Arizona Off-Road Trails

Trail 1345 checks the box on why people come out to the Rolls OHV area, including rocky hill descents, great views of Saguaro Lake, an aggressive hill climb, and a trail less traveled. The trail begins and ends with junctions from trail 1829. Combined, these two create a nice loop around the Eastern edge of the Rolls OHV area. One small camping spot on the Northern end has sweeping views of Saguaro Lake below. It is right on the trail and has room for one vehicle. This entire trail is loose rock, with a very small section of sand. Running 4Low is recommended as you descend from the high ridgeline to the wash. Once in the wash, you will find a trail marker for trail 3431 that branches off to the right. 3431 will take you to the lake. To continue 1345, you must turn left and head up a rocky hill. The left turn for 1345 is not marked, but the GPX track will keep you on the trail. The trail ends when it connects back to 1829. A trail marker indicates this intersection.

Please note that an OHV permit is now required on this trail.

Located near Dolan Springs and cutting through the Black Mountains to Lake Mohave, Cottonwood Cove East is an out-and-back dirt road providing access to many spur roads with abundant recreational opportunities. The road begins as Cottonwood Road at Highway 93 and travels east into the Black Mountains, ascending to 3,800 feet. The road is a 5-vehicle-wide gravel road into the mountains and well-maintained. As it descends nearly 3,500 feet and enters the Lake Mead National Recreational Area, Cottonwood remains a graded road with occasional washboard sections to its terminus on a peninsula between the Colorado River and Arizona Bay. Several magnificent campsites at the end of the road vary in size from a single vehicle to several vehicles or even trailers. The drive offers incredible views of Lake Mohave, the Black Mountains, El Dorado Mountains, the Newberry Mountains, and tons of desert flora.

Cottonwood Cove East passes many spur roads, such as Pot Cove, Carp Cove, Willow Tree, and Restoration Point. These spur trails lead to great camping and river/lake access points for water sports. A bathroom and trash receptacles are located along Pot Cove Road but nowhere else along the route. Users must pack out everything they pack in. Although this road is within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area fee area, there are no entrance stations along the way to obtain a pass.

This road is suitable for any vehicle in dry conditions but is prone to washouts after heavy rains, and 4WD is recommended during potential adverse weather.

The southwestern Arizona mining camp of Polaris sprung up in the early 1900s to support the large North Star Mine. By June 1909, the town had its own post office and a peak population of nearly 2,000. The North Star Mine had two primary shafts tracking quarts veins rich in gold ore. The mine operated its own stamp mills to process the ore and used cyanide to extract the gold from the crushed ore. By 1914 the mine had slowed its operations, the town shrank, and the post office was discontinued. Today one lone building stands where the town once was, and the impressive remnants of the mine loom up the mountainside. The mine is on private property, but visitation is allowed. Always be careful around old mines. Look up and to the right of the mine along the ridgeline and see if you can spot the natural arch.

Growing up, everyone had a friend that was a bit short, rugged, rough and tumble, not that great to look at, but fun to be around. If that friend was a trail, he'd be FR 228. Beginning near the beautiful Casner Park, the trail immediately takes you into the belly of the Coconino Forest. That means pine trees, cattle tanks, rocky roads, and drift fences in the middle of nowhere. You aren't that far from civilization, but as Jeremiah Johnson famously said, it "feels like far." You'd be no more surprised to see a grizzled cowboy on his horse with his cattle dog trailing along behind than an OHV coming around the next curve with the sound system cranking a billion decibels. The past and the present aren't that far apart in this land. Go see what you can find on this short, rugged trail.

Superstition Turk’s Head Trail is a rocky out-and-back trail that ends close to the Superstition Wilderness Area. Most of the trail is moderately difficult, with tight corners, overreaching brush, and loose rock.  The difficult rating comes from the final two hill climbs.

Camping is available at the north end on the high rocky hilltop.  A large flat campsite, shown in the camping picture, is available without making the final hill climbs.

This area is Arizona State Trust Land.  A recreational permit is required.

Not your typical powerline road, Childs runs from Fossil Creek through the Tonto National Forest ending above the wild Verde River near the Childs Power Plant. The scenic trail has great views as it drops into the Verde's valley. The Verde Hot Springs is only a short hike from the camping area at the end of the road. The hot springs were once part of a resort. You do have to wade or swim across the river. The hot springs are popular on the weekends.  The trail's end is gated and closed just before the power plant. There is no wheeled river access.

A dispersed camping area with five spots is near the end of the road.

East Side Game Road is a picturesque track connecting Tater Ridge FS 213 and Buffalo Ranch Road. The trail provides a convenient offroad shortcut from the Grand Canyon's North Rim to or from Highway 89A via the eastern slope of the Kaibab Plateau. The shortcut saves you from traveling more than 40 extra miles, offering a significant advantage in distance and perhaps time. Spanning approximately 8.3 miles, the elevation gradually decreases from 7400 feet to 5500 feet going east. The track traverses diverse landscapes, transitioning from verdant meadows and dense alpine pine forests to the expansive open grasslands of the high desert.

