Trail Overview

Rock Garden Loop is just under 5 miles long and traverses around Schnebly Hill. This loop consists of four different forest roads which are FS 801, FS 9495F, FS 9494F, and FS 153A. The Western part of this loop holds more of the large and consistent rock gardens. There are countless rocks with scrapes from metal. These rocks look to be definite differential busters so eyes on the trail. High clearance with 4WD is needed to get through the Western part of this loop. The Southern and Eastern parts of this loop have much smaller rock gardens that are peppered with possible mud holes. These sections of the loop seem to hold more moisture after a decent rain. Some of these mud holes can be deep and very slippery. There are a few camping spots on this loop mainly around the start and end of the trail.

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Difficulty

Expect an uneven, rocky trail with large rock gardens and potentially deep mud holes.

Technical Rating

Sarah Tunget

Aug 02, 2025

Open

We wrapped up our day with what we thought would be a relaxing little ride on the Rock Garden Loop before we continued down Schnebly Hill into Sedona. We’d heard the views were nice and figured we’d cap the day with some scenic overlooks and maybe a few bumps along the way. Instead, we got trees. And rocks. And more rocks. And then even more rocks stacked, scattered, embedded, and waiting to rearrange our suspension. The Rock Garden Loop earned its name like it was trying to win an award. It was narrow, super narrow. There were moments we weren’t sure we could fit, and the truck felt more like it was navigating a rock maze than a trail. Not sure I'd take anything too large back here. We didn’t even get views of the area until we took an offshoot trail. That overlook was stunning. But until that point? It was all dense forest and bone-jarring terrain. Not a trail I'd ever do again.

Jonathon Loo

Jul 06, 2025

Open

Extremely narrow trail through a rock garden. The Bronco barely fit through the treetrunks. The road was full of softball and bowling ball sized boulders. There was no view, it was all forest driving. I only scraped once.

Andrew Torres

Jul 04, 2025

Open