DV8 Offroad On the Broken Arrow Trail in Sedona

July 27, 2021

DV8 Offroad On the Broken Arrow Trail in Sedona

Jeep Wrangler JL & Gladiator JT

We decided to take our Rubicon JL and Gladiator out on the road to the Broken Arrow Off-Road Trail outside of Sedona, Arizona. We started our journey early in the morning in Riverside, CA. We loaded up and headed east to Red Rock country.

The drive from the Riverside area to Sedona is a beautiful one. It transforms from a lowland desert into a mountainous red rock and forested landscape. If you’ve never been to the Sedona/Oak Creek area, plan a trip when you can. It’s an amazingly majestic area, just watch out for all the tourists with their white shorts, visors, and endless selfies.

Airing Down Jeep Tires

We arrived at the trailhead by taking Morgan Road east from Highway 179 out of Sedona. It was time to let the air out of our tires and take off down the trail. While airing down, we were assaulted by a legion of army ants nipping at our ankles and calves. This petty nuisance was worth it, as this trail has some awe-inspiring vistas along the way. Here is the full rundown on our experience of the Broken Arrow Trail.

Broken Arrow Trail

Time to Complete: ~2 Hours
Distance: 4 miles
Difficulty: Moderate/Challenging

0.0 Miles In: The Speed Bump - The Speed Bump is a man-made pair of boulder mounds to test if your vehicle can make it on the trail. On this particular day, the rut between the two mounds was full of muddy water and baptized our Jeeps in mud at the very start of the trip.

0.2 Miles In: Last Chance Climb - If you struggle getting up and across the rock formation here, it also serves as a sign to turn around. We, of course, had no issue here. We decided to hop out to take some pictures and videos. Several groups of Pink Jeep Tours came through during this time, and they took photos of us taking photos of our Jeeps. Some of them also asked if our Jeeps were rentals! 🤣

The Devil's Dining Room

0.3 Miles In: Devil’s Dining Room Sinkhole - This was a short offshoot from the main trail, where you can park and take a quick hike over to the sinkhole. It is a pretty impressive hole in the ground, and unfortunately lunch was not being served in the Dining Room today. It’s rumored that on every third Thursday of the month, skinwalker spirits break bread down in the hole. None of us had the guts to take a picture of such a supernatural place for fear of spiritual retribution, so here’s a photo somebody else took of the hole instead.

Jeep Gladiator Muddin'

0.4 Miles In: Mud Pit - Recent monsoon rains had created a mud pit in a right-hand turn towards the one-way split. Our Jeeps were still too clean at that point so we both floored it through the muck. We had to hop out to catch some pics and video racing through the puddle. After three or four more rounds through the mud, we headed down the trail.

0.6 Miles In: One-Way Split - A friendly arrow sign pointed us to the right and we proceeded onward to the start of the Loop.

Off-Road Jeep Gladiator JT

1.0 Mile In: The Loop - To the right you see the stairs ascending, but you are only allowed to come down the stairs. There’s a big warning sign stating it’s a one-way stretch. Were we not in our company Jeeps, perhaps we would have climbed up the stairs. We headed left and began the loop.

Submarine Rock on Broken Arrow Trail

1.1 Miles In: Submarine Rock Detour - You can take a quick jaunt to the left and head down a wash and then up some fun boulders to the massive rock formation. It’d be a blast to drive up and around the top of this thing. Unfortunately, you have to hop out and climb on foot to the top for some truly beautiful views of the surrounding area. After taking in the sights, we jumped back in the Jeeps and headed back to the loop to continue our crawl towards Chicken Point.

Chicken Point on the Broken Arrow Trail

2.0 Miles In: Chicken Point Detour - Like the Submarine Rock detour, this is another optional feature to explore before heading to the Jeep Playground. This area has an absolutely beautiful view of the valley, great for selfies and vanity shots. We didn’t stay for long, we wanted to hit the fun stuff up ahead.

Jeep Wrangler JL Off-Road

2.5 Miles In: Mushroom Rock - This natural round-about has some stunning views on nearly all sides. Right in the center is a trio of rock formations that slightly resemble shrooms. In order to get up to it you have to ramp up a rock incline. We met a couple of Jeepers, Jay and his wife, in their 2020 white Rubicon JL. They ran the rest of trail with us, yet another example of Jeep camaraderie on the trail.

The Jeep Playground

2.6 Miles In: The Slide/Jeep Playground - The whole next stretch of trail has lots of ledges, boulders, and curves along the way. Hence it’s called this the Jeep Playground. We stopped along the way to grab some pictures and video. It all culminates in The Devil’s Staircase decline.

The Devil's Staircase

3.0 Miles In: The Devil’s Staircase - By far this is the coolest obstacle on this trail. It’s a 50 meter, steep downward slope full of boulders. When at the very edge of the top of the slope you are looking out at the sky and can’t see the trail without sticking your head out the window. We rode our breaks the whole way down, save for one boulder near the end that stopped our descent, and required a momentary hit of gas.

4.0 Miles In: Back to the Trailhead - From the end of the Devil’s Staircase you kick it left and head about a mile back to the trailhead. At this point we were all pretty hungry and we decided to grab lunch.

Sedona Airport

We drove back into Sedona, and at the suggestion of our social media specialist Nate (also an amateur pilot), we went to the Sedona Airport’s Mesa Grill. It’s a great little spot located at the top of a mesa, right next to the runway. We recommend their pulled-pork BBQ sandwiches!

Dom Scrubbin' the Gladiator

Back in Sedona we needed to air-up our tires again and give these filthy beasts a wash. The first 3 gas stations we tried all had broken air pumps, so we rolled up to Big-O Tires and they happily let us air-up using their pump. Across the street we pressure washed all the mud from the Jeeps, grabbed some snacks, and hit the road back to headquarters.