The Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund has announced its proposed projects for 2024, which will include trail work on the Schnebly Hill Trail, the Cathedral Rock Trail and Soldiers Pass Trail.

Its project list is also likely to expand once the U.S. Forest Service finalizes its decision memo in early 2024 for the proposed addition of 39 miles of non-motorized trails within the Coconino National Forest’s Red Rock Ranger District.

“We’re the money people,” fund program director Camille Cox said. “The Friends of the Forest are the rollup-their-sleeves-and-get-dirty people that assist in the trail work. We’re the people that raise the funds and buy the tools for the Friends of the Forest. Where money is needed, our mission is to raise those funds and to make them available to the Forest Service.”

Cathedral Rock Trail

Cathedral Rock Trail is currently scheduled to be closed for repairs between Wednesday, March 6, and Saturday, April 13, as part of a $113,230 project. Monthly average usage is between 10,000 and 20,000 users.

Work has been ongoing for the last five years and will be carried out by American Conservation Experience crews, the Forest Service’s seasonal trail crews and “specialist rock artisans from Summit to Sea,” the fund’s website stated Volunteers from the Friends of the Forest and Sedona Westerners will also be involved.

“Cathedral Rock Trail was supposed to be completed last year,” Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund Vice President Sandi Heysinger said. “It got delayed because of the significant amount of ice and snow that we got. [It] prevented the Forest Service and the ACE crew from scrambling out there to get the work done … It’s to build 20 giant steps, retaining walls, drainage systems and closing user-created trails.”

The Forest Service has proposed recognizing the existence of a 0.92-mile social trail that connects the Easy Breezy Trail junction with the Hiline Trail in its recently-released Red Rock Trails Access Plan.

Schnebly Hill Trail

The first scheduled project will be to repair a 100-foot section of Schnebly Hill that has allegedly been in disrepair since the late winter rains in February and March. Work should begin in two to three weeks. The total cost is $18,481; a sponsor donated $3,000 for the project with the remainder of the cost being covered by the trail fund’s general fund.

“One hundred feet of trail benching are needed to reconstruct the trail as it contours the hillside,” the Sedona Red Rock Trail Fund’s website stated. “An extensive amount of rock work will be done to construct drainage systems and sustainable tread, including 100 feet of retaining walls and rock armoring and 10 drainage structures. Workers will backfill the quarry site and revegetate disturbed soils. Three weeks. No trail closures. Work will be performed by the USFS Red Rock Ranger District’s seasonal trail crew augmented by volunteers.”

“The crew will be working to reestablish a temporary realignment so users can safely pass through the affected area,” Forest Service spokesman Brady Smith said. “This will then be monitored to determine how stable the hillside is before a more permanent alignment will be constructed.”

Heysinger said that hikers are currently unable to bypass the damage and said that crews will monitor the trail for vegetation regrowth.

Soldier Pass Trail

“In that area, they’re going to build some new staircases and do some better drainage routes to pull [water] away from the trail and have [it] move effectively down hill,” Heysinger said. “The trail tread in this area must be raised to prevent further decomposition of the soil and the rock crust, to create a durable surface … That’s an area that gets a lot of foot traffic and a lot of traffic that goes off the system trail. This is going to shore that up. That is around a $50,000 project, and we are looking to fund it at $30,000. We have the other funding for it right now.”

The rock steps will be installed about 50 yards from the trailhead. The installation is not expected to require any closures.

“Soldier Pass Trail has sustained critical damage from overuse, illegal OHV use and erosion from severe weather,” the Red Rock Trail Fund stated on its website about the project. “It needs new staircases, effective drainage routes and solutions for restricting users to the trail. The trail tread must be raised to prevent further decomposition of soil and rock crush, and to create a durable surface for sustainable use.”

Fund officials referred the Sedona Red Rock News to the Forest Service when asked to describe the extent of the purported OHV damage to the trail.

The city of Sedona’s June 2023 environmental impact assessment on OHV use found that average usage of Soldier Pass was 25 vehicles per day; the Forest Service issues 12 permits per day for the restricted-access trail. Eighty-three percent of vehicles using Soldier Pass were SUVs such as jeeps, while 17% were OHVs. Daily usage at other popular sites was 197 vehicles per day at Schnebly Hill Trail, 153 at FR 152C, 114 at Dry Creek and 111 at Broken Arrow.

The U.S Forest Service was asked to verify the accuracy of the claim that critical damage at Soldier Pass Trail was made by illegal OHV use.

“Yes, there has been documented situations where OHV users missed the turn to the Devil’s Sink Hole and were driving northbound on the non-motorized Soldier Pass Trail until the terrain and imbedded rock in the trail corridor became [sic] unpassable,” Smith said. “Included in this documentation was the damage that occurred to the trail when the users now needed to turn around crushing vegetation and biotic soil crusts. It is unclear if these OHV incursions were intentional or accidental.”

Forest Service recreation staff were able to provide records of one documented incident “a [few] years ago of a couple of OHVs veering off the designated road,” Smith said. “They went up the trail just north of Devil’s Kitchen and realized it was a non-motorized trail and tried to turn around. When they did so, one of the OHVs got stuck and had to be recovered.”

The Forest Service stated that there have been no other recorded instances of off-road use at the site.

“Our recreation folks said that through their research, it looks like only four non-permitted vehicles have gone through the gates in the past few months,” Smith said. “There is no way of knowing if those vehicles are staying on the road, but that road is similar to Broken Arrow, in that there aren’t many opportunities for jeeps and OHVs to veer from the route.”

Restoration to affected areas has happened and is being monitored, Smith stated, efforts to prevent future incidents include improved signage and the construction of a temporary barrier that allows hikers through and reduces confusion for other users.