HikeArizona.COM

I was in Walmart yesterday and picked up a funny little list they had titled "100 Best Hiking Trails in North America". It really means the "best" trails in America, not North America (nothing in Canada or Mexico). Arizona ranks surprisingly low. Here is what the list shows for AZ:
Boynton Canyon - 29th
Verde Hot Springs - 30th
Havasu Canyon Trail - 40th
Four Peaks Mine - 45th
Bright Angel Trail - 51st
Camelback Mountain Summit Trail - 60th
Backway to Crown King - 83rd

Crappy - I call bogus on this "list." For what its worth, the number one and number one hundred trails are both in New York (New York?): Breakneck Ridge Trail in first, North-South Lake Loop in last.

Nearby states have few high ranking trails. None in New Mexico. One (Zion Narrows) in Utah. None in Nevada. There are several in Colorado.

hippiepunkpirate wrote:Let's do a similar list, the top ten Arizona hikes

This is my personal list in no particular order

Geronimo Head/Malapais
Humphrey's via Inner Basin
Royal Arch Loop including Pt. Huitzel
Salt Canyon Trail
The ML and MLDV
Mt. Lemmon via Sutherland or Romero
Mazzy Peak
Boynton's Backyard
Skeleton Cave
Mt Baldy Loop

rlrjamy wrote:This is my personal list in no particular order

A great list, and totally expected from an experienced and adventurous backcountry hiker. It illustrates the point I was trying to make: most of us here in the forum are more adventurous than the casual hiker, and the usage of our site (shown by my list and Joe's) still lean toward casual, popular hikes near the city (Phoenix, Tucson, Flag, Sedona).

hippiepunkpirate wrote:

rlrjamy wrote:This is my personal list in no particular order

A great list, and totally expected from an experienced and adventurous backcountry hiker. It illustrates the point I was trying to make: most of us here in the forum are more adventurous than the casual hiker, and the usage of our site (shown by my list and Joe's) still lean toward casual, popular hikes near the city (Phoenix, Tucson, Flag, Sedona).

Thanks, you said it better than the post I was trying to compose. I don't care if the best hikes in Arizona never make any list or win any popularity contests.

@hippiepunkpirate
There was another thread about personal 10 ten hikes but I was too lazy to find it...my personal list as with others will always evolve over time.

the top ten from Al_hikes HAZ TOP 20 LIST FROM 2006

Flatiron 1747
West Fork 1741
Peralta Trail 1740
Humphreys Summit Trail 1739 163
Brown's Peak 1739 109
Havasu Canyon 1737
Fossil Springs Trail 1731
Camelback Summit via Echo 1728
Horton Creek Trail 1722
Piestewa Peak Summit Trail 1719

pretty dang close to what it is today

Here's the full trails.com list: http://www.trails.com/toptrails.aspx

Top AZ hikes for me, based on the very few places I've been here (nope I haven't been to the GC yet ) :

Mazzie Peak
Hell's Hole
ML/MLDV
Reverse Flatiron
Geronimo Head
Sycamore Canyon

And some CO hikes:
Fletcher Mountain via Monte Cristo Gulch
Quandary Peak via the south slopes
Conundrum Creek
Mayflower Gulch

I was kinda surprised to see one of mine on that list (Conundrum Creek) and then realized that every hot spring in the US made it ;) Still a little surprised to see Longs Peak on there, as it seems of a different caliber than most of the others listed. I wonder if there's a hot spring up there I don't know about?

rlrjamy wrote:the top ten from Al_hikes HAZ TOP 20 LIST FROM 2006

Flatiron 1747
West Fork 1741
Peralta Trail 1740
Humphreys Summit Trail 1739 163
Brown's Peak 1739 109
Havasu Canyon 1737
Fossil Springs Trail 1731
Camelback Summit via Echo 1728
Horton Creek Trail 1722
Piestewa Peak Summit Trail 1719

pretty dang close to what it is today

Crowded hikes.

If I did such a list, the first 4 or 5 would have to be Humphrey and Elden, since I have done them so much, and while Humphrey may be a great hike for the area, state, or region, it isn't an incredible hike overall. Elden is just a local highpoint which is great exercise, but not worth telling out-of-towners to come here to hike. The trouble is, so many of the hikes I do are not that interesting or what I think of as incredible. The scenery in Sedona is great, but none of the hikes themselves are just incredible or awesome, not in my mind at least. I feel the same about most of the Colorado hikes, you've hiked one walk-up in the Sawatch and you've done them all. I guess Grand Teton was cool, but that isn't a hike. Come to think of it, the Grand Canyon, stuff up in Utah, and some California Sierra hikes are probably the best. I hear good things about hiking the Whitney Trail, but the MR isn't a true hike from start to finish. I think the Tonto Trail might be one trail worth putting in that list. There is just something about hiking a length of the canyon.

I talked to a guy I ran into on my last GC backpack who had done the whole Tonto as a thru-hike, not in sections, (as most of us seem to be doing it or have done it.) It was a good story. He did hike in and cache some supplies ahead of time.