Mountain bikes in Arizona have two great rides in Sedona, Highline and the Dry Creek Loop.
Highline: This spectacular and very narrow single track is pasted high up on the side of a mesa just south of town. Heed the ‘Double Black Diamond’ sign at the bottom! The technical climb to the south end of the ‘airy section’ is quite a test of boulder hopping, and then the fun begins. For the next mile and a half the trail is barely over a foot wide, with a precipitous drop to one side and the occasional tree trunk or branch reaching out from the other. Stay focused! The views looking out toward Twin Buttes and Cathedral Rock are terrific, though only to be enjoyed at the rare wide spot in the trail, having come to a full stop. Following this airy traverse, the trail dives and swoops through some excellent slick rock. Then the bottom falls out down a gnarly chute into the wash below where some more technical rock hopping finally ends at the Baldwin Trail, where some form of sanity returns. 26ers are definitely the right call here. Stop in the Bike and Bean Shop in VOC for maps and beta.
Dry Creek Loop: Out on the west end of Sedona is a great loop combining Chuck Wagon, Mescal, Aerie, Cypress, Anaconda and Girdner. While not as edgy as Highline, these trails nevertheless provide a fast, swoopy, moderately technical and absolutely crazy fun 4-5 hour experience. 29ers fly on the flowy, sinuous single track that winds through a couple of miles of pinion juniper forest, bounces across Dry Creek, then climbs up onto the side of Mescal Mountain, where the trail scratches along the slick rock, dropping off steps, jumping up again, carving along the face of the giant wall and generally being great all the way to Deadman’s Pass. After a quick jaunt across the Boynton Canyon Trailhead parking lot, the trail joins the new Aerie Trail, an incredibly fun, again swoopy single track that climbs to the base and traverses the flanks of Doe Mountain, again offering a bit of ‘airiness” at a couple of points. Backtrack to Cockscomb, to Dawa, on to Cypress (big coyotes here!), the climb up Anaconda (seldom ridden so very pristine) and finally back out to Dry Creek Road on Girdner. Maps and trail info are available at Over the Edge Bikes in West Sedona.
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