Winter is trail-building season in the Red Rock Ranger District of the Coconino National Forest, and this season areas outside the Village of Oak Creek will see a concentration of work.

In one of the last phases of the Red Rock Trails Enhancement project approved in 2018, crews will do heavy and routine maintenance on the Courthouse Butte Loop, Big Park Loop, Bell Rock Pathway and three trails within the Munds Mountain Wilderness.

Later in the season, crews with the American Con­servation Experience, contracted by USFS, will also upgrade and create trails in nearby Jacks Canyon.

Forrest Saville, the trail, OHV and wilderness coordi­nator for USFS, said crews will create a 5.5-mile system of “destination trails” in the Dairy Springs section of Jacks Canyon, an area between the Big Park Loop and the Rabbit Ears rock formation.

Currently, the area is not particularly user-friendly. There’s only one official access point to Dairy Springs, from Jacks Canyon Trailhead, though social trails com­ing off the Big Park Loop also lead to it.

“It’s a confusing area right now,” Saville said, but beautiful, too, surrounded by wilderness and sweeping views.

The work will involve a combination of creating new trails, rerouting existing trails, and rehabilitating social trails.

When the Dairy Springs Trail upgrade is complete, Bell Rock Vista and Jacks Canyon Trailhead will of­ficially connect, and trail users will be able to make a loop inside the Dairy Springs area, increasing options for users to design their own adventure.

As with the other Red Rock Trails Enhancement projects, including the Western Gateway project in West Sedona, the aim of the Dairy Springs work is to increase recreation opportunities while also making the trail system more sustainable.

Saville said a lot of the trails in Dairy Springs were originally historic social trails, established without regard to drainage. In one section of trail, water has eroded the path into a hip-deep tunnel. Sections of trail like this will be rehabilitated, Saville said, and new routes will be cut, planned with drainage in mind.

In a normal year, the paid trail crews would be supplemented by volunteers — compensated only in the currency of pizza — but pandemic precautions have sidelined the volunteer trail workers.

But the paid crews are able to continue working this year thanks in large part to the Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund, a local nonprofit focused on trail maintenance and enhancement.

Kevin Adams, president of SRRTF, said the group contributed $151,000 to the Bell Rock Trail Area Sus­tainability Initiative, of which the Dairy Springs work is a part.

Adams said the group raised the funds through grants, as well as donations to the fund by individuals and local businesses. Since its inception, the group has given the Red Rock Ranger District more than $400,000 for trail work, the SRRTF website states.

The revamped Dairy Springs trails will offer an alter­native access to the Courthouse Butte area — though not without a significant hike — which may be wel­comed by VOC residents, who have seen increased congestion at the already-popular Bell Rock Vista and Courthouse Butte Trailheads as locals and tourists alike have sought outdoor recreation.