Advice for trails in North East AZ (1 Viewer)

[SIZZLE]

Hey Mudders!

My family is planning a trip for Thanksgiving week and we want to check out the north eastern part of AZ. We are planning to rent a house with another family. Where would you suggest staying and what are some good sights and trails to hit?

I was looking at staying in Payson, Winslow or Page. Any other suggestions for a good place to make our home base?

I would like to do the Mogollon Rim and would love to get to monument valley, but that seems like it would be quite a drive to try and hit that in a day trip. I'm not planning on taking the camping gear, but could.

We want to do some hiking, mountain biking and off roading. I'll have my 2nd gen tacoma which has a mild lift, 33" tires, some armor and a locker. I'll be the only truck, so don't want to get into anything too technical, but I definitely need to hit some dirt!

You guys helped me with my trip to Prescott last year and I greatly appreciated it. Any advice you can lend would be welcome. Thanks!

 

[JunkCrzr89]

Lots of cool stuff between Payson and Flagstaff, but that area is often covered with people. If you want to get away from people, the area between Springerville and Morenci, east of the Apache rez, is amazing.
White Mtns > San Fran Mtns, in my opinion.

 

[JunkCrzr89]

Lots of cool stuff between Payson and Flagstaff, but that area is often covered with people. If you want to get away from people, the area between Springerville and Morenci, east of the Apache rez, is amazing.
White Mtns > San Fran Mtns, in my opinion.

Also, be aware that there is an elk hunting season that week. I think it’s bull elk rifle, but can’t remember. Wear some Orange if you’re out hiking around.

 

[Highway Romping]

I would choose Page between those three places that you mentioned. Monument Valley is not too far from there so you could make a long day trip out of it by also visiting Gooseneck State Park, Valley of the Gods, Moki Dugway and Muley Point. Near Page, there is an easy dirt road to Alstrom Point with the last mile being a bit technical, but still very easy. As for hiking near Page, you have Horseshoe Bend, the Vermillion Cliffs and the Lake Powell area. The Vermillion Cliffs have a lot of hiking trails but there are a couple that might require permit ( like the Wave). If you want to do an easy scenic loop, you can take the House Rock Road that connects the 89 with the 89A.

 

[SIZZLE]

I would choose Page between those three places that you mentioned. Monument Valley is not too far from there so you could make a long day trip out of it by also visiting Gooseneck State Park, Valley of the Gods, Moki Dugway and Muley Point. Near Page, there is an easy dirt road to Alstrom Point with the last mile being a bit technical, but still very easy. As for hiking near Page, you have Horseshoe Bend, the Vermillion Cliffs and the Lake Powell area. The Vermillion Cliffs have a lot of hiking trails but there are a couple that might require permit ( like the Wave). If you want to do an easy scenic loop, you can take the House Rock Road that connects the 89 with the 89A.

Thanks for the suggestions! How is the water level at lake Powell ? Everything here in CA is depressingly low.

 

[Highway Romping]

Thanks for the suggestions! How is the water level at lake Powell ? Everything here in CA is depressingly low.

It's very low, I was there in April and I was able to drive to where there was water.

 

[doc_random]

You probably know this, but it will be cool to cold depending on you blood thickness!
Dinosaur tracks just east of the 89 on 160. West of Tuba City.
Canyon de Chelly National Monument just east of Chinle. Your can drive the rim road on your own, but need a guide to drive in the canyon.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument | Chinle AZ

Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Chinle, Arizona. 26,761 likes · 236 talking about this · 44,532 were here. Welcome to the Canyon de Chelly National Monument Facebook page. We hope this will be a...

www.facebook.com

Longer day drive: 4 Corners, lunch in Shiprock town, Shiprock itself 4 miles WSW of the town, follow the volcanic fin south two miles, then circle west to Red Canyon, along 13 through Buffalo Pass (8482 ft). From there it depends on where home base is.
All of this is on Navajo or Hopi lands, not sure what the rules are for hiking or mountain bikes.

Chinle, Arizona on Trailforks

Chinle Mountain Bike, Hike, Trail Running trails, Arizona. 7 trails with 41 photos

www.trailforks.com

 

[sdnative]

Would love to explore around Lake Powell sometime with the water level so low.

 

[Hondo]

I'd avoid Winslow for an extended stay, not a lot of hotels, and limited restaurants. I'd stay on Holbrook as an alternative.

Payson is a nice mountain town with hotels and restaurants - I've always passed through here for camping and not stayed anywhere here.

