Arizona Trail IV AZT hiker info and bonus trips

Here are some of my notes on the Arizona Trail for other hikers…

Hiker references Being quite a popular walk, there is a lot of planning information already out there….

Arizona Trail Association A great first stop and worthwhile joining the Association to support the trail.
Average Hiker, Ellie Thomas has a good website setting out the logistics.
The Trek has a guide to trail towns for resupply and resting. A web search will find many more…
Facebook There is lots of info and a place for hikers each year to ask questions on Facebook- really helpful- just search with this text for your planned year ie Arizona Trail Class of 2023

Maps and guides I love maps, I love imagining what it represents on the ground and then actually travelling through the territory displayed. For hiking, call me ‘old skool’, but paper topographic maps are my first choice. Easy to use, great for navigation, but also showing the surrounding countryside and a reasonably large area of land to provide context on distant features. I fold the current pages in the pocket of my shorts so I can easily refer to them whilst walking.

I do also download maps to my phone as a backup and to utilise the GPS.

It adds a lot to my enjoyment to have something on say the local geology, flora, fauna and history. I often take extracts from paper books or electronic documents on my phone for this- really nice to read overnight in the tent.

On this trail I cut out map pages from the Arizona Trail guidebook, which to be honest in this case didn’t offer much useful information except a rough overview and were limited value for either navigation or wider context.

In addition I had the FarOut app on my phone which has the trail marked against a low definition background map. The best use for me though was the ability to view comments from others against features (and add my own). This was superb for getting up to date info on water sources in particular and was worth paying for the app just for that alone. On the downside, I found FarOut rather reduced the trail to a line ahead with a series of waypoints of gates, fences and water tanks! Its a pity it doesn’t offer any other interesting information such as on the flora/fauna.

If hiking the trail again I would prepare my own topo maps using online mapping software such as Caltopo, add a GPS track and my comments, then print out colour map sheets in advance. I would also still take FarOut app on my phone, mostly for water and trail updates and find some more flora/fauna background reading for along the way.

After the Arizona Trail… I had a few days spare before flying out of Las Vegas back to Scotland and made good use of these for some shorter hikes near Sedona then Red Rocks Canyon, Nevada and Death Valley National Park, California.