Arizona Trail 2023 Photo Gallery by Brian Dickson at pbase.com

Arizona Trail 2023

Brian walked the 800 mile Arizona Trail in October-November 2023 southwards from the Utah stateline down to the Mexican border. I wild camped most of the way, but also stayed at designated campsites, with 'trail angels' and some motels in town. Overall it was an excellent experience! Also see AZT blog

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Map of the Arizona Trail, I went southward towards the Mexican border in Autumn	Travelling to near the start at Page, AZ, This is Hildale Utah	I stopped off at Waheap, Utah for a quick visit to 'hoodoos' there
Part 1 to South Rim Grand Canyon 3rd October 2023 At the northern terminus	Alex, a few hours in, walking in pinyon-juniper forest	2023 Arizona Trail First camp, sheltered by juniper
The route was well signposted	A short stop in Jacob Lake on day 2 for a veggie sandwich!	I climbed on plateau into aspen and fir forest at about 7-9000 feet
Forest and meadow on the plateau, freezing overnight	Aspen	Pleasant hiking north of Grand Canyon National Park
Water source at Dog Lake	Looking out from the plateau to the Colorado River	A lynx! It looked at me for about 30 seconds before wandering off
Crisp clear weather in the first few days up on the north rim of Grand Canyon	Fire lookout tower as I enter Grand Canyon NP	Lovely golden aspen from the lookout tower
Descending down into the Grand Canyon	Ribbon Falls, Grand Canyon	Ribbon Falls, Grand Canyon
Ribbon Falls, Grand Canyon- a lovely cool stop	Lower down on the North Kiabab Trail near the Colorado River	2023 Arizona Trail Grand Canyon, camped at Bright Angel campsite
Bright Angel campsite	I used a map based app (Far Out) for most navigation	8th October, Crossing the Colorado River
	Colorado River, Grand Canyon, early morning	Colorado River, Grand Canyon
Havasuipi Gardens, Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon	Mule delivery, Grand Canyon	Looking back down the canyon from South Rim
South Rim, hiker campsite at Mather	Ravens were almost an ever present	Elk!
I wasn't like Victor!	I took 4 days off the Arizona Trail to backpack again in Grand Canyon in the West Tonto, Hermit and Boucher areas	Colorado River from 'Plateau Point'
	2023 Grand Canyon camp at Salt Creek	Colorado River from the Tonto West trail
	Monument Creek area, Grand Canyon, I went down to the river at Granite Rapid from here	Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon	Grand Canyon	Shelter and spring on the Hermit Trail, Grand Canyon
Part 2 South Rim to Flagstaff 14th October	2023 Arizona Trail Leaving South Rim the terrain was mostly high plateau with ponderosa pine
Dirty feet! Maybe I should have worn ankle gaitors!	Tent visitor	I relied on many man made water sources such as this rain collector for wildlife
Tarantula!		Humphreys Peak to the south, Arizona's highest point
Climbing the shoulder of Humphreys Peak and back into aspen forest	Signs of forest fire ahead north of Flagstaff	2023 Arizona Trail Aspen from a ground eye view
Cold dawn and valley cloud at 9000 feet	Flagstaff!	Part 3 Flagstaff to Pine 20th October - Camp at Horse Lake
Early morning smoke from a prescribed fire	Still smoldering as I hiked through
Golden cottonwood near Mormon Lake where I stopped off for lunch at the diner/bar	There were a few trail registers along the way where it was always fun to see who was ahead	Late afternoon water collection
This one looked too muddy for me so I happily hiked on		I dropped down off the Mogollon plateau area and skirted the escarpment towards the town of Pine on the Highline Trail
		Camp on ridge above the town of Pine
Early Bird Cafe, Pine. I arrived at 8.30am and met other hikers so happily had 2nd breakfast!	Part 4 Pine to Roosevelt Lake 26th October	Indian Paintbrush, one of my favourites
Mazatzal Wilderness	Prickly pear fruit was ripe	A tarantula visited my camp...
East Verde Creek, it was great to see an actual river		Almost halfway!
Plenty of signs of burns hereabouts	Crossing under Highway 87 at Sunflower between Pheonix and Payson. A good excuse for a shady rest
		Some tough rubbly walking nearby!
My first saguaro cactus above Roosevelt Lake- fantastic!	Saguaro	Looking down to Roosevelt Lake and a resupply
I hiked along the road for 2 miles into the small resort at Roosevelt...	Food!	Other hikers! Brian, Grandpa, Firecracker and Survivorman at Roosevelt Lake
Bigger group shot as other hikers arrived at Roosevelt	Part 5 Roosevelt Lake to Kearny 1st November
With Survivorman and Firecracker!	Twisted Saguaro

Camp next to a rainwater collector, Superstition Mountains	Superstition Mountains early morning	Down to the Gila River and the trail's lowest point, that meant it was HOT!
		The town of Kearny was super friendly towards hikers
Kearny!	Part 6 Kearny to Tucson 6th November	Look whos visiting camp- a Preying Mantis!
Water and shade lunch stop with Firecracker on this hot low elevation stretch	I got in the way of waking up before 5am and starting hiking by 6am	Checking out another water tank- it was good!
	Signage was pretty much always good, this one helpfully showed 200 miles to Mexico	Oh no, a water bag burst in my backpack, a great drying spot though at High Jynx Ranch
I met Survivorman again at Mt Lemmon, Summerhaven..	Mt Lemmon was rather lovely with granite outcrops
Looking west to Tucson hazily in the distance	Looking up Sabino Creek south of Summerhaven	Tucson!
Tucson!	Tucson was a great stop- a swim, haircut, food, showers, and gear maintenance!	Part 7 Tucson to Colossal Cave 12th November - On the north slopes of Mica Mountain
One of many water caches that were kindly left for hikers		Trail register entering Saguaro National Park
	Some snow and frost above 8000 feet on Mica	Manning Camp, National Park campsite
Great water pool near Grass Shack campground		2023 Arizona Trail I camped on low flat ground to the south of Saguaro National Park
Some cloud- a rare thing!
With Josh who with Suzanne provided lots of wonderful help at Colossal Cave- Thanks!	Part 8 Colossal Cave to Patagonia 15th November- At Interstate 10 Underpass
Early morning hiking		Ranchers on horses
Stopped off trail late afternoon for dinner	Ocotillo pre dawn
Patagonia was a great final town stop	Patagonia, Arizona	Patagonia, Arizona
Lift back to the trail from Patagonia - with Swig	Part 9 Patagonia to Mexican border 19th November	Overflowing water tank- great source!
Undulating higher ground here made for interesting hiking	Swig and Firecracker at penultimate camp
	Woodpecker	Last night and Survivorman 'cowboy camping' as he had done every night - but this one was really cold and windy!
Frost near the top of Miller Peak at 9400 feet		21st November 2023- I made it!
At the Mexican border, hikers- Swig, Firecracker and Lemon Curd	A FEW POST AZT bonus hikes.... Sedona	Sedona Mt Wilson camp
Sedona subway cave	Sedona storms	Hoover Dam
Death Valley National Park California	Death Valley. Moon over Zabriskie Point	Death Valley
Death Valley	Death Valley, Lowest Point in the USA	Death Valley looking down to salt lake at Badwater and across to Telescope Peak
Las Vegas for my flight back to Scotland!

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