Williams-Grand Canton News (January 4, 2022) The National Park Service (NPS) announced Dec. 31 the temporary reopening of the Yaqui Ridge Trail, which is the southernmost part of the 800-mile Arizona Trail. The Yaqui Ridge Trail starts on the international border with Mexico in Coronado National Memorial. The trail was closed in July 2020 because of construction activities on the Border […]

The Trek (December 2021) by Lyla Harrod Here’s a recap of my fall 2021 SOBO thru-hike of the AZT with Oliver aka “Bowie”. This post will cover from the Northern Terminus to Roosevelt Lake. I’ll put up another post covering the rest of the trail soon! I hope you find this useful if you’re considering a hike on the AZT, or just […]

Route Fifty (December 21, 2021) by Andre Claudio From hiking to a lodge in California to riding a gravel bike in Arizona, Outside magazine composed a list of some of the best places to take a winter trip. Here are some of the places the magazine recommended: Hiking to a Scenic California Lodge If you want to backpack to a remote […]

Freehub Magazine (December 14, 2021) by Kait Boyle I winced, gritted my teeth and curled my fingers behind my brake levers as I pedaled straight into a thicket of pigweed, catclaw acacia and seedy grass. Thorns tore at my forearms and shins while the stickers of the pigweed rubbed against my open wounds and deployed their seeds onto every piece […]

Native News Online (December 13, 2021) by Kyle Mittan When Lydia Jennings finally finished her doctoral program in soil microbiology, a lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic made celebrating difficult. But a national conversation on diversity and representation in many disciplines, including the sciences, presented an opportunity for Jennings, who had just earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Environmental Science in the University of […]

Singletracks (December 9, 2021) by Matt Miller The Arizona Trail Race started roughly 15 years ago, according to John Schilling, the ride director for the semi-official race. The AZT race is somewhere between 300 to 800 miles long, depending on the route. Participants sign up a month before lining up near the border between Arizona and Mexico, and over the […]

Men’s Journal (December 2021) by Berne Broudy The gear and apparel market is saturated with brands offering premium products. So how do you prioritize companies you want to support? We like to hone in on ones that boast premium goods and a sustainable model. One such company is Erem, a new desert performance boot brand founded by fourth-generation shoemaker Noah […]

Tucson Lifestyle (December 2021) by David Abbott We often thank our military veterans for their service around the globe, but hiking enthusiasts in Arizona have another reason to appreciate vets — for their service as stewards of the Arizona Trail (AZT), through a new program designed to get them out into the wilderness. The Arizona Trail Association, a nonprofit established […]

Jewish Insider (November 19, 2021) by Gabby Deutsch Growing up in an outdoorsy New England family, Noah Swartz didn’t have a choice when it came to hiking. The family business was Timberland, the footwear company known for its iconic brown boots, that his father sold for $2 billion a decade ago. But that didn’t mean the young Swartz was always […]

Backpacking Routes (Nov 8, 2021) by Hugh Owen Smartphone trail apps have become ubiquitous on hiking trails, providing real-time information about water sources, fire closures, hostels and shuttles to them. Their explosive growth raises a question: Are printed guidebooks on the way out? Not so fast, says Matthew J. Nelson, executive director of the Arizona Trail Association. “We have found […]

Arizona Republic (November 2, 2021) by Mare Czinar Sometimes, surprisingly fine escapes can be found just steps from busy byways in right-under-your-nose places. Bushnell Tanks Road, off the Beeline Highway (State Route 87) roughly halfway between Mesa and Payson is one such find. Much of the road parallels part of the course of the Pine Mountain Passage 21 of the Arizona […]

Runners World (October 25, 2021) by Taylor Dutch After dedicating years of intense study to earning a Ph.D. in environmental science, Lydia Jennings couldn’t wait to celebrate at her graduation in May 2020. But like most major events during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the program’s ceremony at the University of Arizona was canceled. Instead of receiving her diploma […]

The Desert Leaf (October 2021) by Linda Brewer Some people hike the Arizona Trail (AZT) in sections, called “passages,” accumulating a couple of hundred miles each year. Some people–the valiant thru-hikers–do it all in one go, with or without a support crew. Since 2017 there has been another way to complete the trail, the many-feet-walking method known as Arizona Trail […]

Velo News (September 29, 2021) by Betsy Welch On Christmas Eve of 2018, ultra-endurance mountain biker Kait Boyle wasn’t sure if she would ever walk again. Two years later, she set a fastest known time record (FKT) on the 137-mile Kokopelli Trail, a remote and arduous route between Moab, Utah, and Loma, Colorado. The new film Fastest For Now chronicles […]

The Trek (September 28, 2021) by David Smith When you live in Phoenix, you escape what feels like endless summer by going to the mountains.  Generally that means going to AZT country, either the Mongollon Rim or Flagstaff.  A few days ago, we spent a few nights car camping near  Mormon Lake, and I had the opportunity to do some […]

National Parks Traveler (September 10, 2021) by Barbara “Bo” Jensen Here at the border of Wyoming and Montana, Bad Pass Trail is all but invisible to me. It winds across the upper reaches of the Pryor Mountains through Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. Road signs note I’ve crossed the trail, but I cannot see it stretching 50 miles from the […]