Did you know there is a hiking trail that runs across the entire state of Arizona, from the Mexican border all the way north to Utah, about 800 miles long? I had no idea, until just recently, when I crossed paths with it while camping in southern Arizona, and since then was able to take a few bike rides along sections for several miles. Some really nice views along the way, too...
The trail starts (or finishes, depending on which direction you’re traveling) at the Mexican border south of the city of Sierra Vista, then passes through the quaint little town of Patagonia before passing through the Santa Rita Mountains, then the Las Cienegas Conservation Area, three areas I’ve personally visited, before winding its way north across desert floors and through numerous other ‘sky island’ mountain ranges before reaching the higher and more forested mountains in the northern half of the state, topping out at the north rim of the Grand Canyon before dropping down again to finish up at the southern Utah border. A long and scenic 800 miles with plenty of ups and down and ever-changing scenery, and for myself, I’m just glad to have found the scenic sections that I did here in the southern part of the state, a couple miles of excellent mountain biking terrain and several miles of steep ups and downs much nicer for hiking. Dakota really loved the fast biking sections!
Besides some really good views on the higher sections of trail, there was lots of cool high desert terrain to pass through as well.
Probably my favorite spot was a little creek crossing where the creek passed through a really narrow rock formation before spilling into a large pool.
The jagged rocks were really uniquely amazing, I thought, too.
In my short time in the area along this trail I’ve seen quite a few hikers going north, and I wonder if the reverse would also be true come late summer/fall, or if it’s just typically hiked from south to north. While the full 800 miles seems like a bit more than I’d personally like to do (not that I couldn’t, just a long time to be on the trail!), I’m glad I was able to hike and bike the few miles I did, as I can now say I’ve been on both the Arizona trail and Continental Divide trail, two popular cross-country hiking trails along with the Appalachian trail back east and I’m sure more that I’m still unfamiliar with. For those looking for a scenic adventure and looking to rack up the backcountry hiking miles, it might just be an adventure worth giving a shot :)
