Soldier Pass, Brins Mesa, Jordan, Javelina, Crusty, Adobe Jack Loop is a 9.3 mile heavily trafficked loop trail located near Sedona, Arizona that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as moderate. The trail is primarily used for hiking. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.
This trail begins by heading up Soldier Pass, then taking a number of other connecting trails to take a very long way back to the Solder Pass parking lot. Be aware that the Soldier Pass parking lot is small and parking nearby the lot is restricted.
Bring lots of water as this is quite a long hike.
Parking is limited. The earlier the better for arrival.
Pretty uninspiring once you get off Soldiers Pass. I really did it to get in some distance more than anything else.
I parked at the Brins Mesa lot (my little Kia made it just fine on the road) and started counterclockwise up to Brins Mesa. Take the use trail there and back to the edge of Brins Mesa while you’re there. As someone else said, DO NOT follow the AllTrails route around Soldier Pass trail unless you want to really add on to your adventure. It’s super overgrown and you’ll be hard pressed to find the turnout for it in the first place. Wasn’t enjoyable doing that part alone. Take the marked trail for Soldier Pass, which AllTrails calls a use trail. This is actually (and in hindsight, very obviously) the main trail. Might shave off some mileage but it’ll be much easier. Seven Sacred Pools are dry right now.
Parking is impossible, there is an automatic gate that opens at 8AM, more cars are lined up than can even fill the 12 parking spaces. There is no on-street parking in the neighborhood. Cops patrol heavily and ticket cars. Go to Jim Thompson Trailhead Or Jordan Park Trailhead, tons and tons of parking there and access to all of the same trails. Just over a little hill.
This was an epic kick ass hole all the way around the mountain lots of Boulder climbing g Do not miss the cave at the fork in the road it was breathtaking so worth the side trip All in all we did 11 miles bring lots of water we ran out once down brines mesa do t follow red YL trail line take Jordan’s pass to get back to soldiers pass trail head enjoy I d CA ant wait to come back it was perfect weather
We arrived at Soldier Pass parking area at 945am and it was not only full, but there were cops monitoring the street parking - absolutely no parking nearby in this residential neighborhood! We decided to try parking at the Jordan Pass trailhead instead but got lucky and found one parking space in the Adobe Jack trailhead lot. From there we took the Adobe Jack trail, going counter clockwise, up to Brins Mesa. We took Soldier Pass to come back down. Beware, if you take the 2nd soldier pass trail (further up than the first turn out), the trail is really, really hard to find. We got lost and lost about an hour of time. A lot of people say they don’t like the end of this trail as it’s close to SR 89 and noisy, goes under power lines and near homes, etc. but by that point - 9 or 10 miles in - I was so tired I didn’t even notice.
only rode half on a bike from soldiers pass. very cool!
We start the loop by Adobe Jack trail because there is no fence so you can start it before the gates of soldier pass trail parking open. Otherwise this trail is quite flat and the last portion is a little bit boring you follow houses, electric installation and the highway. Maybe the ground central trail is a better option, to skip this last part.
We came with the idea to hike soldier pass trail and couldn’t find the sign for the small loop... we made it!
Nice loop of trails with some great views but would not rate as difficult. Most of it was pretty easy and the elevation wasn’t very high either. Would recommend starting your loop by connecting to Adobe Jack Trail and follow from there since that part is the most boring in terms of scenery and it’s close to traffic and houses. Also when you get up to where Brin Mesa is supposed to connect back to Soldiers Pass I would suggest taking the earlier connection that you see on the map. If you follow the red highlighted trail on the app that section of Soldiers Pass the beginning of the trailhead is hard to find as there are fallen branches blocking it and no signs anywhere. It appears that they don’t actually want you taking that connection anymore and the trail is pretty overgrown. If it wasn’t for the gps and the map on this app we would be lost. It took us about 6 hours with a few rests to complete.