Broken Arrow vs Soldier Pass: Sedona's Two Iconic Jeep Trails Compared

Broken Arrow and Soldier Pass are Sedona’s two most-photographed jeep trails — and they are operated by different companies, on different permits, with different difficulty ratings, and they show you different parts of the red rocks. Picking between them is one of the more consequential decisions in planning a Sedona trip, because each is exclusive to a single commercial operator. This guide compares the two trails on every dimension that actually matters: difficulty, scenery, exclusivity, access logistics, cost, and which one suits your group best. The featured Pink Jeep Scenic Rim tour on this site is a third path — a non-Broken Arrow / non-Soldier Pass option that many first-timers prefer for the panoramic Mogollon Rim views.

The two trails at a glance

The two trails are easy to confuse because both are short (under 5 miles round trip), both end in dramatic red-rock features, and both appear in every Sedona Instagram feed. But they offer different experiences and the commercial permit structure means you literally cannot do both with the same tour operator.

Broken Arrow — the thrill ride

Broken Arrow is the more difficult of the two trails and the one most associated with the classic “Pink Jeep” experience. It’s rated 8/10 in 4WD difficulty by trail-rating conventions — meaning a vehicle with high clearance, low-range transfer case, and an experienced driver are all required. The signature obstacle is the “Devil’s Staircase,” a steep slickrock descent that drops the jeep down a series of natural rock steps. This is the obstacle that produces 90% of the Instagram footage of Sedona jeep tours.

The route is named for the 1950 James Stewart Western Broken Arrow, which was filmed in the area — a Hollywood-era namesake, not an indigenous reference (a common misconception). The scenery is rolling slickrock, ponderosa pine, and several elevated viewpoints, though the views are more “interesting” than “epic” — Broken Arrow is about the off-road experience first and the photography second.

The named obstacles on Broken Arrow

If you spend any time on Sedona off-road forums you’ll see the same handful of feature names repeat. They are all real and all on this trail:

Knowing the vocabulary helps you follow the guide’s narration in real time and decide afterwards whether the trail’s character matched what you wanted. The Praying Sisters and Christianity Spire views from Chicken Point are arguably the trail’s photographic highlight; many guests report those vistas, not the Devil’s Staircase, as the moment they actually remember.

Pink Jeep Tours holds the exclusive USFS commercial motorized permit for Broken Arrow. No other commercial operator in Sedona can take paying guests on this trail. Private 4WD drivers can do it themselves with a Red Rock Pass for parking at the Broken Arrow Trailhead — but if you want a guided commercial tour, your only option is Pink Jeep.

Best for: Thrill seekers, off-road enthusiasts, action-content creators, families with kids 8+ who can handle the jolts. Expect to be jostled, gripping the handhold, occasionally bracing for a tilt — this is not a smooth ride.

Soldier Pass — the scenic + cultural option

Soldier Pass is gentler on the body, longer in distance, and arguably more interesting. The trail features two famous geological landmarks: the Seven Sacred Pools (a series of water-eroded basins in the slickrock) and Devil’s Kitchen (a massive sinkhole that collapsed in 1880, with a second collapse in 1989). Neither is on Broken Arrow.

Red Rock Western Jeep Tours holds the exclusive USFS commercial motorized permit for Soldier Pass. They are the only commercial outfit that can take paying guests up the trail in a jeep. Their featured tour is the 2-hour Private Soldiers Pass at $160 per person — a private vehicle, just your group and the guide.

What makes Soldier Pass logistically tricky:

• The trailhead parking lot is closed Thursday-Sunday. On those days, public visitors (including private 4WD drivers) must use the free Sedona Shuttle Route 14 from the Posse Grounds Park & Ride. This was a USFS congestion-management response that started in 2020 and has only tightened since.
• Private motorized access requires a Recreation.gov Motorized Access Permit, capped at 12 per day, reserved in advance. Hiking access is unrestricted, but with the trail at peak summer popularity, parking at any reasonable hour Thursday-Sunday is impossible without the shuttle.
• Residential parking in the Soldier Pass neighbourhood is strictly prohibited and heavily enforced (towing). Don’t try to find a neighbourhood workaround.

Commercial jeep tours bypass all of this — Red Rock Western’s vehicles use their permit and proceed straight through. That alone is worth the $160 to many visitors who’d otherwise spend half the day on shuttle logistics.

Best for: Visitors who want the scenic + cultural value (sinkhole, sacred pools, slickrock erosion patterns), couples or small groups who want privacy, and anyone who finds the parking-shuttle drama at Soldier Pass exhausting.

