On April 28, 2026, I finished my list of Arizona’s county high points (or CoHPs). This made Arizona the first state where I hiked to the highest natural point in every county. Along the way, I had the fortune of seeing just about every corner of Arizona, from the deserts and saguaro cactus in the south, to the Mogollon Rim in the center of the state, and the mesas and canyons in the north.
Arizona was already one of my favorite states before I began this adventure. My 800-mile thru-hike on the Arizona Trail was one of my more memorable long-distance trails. The Grand Canyon is one of my favorite National Parks. And yet, driving from mountain range to mountain range in the nation’s 6th-largest state gave me an entirely new appreciation for Arizona’s natural beauty.
Below is a list of many of the Arizona CoHP questions I get from friends, fellow highpointers, and curious strangers alike:
#1 — How many counties are there in Arizona?
Arizona only has 15 counties, which seems remarkably few given the state’s overall size. If you look at a map of the U.S., you’ll find that most states have between 30 and 80 counties. Texas has the most counties (254), and the states with the fewest counties are Connecticut (8), Hawaii (5), Rhode Island (5), and Delaware (3).
With only 15 counties, Arizona appears to be a relatively easy highpointing goal on paper. However, the state’s immense land area must also be taken into consideration. As the 6th-largest state in the US, Arizona covers roughly 114,000 square miles. Several of Arizona’s counties are bigger than states on the East Coast! So getting to all 15 counties requires several thousand miles of driving.
#2 — How long did it take you to complete them?
My first Arizona CoHP was Humphreys Peak. But the ascent of Arizona’s highest point (12,635′) was part of my endeavor to visit the highest point in each U.S. state back in June 2020. I did not set my eyes on visiting the remaining Arizona CoHPs until February 2024. Since I don’t live in Arizona, I opted to tackle my quest for Arizona’s CoHPs over four separate winter/spring trips in 2024, 2025, and 2026.
#3 — Which Arizona CoHP was the hardest?
This is a difficult question because the time of year, weather, road conditions, and other factors can have a huge impact on any highpointing adventure. Based my experiences, I’d rank the most physically difficult Arizona CoHPs in this order:
- 3rd place – Humphreys Peak. Getting to the highest peak of Arizona doesn’t require a technical ascent, but it is a challenging hike due to its elevation (most of the hike is above 10,000′), distance (10.7 miles round-trip), and the need to plan your trip carefully to avoid snow or monsoons.
- 2nd place – Black Mesa. The challenges with Black Mesa are many. There are navigation challenges (this is more of a route, occasionally marked by cairns, than a trail), constant sun exposure with no water, a challenging distance (9 miles), and steep, loose footing going up and down the escarpment.
- 1st place – Browns Peak. This is the most technical of the Arizona CoHPs, thanks to the “scree chute” that visitors must ascend (and descend) over the final 0.3 miles to the summit. This peak’s challenge lies in the loose dirt and rock inside the chute, a lot of class 3 boulder scrambling, and two airy class 4 maneuvers that may cause some hikers to struggle, particularly if they have vertigo or a fear of heights. This CoHP is only recommended for fit hikers.
#4 – Which one was the easiest?
You cannot drive up to the summit of any of the Arizona CoHPs, but you can arrive pretty darn close to several of them, provided you choose to take the shortest route possible. I felt the easiest CoHPs were:
- Greenlee CoHP: 0.8 miles cross-country trek
- Mt. Union: 1.3 miles round-trip on a gravel road
- Promontory Butte & Myrtle Point: ~2 miles cross-country (with 10 miles of driving between them)
#5 — Which high point was your favorite?
It’s hard to choose a favorite. Each of these CoHPs offers something very different, and the peaks look quite different during the spring, summer, and fall hiking seasons. But if I had to rank them on my pure enjoyment, the podium would look like this:
- 3rd Place – Humphreys Peak. This is a fantastic mountain in the San Francisco Peaks. I absolutely love the challenge of this hike and the views from the summit. Humphreys Peak holds a special place in my heart because it’s the state high point, and you can see the south rim of the Grand Canyon (70 miles away) on a super-clear day.
