Arizona Trails and places to explore

Sedona has some nice trails. Can’t recall the names though.

tlowell01

I'm a complete newbie when it comes to offroading, but I'm really looking forward to exploring some this great state. Even though I'm months and months away from delivery of my new Bronco, I'd love to get some recommendations from folks far more experienced than I for some good trails and/or offroading locations. I live in the Phoenix area so probably not looking for spots in the far corners of the state, at least at first.

You live in a great state for off roading and exploring - I've been here 42 years now and there are still a lot of roads I haven't been on yet. I did a quick run with some friends yesterday afternoon that are new to off roading just to whet their appetite a bit (we were both in our early Broncos). It's called Camp Creek Wash and runs from Needle Rock to the Bartlett Lake Road. Another good run would be a drive to Crown King - either the front way (easy drive) or the 'back way' (more difficult - go with experienced people on that one the first time). If you're new to off roading, I'd stick to some of the better roads first to get a feel for your rig and then gradually learn more about its capabilities (and yours) on tougher trails. There are a lot of roads to explore off of Table Mesa Road off of I-17. The drive to Seven Springs north of Cave Creek and then onto Sheeps Bridge at the Verde is also good if you're just starting out. Lots of lots of ground to cover.....

TXArchitect

Sedona has some nice trails. Can’t recall the names though.

Broken Arrow, soldier pass, Schnebly Hill.

We did our “maiden voyage” today. Went up Morgan City Wash near Lake Pleasant. Nice east trail for my wife to learn some basics; also tested out the turn-assist option. Really impressed, shaved off about 12-15’ of a radius!
I use trailsoffroad app to find most of my routes, read up on them and use the app to follow the trail, even offline.

I recently rode along in a Gladiator on the Sedona trail named "Broken Arrow", good fun, great views and it will be an easy trail in your Bronco!

There are an enormous amount of trails in AZ many are just forest service roads and offshoots that are not named, others are super popular that a quick Google search will turn up. One really fun place that I have not seen mentioned yet is Cinders east of Flagstaff. It's like dunes, only with volcanic ash, but there are miles of trails connecting all the dune mountains. It's a good time! You can also take old senator highway out of Prescott, back into the mountains and get lost for a while with tons of fun trails that will lead you to crown king, the I17, or all the way back down to Bartlett lake. I recommend a gps for that experience! It's easy to get lost back there!

There’s an app for iPhone and Android as well that has a very long list of trails and even the un-named ones (fire roads and such). Check out OnX Offroad. Nice part about this one is that it works on CarPlay (not sure about Android Auto) so it will display in vehicle.

We’ve done a lot of trails in AZ via our RZR so we’re just getting used to figuring out what the sport will do around here. Will report any trails we do and how it went.

A few on our short list right now:

Reymert Mine (there’s actually many trails cross-crossing this area and it’s BLM land)
Sawtooth Mountain Loop
Crown King (front side)
Bloody Basin RD (to Sheeps Bridge)

We aren’t even sad that Box Canyon (the one in Florence) is off the list. We’ve done that area way too much.

I‘d really like to be able to do the Gila River Loop but so many narrow places and we don’t want Arizona pinstripes.