THE ARIZONA TRAIL

“The Arizona Trail is a thread of Arizona's past. It ties us to those who came before and those yet to come.”

— D.R. SHEWALTER Founder of the Arizona Trail

TRAVELING THE ARIZONA TRAIL from the northern to the southern border of the state immerses you in a variety of ecological zones from mixed-conifer forest to desert. It's been said the 750-mile route 63 percent of which has been completed is like a walk from Canada to Mexico.

The trail celebrates the beauty and diversity of Arizona from the saguaros and prickly pears of the low desert through the great pines and white-barked aspens of the high country. Betwixt and between are the canyons, mesas, and valleys that make the state's scenery some of the most fascinating and surprising in the world.

Come with us as we explore some of the stops along the trail.

(PRECEDING PANEL, PAGES 24 AND 25) The sun sets over the ridgelines of Tonto National Forest as the Arizona Trail heads into the Mazatzal Mountains. (LEFT) The trail tracks through Aubineau Canyon in the San Francisco Peaks. (ABOVE) The EmpireCienega Resource Conservation Area covers 45,000 acres of grasslands in southeast Arizona.

(LEFT) Sycamores and cottonwoods in fall display line the banks of Sycamore Creek near Sunflower at the site of the trail's crossing.

Arizona Highways 29

(ABOVE) Aspens cover a trailside slope in the Saddle Mountain Wilderness along the East Rim of the Grand Canyon. (RIGHT) A dense stand of saguaro cactuses fills the foreground in this view of Roosevelt Lake and the snowcapped Sierra Anchas. The trail runs along the southern edge of the massive impoundment created when Roosevelt Dam was completed in 1911.