- 2nd Place – Signal Peak. Although this is the lowest of Arizona’s CoHPs, the Kofa Wilderness in southeast Arizona is a magical place. The climb itself was fun, I saw herds of bighorn sheep, the outline of the sharp peaks to the east was breathtaking, and I got to camp under a full moon. All told, it was a perfect microadventure in February 2024.
- 1st Place – Chiricahua Peak. This CoHP edged into first place mainly because of the route I took (Crest Trail #270 from Rustler Park) and the time of year I visited. This high route provides stunning panoramic views of the mountains and desert, takes hikers into pine forests and aspen groves, and, during my April 2026 visit, the trail was lined with vibrant purple lupine and other wildflowers amid delicate ferns. I also got a bonus visit to Chiricahua National Monument at the end of my trek. It ticked about every single box for my enjoyment.
#6 — Are all the high points open to the public?
No. Several of the summits of Arizona CoHPs are inside parks, wildlife refuges, or on tribal lands that require additional coordination. The four CoHPs that pose the biggest logisitcal challenges for highpointers are:
Hualapai Peak. The route to the Mohave CoHP sits inside Hualapai Mountain Park, near Kingman, AZ. There is a ranger station at the county park’s entrance, and visitors must pay $12/vehicle to enter and hike on the trails. The summit itself is actually outside the park boundary on BLM land, so some visitors try to avoid paying the entrance fee and use the fire evacuation route from Flag Mine. This alternate route is a steep, unmaintained hike up an overgrown ravine, and isn’t worth the effort (IMO) to avoid the $12 park entrance fee and nicely groomed trails.
Black Mesa HP. The Navajo CoHP is located on the Navajo Reservation, near Kayenta, AZ. To hike to this high point, visitors need to coordinate for a backcountry hiking permit from one of the tribal parks and recreation offices. Permits can be coordinated by email or in person, and the cost is $25. The closest offices to the CoHP are the Tseyi Heritage Cottonwood Campground in Chinle, AZ, or the Little Colorado River Tribal Park near Cameron, AZ. Permits must be carried by visitors during their hike, and permit holders must call the issuing office at the end of their trip to verify their safe return.
Mt. Graham. The Graham CoHP is located at the summit of Mount Graham. However, the mountain’s upper slopes fall within the Mount Graham Red Squirrel Refugium, which is closed to the public in order to protect an endangered species of squirrel. Hikers hoping to summit Mt. Graham had two options: (1) trespass through the squirrel refugium; or (2) coordinate with Eastern Arizona University to take a tour of the Mt. Graham International Observatory to see the LBT, the largest binocular telescope in the world, which just happens to sit approximately 200 feet below the summit. Tickets are $75, and this is the highest elevation at which visitors can legally obtain permission to visit Mt. Graham.
Mt. Baldy. The Apache CoHP is divided between USFS land on its east side and the White Mountain Apache tribal land (aka Fort Apache) on its west side. Visitors can follow the West Baldy (#94) or East Baldy (#95) trail up toward the CoHP’s summit on USFS land, but the summit itself is sacred to the White Mountain Apache people. Some highpointers believe the official boundary between the USFS and Fort Hall bisects the summit’s length. However, the USFS maps at the trailhead show the entire summit within the reservation. Out of cultural respect, I chose to ascend on the summit’s eastern side far enough to see the rock pile resting on Mt. Baldy’s summit, but I did not attempt to step on the summit itself.
#7 — What was the longest (and shorteST) hike to a CoHP?
Many of the Arizona CoHPs have multiple trailheads from which to begin a hike. Thus, for purposes of this question, I only compare the shortest and/or most commonly used route for each CoHP.
- My longest hike was Mount Baldy (15.6 miles round-trip from the West Baldy TH).
- My shortest hikes were Greenlee CoHP (0.8 miles cross-country from the parking area on AZ-191) and Promontory Butte (0.9 miles cross-country from NF-76).
#8 — Are all of them tall mountains?
No. Greenlee County’s high point is just a small rise beside the Coronado Trail Scenic Byway. Meanwhile, the two high points in Gila County (Promontory Butte and Myrtle Point) are on relatively flat ground located near the edge of the Mogollon Rim, just before it drops off sharply.
