Arizona Trail
My journey on the Arizona Trail in 2017 was meant to further apply the lessons I had learned on the Pacific Crest Trail to a brand-new trail that was novel to me.
The Arizona Trail is an 800 mile track that travels across Arizona from the Mexican border to the Utah border. The southern half of the trail is characterized by its incredibly steep and rugged terrain—some of the rockiest I have ever seen—and it’s rather unfriendly biodiversity, including rattlesnakes, cactus, and jumping cholla.
The second half of the trail is surprisingly flat as it navigates along high plateaus and through northern Arizona’s forests. The highlight of the trail is its rim to rim traverse of the Grand Canyon. Timing for the Arizona Trail is critical, since once summer arrives it becomes too hot to safely cover the mileage and in the winter northern Arizona gets quite a bit of snow. So I embarked on this trail in April of 2017 and finished it 8 weeks later at the Utah border.
The trail went as smoothly as I could have dreamed; I finally felt like I had hit my stride and had a handle on traveling trails anywhere with my equine companions.
The Arizona Trail is an 800 mile track that travels across Arizona from the Mexican border to the Utah border. The southern half of the trail is characterized by its incredibly steep and rugged terrain—some of the rockiest I have ever seen—and it’s rather unfriendly biodiversity, including rattlesnakes, cactus, and jumping cholla.
The second half of the trail is surprisingly flat as it navigates along high plateaus and through northern Arizona’s forests. The highlight of the trail is its rim to rim traverse of the Grand Canyon. Timing for the Arizona Trail is critical, since once summer arrives it becomes too hot to safely cover the mileage and in the winter northern Arizona gets quite a bit of snow. So I embarked on this trail in April of 2017 and finished it 8 weeks later at the Utah border.
The trail went as smoothly as I could have dreamed; I finally felt like I had hit my stride and had a handle on traveling trails anywhere with my equine companions.
