difficulty my wife and I are both 50 and we passed a man and wife in their 60s. Go for it.
Done this more than once. The front to the top is the best. Too many long switchbacks on the back side. Really a heart burner – the uphill seems never to end but well worth it. One of my top ’10’ hikes in Sedona.
A great hike with great views that includes three Windows and of course the fantastic arch at the end. 3 hours 8 minutes round trip and 4.5 miles on our GPS. If you do this hike be ready for a difficult workout!
What a great hike. So glad we took the recommendation of the Hike House, and challenged ourselves. We haven’t done a great deal of hiking, so we weren’t sure we were up to it. Slow and steady, one step at a time, we didn’t make it a race, and enjoyed the scenery and peace and quiet. Looking forward to our next trip to Sedona and more recommendations for new trails.
GREAT HIKE! I never realized I was walking up with all the views. Would walk 100 steps and the view changed. After crossing the pass it was a totally different feel. Forrest trees shaded us all the way to the arch. We took our time taking lots of pics and we made it to the arch in 2:00 hours. 1:20 coming back. If you don’t mind a little elevation it’s a MUST DO HIKE!
Moderately difficult hike with some tricky footings. Hiked it in November and it was dry. In February, lots of running water and mud to cross. Test all mud beds with your pole before stepping out (nearly buried my boot by not taking this advice). A good challenge and a great hike.
I’ve hiked many trail and rock formations in the Sedona area. My backyard is the Sierra Mountains in CA. We hike many peaks and like to explore new areas. We decided to to do this hike to he how strenuous it really is. The hike up Stirling Pass was beautiful and the uphill work out was great. We stopped many time on the way up to turn around to see where we came from. The elevation gain and scenery was awesome. When we got to the saddle it was 1.25 miles with an elevation gain of 1018′. Nice workout. Similar to what we call training hill near Auburn CA. The saddle is just that. a saddle. Once here there is nowhere to go but down, my guess is about 500 feet down. When we reached the arch we decided to continue and make a one way exploration out of the hike so we continued to Vultee TH, it was beautiful with a lot of greenery and pines. The train was fairly level and easy on the feet. Once at the end we walked over a mile down the dirt road to the Brins Mesa TH where we continued to Brins Mesa with an gain of about 500′ and had a late lunch on top of the rock overlook. I’ve been here a few times and it was still a great view. We had hiked 8.5 miles to this point. We continued down the trail to the Jorden parking area. It was a little hard to follow the train in a few steep areas but was nice to be going down. Part of the trail was uneven and rocky. We had done 10 miles and about 1800′ at this point. This would be a great shuttle for locals here in Sedona. Thanks for your write ups that inspired me to do Stirling Pass. We continued into the uptown residential area where we secured a ride back to our car. You could grab an Uber if needed. It was a great 11.1 mile one way hike.
Avid hiker shocked by this fantastic trail definitely difficult but absolutely worth the sweat!. We came with mace and knife but needed neither. We saw no bears, and 9 humans. We viewed many spectacular, stunning creations of nature including the forest of bowling trees, sandstone carved hourglass caves, monumental Sedona towers that look like club sandwiches. It was 3 hours and 3 miles from where we parked to Vultee plaque. We did stop for many pictures. A 6 mile hike of a lifetime. P.S. you need good knees, lots of water, and good shoes. Trail is well marked.