Soldier Pass Loop

We drove to the Bruins Mesa Trailhead in Sedona Arizona to hike the Soldier Pass Loop Trail with a side trip to the Soldier Pass Cave in the Coconino National Forest. We went clockwise on the loop and hiked 5.6 miles with  1,050 ft overall gain. Most of this route is in the Red Rock Secret MountainWilderness.

View or red rocks from the parking lot

We started on the Cibola Pass Trail and were soon seeing fabulous rock formations as we headed to the Soldier Pass Trail.

There were quite a few bright red paintbrush in bloom along the trail.

A sink hole

Some of the pools at the Seven Pools

More rock formations as we continued on the trail.

Going up the side trail to the Soldier Pass Cave

View of an alcove, the "cave" is mostly hidden behind the trees to the far right.

views looking out from near the alcove and cave:

The alcove:

The outer part of the alcove is an arch.

View looking out from the back of the arch:

The "cave" is also an arch in front of an alcove, here 1/2 of the arch can been seen with an upper window.

wide angle view of the arch in front of the upper part of the alcove:

view looking out from the back of the alcove:

The rock fall between the arch and the alcove wall, give an opportunity to scramble up into the cave.

Walking along a ledge in the cave, the window is on the mid left and the arch is the bottom left:

view looking out the window:

walking out to the far end of the ledge:

view from the far end of the ledge, looking back to the end we scrambled up:

some other niches near the cave area:

Back on the trail, as we headed up to Soldier Pass, we could look back at the area where the alcove and cave are located:

zoom of the alcove and cave:

views of the red rock formations as we continued up to Soldier Pass and then down Brins Mesa to the trailhead:

back at the parking lot:

some of the wildflowers and flora seen today: