Cedar Pocket Trail Run

The Cedar Pocket Trail Run trades city streets for the Arizona Strip, starting from the Cedar Pocket exit into the Beaver Dam Mountains Wilderness. This is remote, rugged country — dirt roads and trails under wide-open desert skies, with red rock cliffs and Joshua trees framing the way. Race morning typically dawns cool and dry, in the low 40s to low 60s with barely a breath of precipitation, the kind of crisp desert air that makes the miles feel honest.

The half marathon runs 6.55 miles out and back, so you meet the landscape twice: once chasing the horizon, once with the cliffs at your back. The surface is unpaved throughout — expect dirt and trail underfoot and a course that rewards attention over raw speed. It's a small, steady field rather than a big-city spectacle, and that's the appeal: quiet miles, big views, and the sense of running somewhere genuinely out there.

Because it's an out-and-back, the finish arrives with a certain symmetry — the same terrain you crossed at dawn, now behind you. Come for the solitude and the red rock, not the crowds. This is classic Arizona Strip running: remote, scenic, and challenging, and all the better for it.