Munds Mountain Wilderness

Munds Mountain Wilderness is an 18,150-acre property between Sedona and Oak Creek in the Coconino National Forest. Access to Munds Mountain Wilderness is reasonably easy but that doesn't mean there's lots of people out here. This is rugged red rock country with high peaks and deep canyons: from the tops of Lee and Munds Mountains to the floors of Rattlesnake, Woods and Jacks Canyons. The high country gives you views of everything from Oak Creek Canyon to the San Francisco Peaks. The canyon depths will have you looking almost straight up at sheer walls of Navajo Sandstone streaked with desert varnish. Two famous landmarks out here are Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte: locations of 2 of Sedona's famous "vortexes."

Some of the canyons here shelter some beautiful riparian areas and lots of wildlife. While hiking around you'll probably also come across a number of ruins left by the Sinagua people when they abandoned the area 800 or more years ago.

A trail near Bell Rock, near the western edge of the Munds Mountain Wilderness

Munds Mountain Wilderness is along the Mogollon Rim, and Lee and Munds Mountain themselves show extensive outcroppings of Supai and Coconino sandstone on their cliff faces with ramp basalt flows in many areas. The vegetation in the area is primarily desert grass, desert sagebrush and short grass on the flat areas with oak brush, oak woodland and chaparral in the uplands and pinon-juniper woodland above that. In some areas there are small stands of Ponderosa pine. Upper Woods Canyon also has an outstanding riparian zone where the water flows more regularly before sinking into the ground lower down.