Airport Mesa Vortex
Open
Easiest to reach
Red Rock Pass required
The one you can reach without a climb. Small pullouts, a short rocky walk, and the widest view in Sedona.
Details, fees & parking →The Four Sedona Vortexes: Where They Are and How to Reach Them (2026)
Four sites get named as Sedona's main vortexes: Airport Mesa, Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock, and Boynton Canyon. Every listing below is pinned to the official Forest Service trailhead coordinates, not a guess — and each one tells you the part most vortex guides skip: how far you actually have to walk, whether you can legally park there today, and what it costs. New to the idea? Start with what a Sedona vortex is — including what's actually been measured, which is less than you've been told.
Cathedral Rock Vortex
Open
Shuttle-only Thu–Sun
Strenuous scramble
The biggest payoff and the real scramble. Closed to private cars Thursday–Sunday — shuttle only.
Details, fees & parking →Bell Rock Vortex
Open
Easy & family-friendly
Restrooms on site
The family one. Wide flat pathway, 185 ft of gain, restrooms at the lot, and no shuttle restriction.
Details, fees & parking →Boynton Canyon Vortex
CLOSED — fire order
Reopens Sept 30 at the latest
Closed right now under an active fire closure order. Full details here for when it reopens.
Details, fees & parking →Which vortex should you actually pick?
Short on time or mobility: Airport Mesa. It's the only one of the four where a big view is a few hundred yards from the car rather than a climb.
Willing to work for it: Cathedral Rock — the highest payoff per mile in Sedona, but the Forest Service rates it strenuous and it involves hand-over-hand scrambling. Note the parking rule: Thursday through Sunday the trailhead lot is closed to private vehicles and you must take the free Sedona Shuttle.
With kids, or with a dog: Bell Rock. The pathway around its base is rated easy and family-friendly, 185 feet of gain, wide and flat, and you can turn around whenever you like.
Boynton Canyon is the fourth, and it is closed right now under an active wildfire closure order — see what's closed in Sedona.
A note on how we map these
There is no official register of vortex locations — the Forest Service doesn't designate them, and published "vortex coordinates" vary between sources by a few hundred feet. So rather than invent precision we don't have, every pin on this map is the official USFS trailhead coordinate for the access trail, taken from the Forest Service's own page for that trail. That's the spot you actually drive to. Where the vortex site sits relative to the trailhead is described in words on each page.