Highline National Recreation Trail

Highline National Recreation Trail
Trail marker for the Highline National Recreation Trail.
Length54.7 mi (88.0 km)
LocationTonto National Forest, Arizona, United States
Established1870

The Highline National Recreation Trail is a 54.7-mile (88.0 km)[1] trail that runs below the Mogollon Rim in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona. The trail showcases beautiful vistas of rim canyons, brushy hills, distant mountains, unique rock formations, and wonderful stands of Ponderosa pine. The trail was established in 1870 and was used to travel between homesteads and to attend school in Pine, Arizona. Zane Grey (who had a cabin in the area) and Babe Haught used the Highline Trail while hunting,[2] and the Zane Grey Highline Trail 50 Mile Run ultramarathon takes place on the trail. The portion of the Highline Trail from the Washington Park Trailhead to the Pine Trailhead is part of the Arizona Trail passage 26.

Sections of the trail have been burned multiple times, including by the deadly Dude Fire in 1990,[3] and the Highline fire in 2017, where part of the trail was used as a firebreak.[4] The eastern part of the trail underwent significant maintenance an improvement between 2012 and 2018.[5][6]

References

  1. ^ "Highline Trail #31, AZ". Hike Arizona.
  2. ^ "Highline Trail 31". Tonto National Forest.
  3. ^ "Highline Trail Restoration Project". Volunteers for Outdoor Arizona.
  4. ^ "Highline Fire". National Wildfire Coordinating Group.
  5. ^ Czinar, Mare (21 November 2017). "Volunteers rebuild battered Highline Trail into a much better hike". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  6. ^ "Highline Trail Rehabilitation". Volunteers for Outdoor Arizona.