Sedona, Arizona: Every scenic area in Arizona has its own popular mode of travel, one that's peculiar to its specific geography and vistas. Motorized rafts ply the Colorado River, transporting visitors past thousand foot cliffs etched in desert varnish and through the roiling rapids of Hell's Canyon. Mules carry thousands of tourists from around the world down the Bright Angel Trail to Phantom Ranch in the depths of the Grand Canyon, and then back up to the rim. Here in Sedona, Jeeps have been the preferred way to scale our spectacular landscape for more than five decades.
Nearly three million visitors come to Sedona every year, eager to see for themselves the richly colored red rocks, and to experience the spirituality that accompanies unusually beautiful surroundings. Many of them take Jeep tours to areas they couldn't otherwise access. Others arrive in their private 4x4s or they bring trailers of quads, using published guidebooks to find trails where they can try out their own skills and exercise their equipment over rugged terrain.
All this motorized traffic takes a toll on the local trails, sometimes creating damage that can force closure of the trail altogether. Private off-road drivers, untrained in extreme navigation skills and unaware of the long-term ecological consequences, cause the majority of damage by skirting potholes and difficult terrain, a tactic that compacts the delicate desert crust on the shoulder of the trail and tramples vegetation. Loss of vegetation in a high desert environment leads quickly to a chain reaction of soil erosion, flooding, and more loss of vegetation. Other trail damage is created by vehicles leaving the designated trail entirely, tire spinning – which generates clouds of dust that smother the native plants, and littering.
Because Sedona's trails are on National Forest land, the USDA Forest Service is responsible for evaluating the extent of damage, temporarily closing trails that can be rehabilitated and permanently closing trails that are beyond mechanical restoration. Since locally designated Forest Service funds and personnel must be spread over the entire 1.8 million acre Coconino National Forest, the Forest Service is unable to tend to every single trail. Without private support and cooperative relationships, some of the routes would be closed.
Much of that support comes locally from Pink Jeep Tours, a company that employs the full-time trail maintenance team of Rich Bowen and Bruce Berger. Bowen and Berger are ideally suited to the job. Bowen is a ten-year veteran with the company and relishes the outdoor environment. Berger arrived a year ago from New Hampshire and says he "never stops being in awe of the beauty in Sedona." Aided by a small fleet of heavy equipment, the two men spend every day on the most heavily used trails, including Broken Arrow and Diamondback Gulch.
