Find the top rated horseback riding trails in Arizona, whether you're looking for an easy short horseback riding trail or a long horseback riding trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a horseback riding trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
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Great time hills not to steep and pretty decent trail we took our new tandem out for a great time.
Moved to Prescott Valley April 2016. Rode my recumbent trike a few miles on the Iron King from the East end, which starts on the east side of Glassford Hill Rd, and runs along Santa Fe Loop road to begin with. Dual track - think dirt road with one lane, with washouts and small rocks scattered alonside it. Not a great biking/triking trail. Not good for pushing a baby buggy, roller blading, or even riding a road bike. Great scenery as you ride west toward the Peavine Trail, but keep your eyes on the trail to avoid potholes, sand, etc. Would be so much nicer if paved.
I parked by the IMAX. I was happy to see that the trail was paved the whole way so okay to be used by road bike.
I did Tusayan to Yaki point initially, but also took interest in Hermit's rest. Hermit's rest has plenty of signs pointing the way and can be accessed using the greenway bike path through Grand Canyon Village. You take Hermit road, a 2-lane road closed off to regular vehicle traffic and open to foot and bicycle use. You do however have to share the road with tour buses which come every 20-40 minutes or so.
Tusayan, Yaki, Hermit ended up being 37 miles for me.
Easy parking at the Equestrian Center. Very nice asphalt path through the wash. Pleasant vegetation and vegetation with plenty of wildlife. The old stagecoach well was interesting and with the covered bench seating a pleasant rest stop. This is a solid short trail for a quick ride in the desert. Note this is a portion of the Maricopa County Trail system so it will be getting longer, eventually.
The trail is wide, and gently uphill. The rough surface is more suitable for mountain bikes and hybrids, not good for a road bike. Approx 1 mile is paved, presumably to keep the dust down for a nearby subdivision.
To get to the trail, turn right as you exit the Horne Rd gate. The trail begins on the other side of the road, on the left side of the canal.
You will pass an orange grove and many horse properties for the first half of the ride. Look for large carp swimming in the canal.
At the small hydro power station at E McDowell Rd, stay left to go though the underpass rather than going up a steep concrete incline.
About half way along the trail you will pass under the Red Mountain Fwy and the populated area ends abruptly.
Their are spectacular views across to the McDowell’s as you follow the Salt River (dry). It’s all desert landscape from this point to the Salt River Dam.
You may see wild horses.
It’s gently downhill as you head back along the canal to the Park of the Canals.
It’s worth wandering around the small Brinton Botanical Garden-good place to stretch your legs and rehydrate.
FYI there've been improvements. The trail now ends by connecting to the New River Trail on the west end. The last half mile is a nice paved path. The area around Priest Dr near Tempe is still being worked on. It is a gravel trail from just east of Priest to 48th St. But the path is hardpan and I've had no problems on either a hybrid or MTB. The previous reviews are true. Both the good and the bad.
I was very excited to see the extension of this path to Riverview as it is near a flooded section of the Salt River, so today I walked from Tempe Marketplace to just past the last freeway overhead in Mesa.
Where I walked there was shade from the highway interchanges above, but most of the path is not shaded, so is only usable on cooler days/months and by bicycles. Walking the path with the intent of birding was not very rewarding. True, we did see a couple of Osprey's diving for fish, but the amount of trash and distance from the water itself was truly disheartening.
I hope this is just the beginning of what this pathway can become and will look forward to well advertised opportunities to at least clean up the areas below the walkway and perhaps to help in planting more native vegetation where possible.
Parked on Avenida Coatimundi across from Coatimundi Middke School. Road gate is locked but there is a passenger gate to the right. It appears locked but is just held closed by a wire. Walk on dirt road past water tank on right thru another road gate to sign at start of trail. Go about .5 miles from school to second trail sign that tells you to take right trail. You will cross the Sonoita Creek bed. Trail is a mixture of dirt road, sand, packed earth and gravel. We went about 1.6 miles where we couldn’t find a secure way to cross creek and continue on trail so we headed back to car. Bird-wise it was mid-day so not a lot of activity. We did see a Northern Flicker, Gila Woodpecker, Yellow Rump Warbler, Vermillion Flycatcher and Chipping Sparrow. Trail could be better marked as there were numerous cow paths. Beautiful desert scenery and a very peaceful quiet.
Has been extended and is now almost 5 miles long. Also, you do not have to cross ANY roads. Underpasses have been built on all. During our ride today we saw a coyote, roadrunner and several jackrabbits. Well maintained. In fact today a trail worker was blowing sand off the asphalt! Don't see that on our Wisconsin trails.
Phoenix is in the midst of a project to improve a significant portion of the canal path: http://www.grandcanalscape.com/ Work has started but it has not made a noticeable improvement yet. Most of the work is going to happen on the north side of the canal. Project descriptions indicate that there will be "improved crossings" where the canal intersects streets (which is a lot).
If you ride the Grand Canal on Saturday and Sunday the crossings at 7th Ave, 7th St and other busy roads is somewhat manageable. Just don't expect to cross safely during weekdays. You almost always need to find the nearest crosswalk. I hope the "improved crossings" promised will alleviate some of this. If they do, I'll certainly do an update of this post.
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