I'm a Venturing (Boy Scouts of America) leader. Venturing Scouts are Boy Scouts who are 16 - 20. And we don't do merit badges, but rather we focus on high-adventure outings and community service projects. We usually go hiking once a month, and if I don't go with the scouts, then I usually go somewhere with my family.
Anyway, I wanted to start a thread about great hikes in Arizona.
1) Hannagan Trail (FT 76)
If you start at Hannagan trailhead and hike in to P Bar Lake, it's only 3.5 miles and has very little elevation change. There are great campsites along the way if you want to camp, or it's great for a 7-mile day hike.
I recently got back from this (last weekend) and it was the most beautiful hike I've ever been on. Now, I started on the KP Rim trail (FT 93) and did the short loop around to Hannagan. It was a really hard 3-day hike. The short loop is only 16 miles, but there is about 5,000 ft elevation change (if you count both down and back up), so it's not for the casual hiker. The long loop, if you're wondering, takes you all the way down to the blue river and requires at least 4 - 5 days. And if you do one of these loops, I recommend
Backpacking Arizona, by Bruce Grubbs, and the Blue Range Forest Service map (the one with the wolf on the front). I crossed three creeks, all great sources of clean water. P Bar lake, however, isn't a recommend water source.
Location: highway 191 (which used to be highway 666) stretches between Springerville/Eager and Thatcher/Safford in eastern Arizona. The trailhead is just over 20 miles south of Alpine, Arizona. The trail goes into Arizona's Blue Range Wilderness Area which is home to the Mexican Gray Wolf.
Also, highway 191 is a great motorcycle road according to
http://www.motorcycleroads.com/routes/SouthWest/AZ/AZ_index.htm2) Sedona: Secret Canyon
Sedona is obviously full of great hikes, but very few allow camping. In fact, most people don't realize that you can camp once outside a certain area. One such hike is Secret Canyon, which is at the north end of Sedona, down Dry Creek road. You'll need a high-clearance vehicle to get to the trailhead and a Red Rock Pass to park there ($5 at any gas station in town).
The hike takes about 2 miles before you even reach the opening to Secret Canyon. At the intersection of David Miller trail and Secret Canyon trail is a great campsite. And then if you follow the Secret Canyon trail into Secret Canyon itself you'll reach slot canyons about a mile or two in. The whole trail is beautiful from beginning to end.
This is a great hike for folks who prefer easy-on-the-feet hikes. The first two miles is almost all sand, and then canyon makes a great day hike if you want to drop your backpacks at the campsite.
When we went, we got there so late that we hiked to our campsite in the dark. It was great because we woke up with beautiful red rock surroundings that we didn't see on the way in. It was like a wonderful surprise.
I have some other favorites, like Havasupi Falls, but I'll just start with these two. I'm hoping for some other great recommendations. I love finding new places.
