Updated: November 29, 2023

My apologies in not getting this updated sooner. The City of Sedona and the local public lands have made some drastic changes to their rules regarding camping. All the information is updated below.

Boondocking – Updated

Boondocking in this area used to be so amazing. The area was very RV friendly giving campers up to 14 days in some beautiful areas. This is no longer the case. There are designed parking lots where you will be surrounded by OHVs. Most people are now moving their way down to the Cottonwood area. Just south of Sedona. The scenery isn’t as “beautiful” but there are wide open spaces that still allow up to 14 days.

Pictures from the past.

Two spots that are no longer available. We continue to dream of these two spots. These would be down the road from the now designed parking lots that you can stay in.

If you do find that the parking lot is okay, you might get an awesome sunset! 

We have Verizon and had good service at our spot. 4 bars. With starlink now it was incredible with the open sky.

Area

We were surprised about how many other towns that are nearby that have a lot of things to do.  We had never heard of some but had a great time in them all.  Other than Sedona and Cottonwood we ventured to Cornville, Page Springs, and Jerome.  We also went to Flagstaff for the day.  We originally only went for the Best Buy there to buy a new camera, but were pleasantly surprised on how beautiful it was.  It reminded us of a mountain town in Colorado.  The drive from Sedona to Flagstaff is the scenic part of 89A.  There are trailheads, restaurants, inns, vista points and one dairy queen(!) along the way.  At the top is Oak Creek Vista looking over Oak Creek Canyon.  There is plenty of parking, restrooms and vending machines (Pepsi).  They also have a Native American jewelry market with about 7 different vendors.  After you pass the market you reach the view:

 

Water and Dump

Updated.

There are a couple places to dump and fill up with water.  We used sanidump and rvdump.  We couldn’t find anywhere in Sedona but there were a couple places in Cottonwood.  It’s free at the Giant gas station on Main Street, but they DO NOT have potable water.  Pro: It’s free and available 24/7 Con: It’s a busy area and if you need to clean out a tank it’s not a good place to be for too long and they don’t have water.

We also found a place in Camp Verde.  There is a Shell station off I-17 and Hwy-260.  It is $5 to dump and get potable water, and enough space to feel comfortable getting to the spot with a large rig. There is a $10 deposit because they give you the keys to unlock the water and dump, but you get it back when you return the keys.  It was a bit of a drive but it was nice having the confidence that it would definitely be open, have potable water, and be cheap.

Groceries

Updated.

We originally went into Cottonwood for groceries at the local Safeway for good prices, selection, and to get the gas rewards for Chevron stations. There is also one in Sedona, and we couldn’t tell a price difference.  

You do have the option of Safeway, Whole Foods and boutique grocery stores in Sedona. 

WiFi

Updated.

Reading what I wrote in 2016 is now a bit comical to me. “We had our Verizon hotspot, but since we didn’t want to use up our data we would go to Starbucks in Sedona instead.  Not all Starbucks have WiFi, even if Yelp says that they do, so make sure to call.  We also went to Theias coffee shop in town.  Both places had nice baristas and didn’t care how long you sat for.  Their internet was fast and both places had spaces to sit indoors or out.”

Now, with better coverage and a better hot spot, you could easily use your phone for most things you needed to do and all the restaurants had WIFI. There were a ton more restaurants available too. The food didn’t get any better, just more options of average food. A lot of it over priced.

If you have starlink, you will have no problems here!

Hiking

New section! I should have added this before. Everyone knows that there is some incredible hiking here. If you want to read about our two favorites to get you started click here: Hikes in Sedona