What “Soldier Pass” is actually named for

The trail’s name is not a heroic reference. It traces back to the US Army’s 1870s campaign against the Yavapai people, and a quick acknowledgement of that history is owed to the place. The relevant timeline:

• 1865 — Camp Lincoln is established by the US Army in the Verde Valley, south of present-day Sedona.
• 1868 — Camp Lincoln is renamed Camp Verde to avoid confusion with other “Camp Lincolns”; it later became Fort Verde, today preserved as Fort Verde State Historic Park in Camp Verde, AZ.
• June 1871 — General George Crook takes command and launches what he called the Tonto Basin Campaign against the Yavapai and Tonto Apache bands of the region.
• 1873 — Following battles at Salt River Canyon (1872) and Turret Peak (1873), the Yavapai and Tonto Apache surrender.
• February 1875 — The forced removal known as the “March of Tears” or “Exodus” marches approximately 1,400-1,500 Yavapai and Apache survivors roughly 180 miles east to the San Carlos reservation. Many die on the march and in the years following.
• 1900 onward — Survivors are allowed to return to the Verde Valley, eventually re-establishing the modern reservation. The Yavapai-Apache Nation is headquartered in Camp Verde today, less than 30 miles from the Soldier Pass trailhead.

Soldiers patrolling between Camp Verde and the high country of the Mogollon Rim used this pass — frequently with Apache Scouts in their ranks — both to search for water (the Seven Sacred Pools were a known source) and to track the indigenous bands they were ordered to remove. That is the “Soldier Pass” of the name. The Yavapai people whose homeland this is are not historical; they are here now, and the trail crosses ground that matters to them in a way the off-road thrill rarely communicates. If you take this tour, sitting with that for a moment is worth more than any photo from the rim.

Boynton Canyon, “Che Ah Chi,” and the vortex layer

Many Sedona jeep tours visit or pass near Boynton Canyon, one of the four named “vortex” sites. The vortex framing — categorised by psychic Page Bryant in 1980 and popularised after the 1987 Harmonic Convergence — is a modern New Age construct. The same canyon carries an older indigenous name: Che Ah Chi (also spelled Cheahchi or Che’ah’chi), a Western Apache term whose root literally translates to “red rock” (tsé = rock, łichíí = red). It is the canyon’s spiritual centre of gravity for the Yavapai people — known in their own language as the Wipukepa, “People from the Foot of the Red Rock” — who consider Boynton Canyon their place of origin: in the Yavapai creation story, the First Woman, Komwidapkuwia, emerged here after a great flood to give birth to the people. The two traditions sit side by side; one is not a translation of the other. When a guide says “vortex,” that’s the Bryant frame. When a guide says “Che Ah Chi” or “Wipukepa,” that’s the indigenous frame. Both are part of the canyon’s full story.

Cost comparison

Pink Jeep doesn’t publish a fixed standalone Broken Arrow tour price on every season — pricing varies by season and tour combination. For a clean apples-to-apples comparison against the featured Scenic Rim tour, the Broken Arrow upgrade is typically a $15-$30 premium over the Scenic Rim, depending on bundles. Red Rock Western’s Soldier Pass at $160 is the most consistent benchmark.

Which trail should you choose?

When NOT to book either

• Monsoon afternoons (July-September, 2 PM-6 PM): Lightning closes both trails on storm days. Book morning slots.
• The day after heavy snowfall: Both trails can close briefly for safety. December-February heavy snowstorm days only.
• If your back, neck, or shoulders are sensitive: Choose Pink Jeep Scenic Rim instead. Both Broken Arrow and Soldier Pass are deliberately rougher than the mild tours.

Can you do both trails?

In theory, yes — book a Pink Jeep Broken Arrow tour on day 1 and a Red Rock Western Soldier Pass tour on day 2. Different operators, different depots, different vehicles. In practice, most visitors find one technical jeep tour per trip is enough — both trails are physically demanding even as a passenger. If you have 3+ days in Sedona, pair one technical trail (Broken Arrow or Soldier Pass) with the panoramic Pink Jeep Scenic Rim for a more complete experience.

Ready to Book?

If you want the panoramic Mogollon Rim views without the technical-trail jolt, the featured Pink Jeep Scenic Rim tour is the most-booked starting point at $129 — rated 4.7/5 by 271 guests, 2.5 hours, free 24-hour cancellation. For Broken Arrow specifically, Pink Jeep is the only commercial option; for Soldier Pass, it’s Red Rock Western. See our operator comparison guide for the full operator landscape, seasonal best-time guide, and what to expect on the day.