Oak Creek Canyon

Oak Creek Canyon follows a fault, a long crack in the Earth's crust where the land dropped on one side. Over time Oak Creek and its tributaries carved down along that weakness, cutting into the layered sandstones and limestones of the Colorado Plateau to open the gorge that carries the highway today.

The result is a canyon with strikingly varied walls, bands of red sandstone stained by iron, paler layers of limestone and buff stone, and dark caps of volcanic basalt near the top where old lava flows spread across the plateau. That mix of rock and the constant water of Oak Creek give the canyon both its dramatic color and its unusual green lushness.

The Verde Valley and the red-rock country around Sedona were long home to the Sinagua people, ancestral farmers and builders whose cliff dwellings and pueblos still stand nearby, and whose descendants are counted among the Hopi and other Pueblo nations today. The Yavapai and Apache peoples also have deep and continuing ties to this land, and their descendants live in the region as the Yavapai-Apache Nation.

Oak Creek's reliable water made this canyon a valued place for those who lived here, offering fish, game, and fertile ground along the stream. Later homesteaders farmed and ran orchards on the canyon floor, and the apple and fruit-growing history of the Sedona area traces in part to these watered bottomlands.

Oak Creek is a rare thing in Arizona, a stream that runs all year, and that constant water makes the canyon a corridor of life. Trout hold in its cool pools, and the shaded groves along its banks shelter far more birds and animals than the dry uplands, from herons and songbirds to deer and the occasional black bear coming down to drink.

The streamside forest of cottonwood, sycamore, willow, and maple is what gives the canyon its beauty and its cool. In summer it is a green refuge from the heat, and in autumn those same trees put on the color that draws crowds up the highway. Wildflowers, ferns, and mosses cling to the wetter, shaded walls, small gardens fed by seeps in the rock.

Spring brings new green to the canyon, running water at its fullest from snowmelt, and mild days perfect for hiking the streamside trails. It is a lovely and less crowded time before the summer rush arrives.

Summer is the busy season, when people pour into the canyon to swim, wade, and picnic in the shade while the desert bakes below. Monsoon storms can send the creek up fast, so visitors keep an eye on the sky. Fall is the canyon's showpiece, with maples and cottonwoods turning brilliant colors and the crowds returning for the display. Winter is quiet and can bring snow to the higher canyon and icy stretches of road, a beautiful but careful time to visit.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.