East of Payson you could stay in Show Low/Pinetop/Lakeside (more mountain towns) which have lots of hotel and food options. These locations would let you get to Springerville/Holbrook/Monument Valley a little easier than Payson.

Besides Monument Valley, there are a lot of similar cool sights to be seen along US191 such as Canyon de Chilly, and north of Chinle as well in the Round Rock and Rock Point areas.

If you stay in Page you can take Hwy 98 east to US160 and travel to Kayenta for monument valley. Along this route you can also detour north on SR564 about 10 miles and hit the Navajo National Monument.

 

[SIZZLE]

Thank you for all the suggestions! Its gonna be hard to narrow it down!

 

[Hondo]

Another scenic drive is from SR260, between Payson and Heber, you can take the road south into Young, AZ and continue south on SR288 off the rim, down to Roosevelt Lake.

 

[bwesty]

Far eastern AZ has some remote mountain towns. Alpine and Greer, about 8500' ft elevation both of which have some good places to stay in each. Unlimited public lands to explore from there along with HWY 191 south from Alpine being one of the most scenic and lesser traveled highways in the state. Fall colors, mountain vistas and abundant wildlife.

 

[Azca]

If you do head up to Powell you can try to see the "Wave" have to get a permit though. Same basic area, no permit required, White Pocket. Unreal scenery! Another one to see, for hiking anyway, Antelope Canyon.

 

[SIZZLE]

Thank you to everyone who lent me some advice for this trip. We had a great time in Northern Arizona over Thanksgiving week. We ended up renting a house in Flagstaff. I didn't get to explore near as much as i would have liked to, but did a good job of not wearing out the kids. Here's a few pics from the trip:

We spent the first day checking out the ancient indian cliff dwellings at Walnut Canyon. Very enjoyable and couple of easy hikes.

Then we checked out the area north east of Flagstaff. We checked out Lockett Meadow Campground and took the low-range trail back to Schultz Pass Rd. and south back to town.

The first night was clear so we went to the Lowell Observatory. Very cool place, i could have stayed another couple of hours. We were able to look through telescopes and see with our own eyes Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter. We could see the rings of Saturn and Jupiter's moons and all the red and white stripes. It was fascinating! We waited for them to open the main telescope (built 125 years ago) and we all were able to peer 8 billion miles away at Uranus.

 

[SIZZLE]

The next day we did the lava tube hike and kids did an adventure ropes course.

 

[SIZZLE]

This was my favorite day, lots of bonding time with my truck and son! The girls went shopping and we headed south on Lake Mary Road to State Route 87 where we connected with the Rim Road and traversed the Mogollon Rim to Hwy 260.

 

[SIZZLE]

We hustled around the Rim and still had enough time in the day (barely) to go notch another National Park in our belt. We were going back through Holbrook, which put us less than an hour away from Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert. The drive from the Rim to Holbrook was interesting as mile after mile the vegetation shrank from tall pines, to short pines, to big bushes, to small bushes, and finally to scrub clinging close to the ground.

At Holbrook we decided to go for Petrified Forest NP and are glad we did. We didn't know what to expect, but found ancient lizard fossils, the most spectacular abundance of petrified wood, and landscapes from another world. We were running out of light on this short day, so we unfortunately did not spend as much time as the place deserves, but were supper impressed nonetheless. Also, the whole place is dog friendly, which was awesome as we had our dog with us day.

 

[SIZZLE]

The last day was reserved for horseback riding and hiking in Sedona. I wonder if people that live in Sedona ever get desensitized to its beauty. Its one of the most strikingly beautiful places I've ever been.

Excuse the cheesy family photos, but this was a highlight of the trip. My daughter has wanted to try horseback riding for some time, but the rest of us didn't realize how much fun we would have and the weather was perfect!

 

[SIZZLE]

Then we were out! We took the long way back so that we could visit my parents in So Cal, but that meant we could go through Joshua Tree NP. And one last opportunity to hit some dirt:

We all had a great time. I missed out a lot on the far north and east part of the state, so that means we will definitely be back...multiple times!

Thanks again for all the tips, I can't wait to see more of Awesome Arizona!

 

[tls3601]

This was my favorite day, lots of bonding time with my truck and son! The girls went shopping and we headed south on Lake Mary Road to State Route 87 where we connected with the Rim Road and traversed the Mogollon Rim to Hwy 260.

View attachment 2875402View attachment 2875403View attachment 2875404View attachment 2875405View attachment 2875406

Surprised FR300 was open that late in the season, nice pics, thanks for sharing