A mountain biker can speed down it in less than five minutes, but the views it affords last a lifetime.

Uptown, the Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness and the Airport Vortex are now on full display to hikers and bikers alike on the new Sedona View trail, a connector running six-tenths of a mile from the Lower Airport Saddle — a three-quarter-mile hike south of State Route 89A on Airport Road — to the parking lot at the Sedona Airport Vista.

“The trail offers a way for hikers to get between these two popular sites without walking on the busy Airport Road,” said Jennifer Burns, recreation staff officer for the Red Rock Ranger District.

As part of a proposed 20-cottage westward expansion of its facilities, nearby Sky Ranch Lodge funded construction of the trail, which opened at the beginning of the year on airport and USFS land.

“The amount of traffic we’re adding to Airport Road is minor, but the fact that people are walking Airport Road is a problem,” said Mike Bower, co-owner of the architects who planned Sky Ranch’s expansion. “Every time I’d bike up there for meetings a couple of times a month, regardless of the time of day, there were always people walking.”

For the full story, please see the Friday, Feb. 14, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.