Cottonwood, AZ - The Pass, the Arch and the Tarantula

There are many good hikes in the Sedona area and we’ve hiked and enjoyed many of them. But, we like to try something new and today it was the Sterling Pass trail. Not the most popular, not through the signature Sedona red rocks, not beside a bubbling stream but a hike that we enjoyed and will do again should we come back to this area. It’s challenging since it is a steep ascent of the west face of Oak Creek canyon to a high pass and then a swift descent through a piney woods forest to the Vultee Arch. And, yep, you’ve got to do the whole thing in reverse on the way back. Rubbery legs, here I come.

It all started several days ago when I looked at a map and saw FR 152 passing by both the Vultee Arch and the Devil’s Bridge. Why not drive up the road, hike to Vultee Arch, drive back down the road to the Devil’s Bridge and then head home? Sounds simple, right? But, on Friday, we hit FR 152 (by reputation the worst road in Arizona) and our plan melted. We parked, walked up the road to Devil’s Bridge and 2 miles towards the Vultee Arch trail, but road walking with Pink Jeeps and ATV’s whizzing by us, churning up the dust, is not my idea of a great hike. So we looked at the map for alternate routes. We found 2:

        a. take the Chuckwagon Trail for 1.5 miles, FR 152 for 4 miles (Yecch), Vultee Arch Trail for 1.5 miles and then reverse this. Long, dusty, b-o-r-r-ring. And, did I say LONG? 

        b. take the 2 1/2 mi. Sterling Pass Trail up 1500’, down 1200’, Vultee Arch Trail for 1/4 mi. then reverse this. Short, challenging, and much more exciting. You’re either going up or you’re going down, not many level places in this trail. But did I say SHORT?

Can you guess which way we took today? Gotta take the short trail. And, we were off. Finding the trailhead proved difficult and, finding a parking place even more difficult. The problem is that this trailhead for this trail in on the Oak Creek Canyon road, and on a Saturday in the fall, is bumper to bumper with every other driver thinking he’s Tony Stewart, rounding the last curve to the checkered flag. But, after a u-turn, we found the trailhead and quickly slid into a parking space.

We have an app in our IPhone which tracks our hikes. It gives the distance, the speed (really slow), the elevation we climb, and the grade we climb. It also tracks us on a map which can come in handy when you take a different trail back to your car and you want to see if you are really heading back to your car. Once we looked at the map and found we were heading away from where our car was parked. Oops. Above is the elevation map for this hike. The low point on the left is the trailhead, then we begin climbing to the high point on the left, which is the pass itself. Then we head down to the low point in the middle, which is the arch. Then we head back up hill and the high point on the right is the pass again (we were in a deep canyon and the GPS couldn't track us exactly) and the low point on the right is the trailhead again. Interestingly, the highest grade we climbed at was 38.5 degrees. Sounds like a stair-stepper to me.

And we began at 9:00. The trail follows the wash/run-off for much of its length and then it begins to climb, and climb, and climb. Much of the trail on this side of the pass went through a fire about 5 years ago. Most of the trees are dead and are now blackened charred hulks. But the under brush is back and about 5’ high. Because the trail is not as well used as others, there are fallen trees across the trail in many spots, the trail is hard to see in the underbrush for many spots but that only makes it that much more fun. We noticed that there were recent bootprints and knew that there were 2 cars at the trailhead but we saw no one else and enjoyed the solitude.

Then we heard voices, seemingly coming from thin air. Ahead of us? Nope, way off the trail and higher than we are. Aha. Rock climbers up on the pinnacle, clinging to the steep rock edge. By this time, we ought to get over seeing rock climbers and thinking them unusual. We see them everywhere and, though we are in awe of their skill, think them nuts.

As we climbed we left the trees behind and had some marvelous views across Oak Creek Canyon to the cliffs on the East side. The views continued to improve as we climbed and - gave us an excuse to rest as I took pictures.

Finally, we reached the pass and savored being able to stand erect on level ground, hemmed in by tall sandstone cliffs glistening in the noon-day sun.

After a short rest we headed down the other side of the pass. The trees were thick on the other side and the trail was more dirt than the rocks we had climbed on the east side. A forest primeval. 

At first we found long switchbacks but, as they descended into the bottom of Sterling Canyon, they got shorter and steeper. Gary was ahead of me and blithely stepped over this.

I saw it, stopped and backed up a bit - enough to get about 4’ from it but close enough to get a picture.

Then a hiking club from Phoenix came up the hill (no wonder there were fresh bootprints on the trail.) We told them to stop and we all got some tremendous shots of an angry tarantula. Note the outstretched legs which I hear is the threatening defensive position. Or so says the guy in the hiking club who has tarantulas as pets. I just hope he’s not there when we head back up the hill. We skirted the tarantula, continued on down the hill, took the turnoff to the Vultee Arch and headed up for a short bit. And, there it was, right in front of us. Beautiful, especially with the green foliage to offset the rusty red color of the arch.

There was no designated trail up to the arch itself so we spread our lunch out on a sandstone bluff and just appreciated the view from afar.

Well, right about now, you’re asking: why is it called Vultee Arch? And, you guessed it, I have the answer. It’s named for Gerard Vultee, an aviation pioneer who crashed near here with his wife, Sylvia in 1938. His close friend, Donald Smith, who was also a VP of Vultee wrote a letter to TIME magazine about Jerry's death:

Sirs:

Gerard F. Vultee ("Jerry"), not Gerald, my close friend and business associate for many years, was killed when the cabin monoplane he was flying with Mrs. Vultee crashed on the flat top of Wilson Mountain [TIME, Feb. 7]. ... Caught in a local snow-storm and blizzard with no training in blind or instrument flying, he was unable to find his way out.’

This is the plaque erected on this site to dedicate the arch to him.

Lunch, relaxing and, now, the reverse: a steep climb up to the Pass followed by a steep climb down to our car at the trailhead. We then met several others also climbing Sterling Pass to the Vultee Arch. This trail is not as ‘social’ a trail as West Fork but, on a Saturday in the fall, it does attract hikers.

As we were climbing towards Sterling Pass from the Vultee arch, we met a couple heading down towards the Arch: sneakers on their feet, no water, no hats, just not dressed for a challenging hike. They asked how much further to the arch and we told them about 1 mile. Disappointed they continued on down the slope and we continued up. We reached the Pass and finally got to head downward in our final stretch. Whee!!!

Near the end of the trail, that young couple caught up with us, having turned back before the arch. They were tired, hungry, hurting, and thirsty. We asked how they ever got on this trail and they told us that a woman in the hotel told them about this trail. ‘Wish she had stressed the ‘aggressive’ a bit more’, they said. Well, yes. What was that woman thinking? 2 flatlanders from Wichita, new to the area, in town for a long weekend and she recommends this hike? Why not West Fork or Bell Rock or many other trails which would not only show off Sedona colors in their best light but would also be much more appropriate for these two? Oh, well, they’ll recover.

We reached the car and started back towards Sedona. Oops, it’s Saturday and Sedona was packed with moving tourists and their cars. Several miles before Sedona itself, we found ourselves in a long line of cars.

Marvelous trail and we enjoyed the challenge, the views from both sides of the Pass, the WOW!! factor at the end and the piney woods hills atmosphere, compared to the deserts where we usually hike.

5.5, 2790’