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I'm doing some research for a possible future hike from Flag to Sedona. If you have any info or suggestions please let me know. Thanks

This comes up every once in awhile, and I don't know a way to do this without some amount of off trail travel or road walking.

The easiest way is probably to use the Flagstaff Loop trail to get out of town where you can road walk unpaved roads near the highway until you can drop into Kelly canyon and Pumphouse wash to get you to 89, then Telephone to Purtymon back to 89 then Sterling trail to Brins Mesa, and you pop out in downtown Sedona. Considering you're pretty close to the highway most of the times it's not my idea of a great route, but it is perhaps the shortest unless you decide to just hike 89 the whole way (which may be illegal?).

[ Flagstaff Loop Trail ] to [ Rogers Trail - Coconino NF ] gets you pointed in the direction [ Flagstaff trails leading towards Sedona :: map ]

The [ Black Canyon Trail :: map ] Coalition's long-term dream is for the trail to extend all the way to Williams.
Perhaps by 2052 the [ Maricopa Trail :: map ] to Flagstaff will be a central loop with the [ Arizona Trail :: map ] .
Unless the BCT goes oddly west of Sycamore then Sedona is reasonable to network over.

If you're willing to do a couple of ~10 mile dirt road stretches, you could head over to Sycamore Canyon for some miles, and then head back towards Sedona via Dogie or Taylor Cabin trail. Something like this:
[ Flagstaff to Sedona :: map ]

@ShatteredArm
That would be my thought, though I might head down Loy from Secret Mtn instead of going all the way over to Sycamore.

On the opposite side, you could piece together roads and relatively open forest off-trail hiking east of I-17, cross at Munds Park, and hit the top of Schnebly Hill taking Munds Wagon Trail down right into town.

It all really depends what your priorities/goals are.

Sterling Pass to Secret/Dry Creek?

Thanks all for the replies. @ShatterdArm I will take a closer look at your route. Thanks for the suggestions!