Sedona – By Reservation Only!

By Mark TenBroek

Who uses Reservations?

We all know the drill if we want a table at many of the more popular restaurants like Elote, Mariposa, and The Hudson. We make a reservation ahead of time and plan around that. Otherwise you are left looking for a restaurant that is not as busy (and probably not as good).The restaurants do this for a good reason. They can plan staffing and food for the anticipated number of tables that are reserved. With this approach, fewer people show up without a reservation hoping to get in at the last minute. This makes it easier for restaurant staff and fewer potential patrons leave disgruntled. It is a win-win for restaurant staff and patrons alike.

Since it is so common in the business world to have reservations, why not apply this to the parking at selected high use trailheads during peak periods during the spring and fall? High use trailheads would benefit from reduced congestion at the parking lots and on the trails. It would also encourage the use of the Trailhead Shuttle to get to and from the served trailheads.

Visitors and residents alike would benefit from this approach as the hiker load would likely be spread to more locations with lesser used trails. A key to this approach is to eliminate roadside parking on those roads that allow it, like Dry Creek Road and Boynton Pass Road. You may notice that 179 does not allow roadside parking and this limits visitors to the parking lots only.

Dry Creek Road has already incorporated some no parking areas, but posting No Parking along Dry Creek and Boynton Pass Road out to the Fay Canyon parking would reduce the overuse of heavily used trails west of Sedona. No Parking in these areas would also reduce the issue of hikers walking in the roadway to get to the trailhead they want to use.

Reservation parking would also eliminate the practice some visitors have of entering a parking lot and when they find it is full they linger waiting for someone to leave, often blocking others using the lot as well as the Trailhead Shuttle . This practice can be a safety issue as well as it blocks emergency services from accessing these parking lots.

So how would a reservation system work?

First of all, reservations would only be for highly trafficked trailheads and only during peak use periods in the Spring and Fall. These types of reservation systems are now commonplace at National Parks such as Arches , Yosemite, and Zion. To gain a Parking Permit on a first come first served basis, the potential user would enter the date and time of their desired location with parking duration matched to a reasonable hike time. Most likely a reservation sheet would need to be printed and displayed on the dash of the user vehicle to allow compliance to be verified.

It should be noted that a reservation system is currently in use for the Fossil Creek recreational area in the Coconino National Forest. You can see how it works at: Fossil Creek. Reservations are on a first come first served basis. An image of the reservation website is also shown below.

The benefits of this approach include:
* Reduce the safety issues of hikers who need to walk in roadways from roadside parking. If not corrected there will result in injuries in some of these areas that allow roadside parking.
* A better hiking experience for those that make their reservation and less frustration with limited parking. The Forest Service sized the parking areas to limit user impact, and these limits should be enforced.
* High use trails would have less environmental impact with limited traffic. This is particularly important in Boynton Canyon where archaeological sites are being impacted.
* This would reduce the creation of social trails from distributed roadside parking to the trailheads.
* Likely less traffic in Sedona once there is an understanding that reservations are needed. Day trippers or spur of the moment visitors would be encouraged to use less trafficked trails.

By all accounts this system works well at Fossil Creek and the Forest Service has implemented it successfully for that nearby area. Lets work toward trying to have a similar system to reduce the overuse of high use trails.

Anything else to be done?

One key area that continues to be a problem in the Cathedral Rock trailhead. This is currently served by one of the Trailhead Shuttles. This shuttle could be eliminated if a proposal to move the trailhead just south onto Forest Service land. The proposed approach would be similar to the Bell Rock and Courthouse parking areas where parking limits the number of users at those locations. Since No Parking has long been implemented on 179 with no real problems , this approach would help make access limited by the parking lot size and would eliminate the pedestrian safety issues along Back O’Beyond which prompted the Trailhead Shuttle, which costs over $0.75M per year. These savings could be used to construct this roadway and parking, should the Forest Service approve this change.

https://www.recreation.gov/permits/4251919

Editor’s Note:

Mark is a retired Professional Civil Engineer who graduated from the University of Michigan in 1977 and worked as a consulting and design engineer in the Midwest for over 40 years. He worked primarily on Water and Wastewater projects for municipalities and utilities. Mark and his spouse arrived in Sedona in 2017 to design and build a home in Uptown where they now live. He understands Sedona’s unique place as both a sacred and spiritual center. Researching how the local economy can be effectively managed to protect our quality of life, the natural world, the tourist experience, and reasonable profits for local businesses, has become his passion.