The trail is narrow in hilly sections but progressively widens in the lower section. A section of shelf road along the edge of a drop of several hundred feet. While 2WD vehicles with standard clearance can easily navigate this route from west to east, off-road tires are highly recommended due to the rocky terrain encountered in the hilly areas. However, traveling from east to west requires 4WD due to loose rocks, and steep inclines, all exacerbated in unfavorable weather conditions.

While the trail's western end offers several camping spots, the area's most remarkable camping is on the eastern end of Buffalo Ranch Road, with an awe-inspiring 360-degree view of the Grand Canyon.

Excursion Mine is one of a small cluster of gold mines that sprung up southwest of Payson in the early 1900s. It is among the few of those mines that still reside on private land, most having been absorbed into the nearly 2.9 million acres of the Tonto National Forest. While you can't visit the mine, you can certainly drive the tidy little road it spawned. Excursion Mine Road provides great views of the rugged and nearly impenetrable Mazatzal Mountain Range to the west as it winds through the classic high country chaparral of the Tonto National Forest. Cattle graze alongside deer and elk. Juniper, pinion pines, agave, and yucca line the trail. The 2004 Willow Fire burned hotly along the western side of the southern portion of the trail. Before the fire, Excursion Mine Road ended on Rye Cypress, the same trail on which it begins. However, the fire resulted in erosion, and the trail was rerouted to end on FR 1548, a fact most maps have yet to capture. Today, the junipers lead the charge to restore the burned area, and the fire's scars are fading away, just as the roadway did.

Muddy Rocky Road is named such because it has muddy washes to the west, and is full of rocks in the middle. It's full of beautiful forest landscapes, and volcanic rockscapes. It's useful as a way to get from East Pocket Road into the deeper western portions of Coconino National Forest.

Bill Williams Loop forms a large C around the western slopes of Bill Williams Mountain in the Kaibab National Forest. There is camping galore along the southern end of the easy graveled road, and many other campsites dotted along the rest of the way. The views of Bill Williams Mountain from Jackass Flats make you want to set up camp and just stare. Coleman Lake, a large marshy prairie, seems out of place in the pine forest. The northern end of the road passes through private property and lower elevation pinion and juniper forests before ending on Interstate 40.

In 1936 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a work camp above Pivot Rock Canyon. Company 863, mostly young men from back east, spent summers there building roads, fire lookout towers, and numerous other construction projects. They also helped fight forest fires. CCC volunteers were paid $30 per month, but $25 of that had to be sent back home to support their families. This was, of course, during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Pivot Rock camp was abandoned in 1941 as World War II loomed and manpower was needed elsewhere. The remnants of the camp, a few concrete foundations and slabs, still sit beside FR 616. Now, just as then, FR 616 is all about camping. The easily traveled trail, which largely parallels Pivot Rock Canyon, is dotted with campsites large and small. The old CCC camp is a favorite, and most summer weekends find plenty of RVs and toy haulers scattered in the wide-open areas under the towering Ponderosa pines. Many campsites are perched above Pivot Rock Canyon, which is named after a unique rock formation at the canyon bottom. The campsites of FR 616 are a great jumping-off point for exploring the vast and beautiful Coconino National Forest. The higher elevation makes this a great area for escaping the summer desert heat below.

The Laguna Ridge Trail winds its way over the barren Laguna Mountain range, just Northeast of Yuma. It is a narrow trail that rides atop the ridgeline almost the entire way. 

While it's not a complex or technical trail, the most challenging part is two-way traffic on the narrow trail with few turnouts. The trail is mostly gravel and loose rock, with a few spots having rocky outcrops. There are steep hills with loose gravel that require 4WD. There are several breakovers with limited to no visibility. Having a passenger to get out and look over those can be beneficial. 

There aren't any camping options on this trail. However, there are several spur trails with flat spots for camping. 

Arva is Latin for dry land. Caliente is Spanish for hot. Whoever named this trail may have mixed his languages, but the trail is interesting and beautiful in its way in any tongue. Beginning at the base of the pyramid-shaped Fourth of July Butte, the skinny two-track winds easily through a prototypical lower Sonoran desert landscape. First, crossing a sea of creosote bush, bur sage, and brittlebush, the desert evolves into a stately saguaro and ocotillo forest as the trail climbs steadily towards the looming Cortez Peak. The land may be dry, but it is lush enough to support grazing. Corrals and water tanks lay at the terminus of side roads. Lounging in the shade of mesquite and palo verde along the edge of a wash, cows raise their heads to watch as you trundle by. Arva Caliente ends at an adit, a horizontal mine shaft. It is one of several shafts cut into Cortez Peak and bears no name on maps of the area. Likely, the person who named the road in two languages came here to find gold. Today, we come seeking our own treasures: adventure, remoteness, and the view of a hot, dry land as seen from the end of this trail,