Arizona Trail

This is the Grand Canyon trail that most people never hear about, and that's exactly the point. The Arizona Trail section on the North Rim follows a forested corridor through ponderosa pine and mixed conifer, roughly paralleling the park road from the boundary station toward the developed area. You're not peering into the canyon here — you're walking through the high plateau that makes the North Rim feel more like the Pacific Northwest than the desert Southwest. The trail rolls through meadows and forest at roughly 8,000 feet, with occasional glimpses of the Kaibab Plateau stretching out around you. Ten miles one-way means you'll want to arrange a shuttle or plan on a very long day. This one is for hikers who want to say they walked the Arizona Trail through a national park — and who prefer trees and solitude over crowds and selfie sticks.