The highest point in Pinal County is what’s known as a “liner” in highpointing circles. State officials did not use the terrain to determine the county lines. Instead, they drew a straight horizontal line on the map. This boundary line crosses Rice Peak about 200 vertical feet below its summit. As a result, the summit lies in neighboring Pima County, while the highest natural point in Pinal County is on the county line, where it crosses Rice Peak’s northern ridge.
#9 — Are there trails to the summit of each CoHP?
In a word: No. Although most of the Arizona CoHPs do have trails or roads that will get you close to the summit, nearly half of them require visitors to do some cross-country travel and navigation. These include:
- Gila CoHPs. Both Promontory Butte and Myrtle Point have forest roads that get highpointers within a half-mile of the respective high point, but visitors will have to do some minor cross-country across the flat, forested landscape to find the rock piles on each one.
- Greenlee CoHP. This unnamed high point sits roughly 0.4 miles east of the Coronado Trail Scenic Byway (AZ-191). Highpointers can park in a small paved pullout on the highway. There is a dirt road that takes visitors east, but it ends after 0.2 miles. The remaining 0.2 miles will need to be cross-country through a relatively flat burn area with lots of fallen trees.
- Pinal CoHP. The Arizona Trail (AZT) brings visitors within 250 yards of where the county line crosses the north ridge of Rice Peak, but highpointers will need to do some minor off-trail travel to reach the rock pile on the moderately graded slope.
- Mohave CoHP. The Hualapai Peak Trail ends roughly 200 vertical feet below the mountain’s summit. To get to the top, highpointers should depart the trail at the final switchback and follow a faint cross-country route west toward the summit. This route will include off-trail hiking up steep, loose-dirt slopes and some Class 3 boulder scrambling.
- Graham CoHP. Mount Graham’s summit is officially closed to the public because it falls inside the Mt. Graham Red Squirrel Refugium. However, historically, highpointers have used a dirt road to hike the 3.5 miles from Swift Parkway to Plain View Peak, and then followed the ridgeline north on a cross-country uphill hike for the remaining 0.9 miles to the summit
- Apache CoHP. Mt. Baldy’s summit is officially closed to the public because it sits on Fort Apache and is considered a sacred space by the White Mountain Apache Tribe. The West Baldy and East Baldy Trail remain on USFS land and converge near a trail sign approximately 200 vertical feet below the summit. There is an older, unmaintained trail that heads to the true summit on the Fort Apache Reservation, but the entrance to that trail is usually marked as closed by a line of rocks or tree branches. Highpointers who continue beyond the trail sign may follow this route toward the summit or take a cross-country route, but they will be trespassing on the reservation if they reach the summit.
- Navajo CoHP. The route to Black Mesa’s highest point is not a defined or marked trail for the majority of the ascent. It follows a faint trail marked with cairns as it climbs the desert slopes toward the mesa’s steep escarpment. This route is extremely easy to lose sight of, and a GPS track is highly recommended. As the route heads up the escarpment, it is generally easier to follow, but it’s more like a loose dirt and rock game trail until you get to the final 1/3-mile below the mesa’s top, where it turns into a proper trail. Once at the top of the mesa, the final mile of the route to the high point is completely cross-country through sagebrush and trees across the generally flat terrain.
#10 — What type of wildlife did you see?
Arizona’s deserts and mountains are home to a variety of wildlife, including black bears, mountain lions, foxes, coyotes, cottontail rabbits, squirrels, javelina, birds, and reptiles.
I saw numerous wild turkeys on Mount Baldy and Chiricahua Peak, several snakes, lots of deer and mule elk near the Mogollon Rim, cute tassel-eared Abert Squirrels, turquoise blue Pai Striped Whiptail lizards on Browns Peak, and plenty of bighorn sheep in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.
#11 — Did you need any permits?
The only high point that required a permit was the Navajo CoHP. Black Mesa is located on the Navajo Reservation, near Kayenta, AZ. Backcountry hiking permits are required on the reservation, and can be obtained from the Navajo Nation’s Parks & Recreation Department. The cost of my one-day backcountry permit was $25 in 2026, and I applied in person at the Tseyi Heritage Cottonwood Campground office near Chinle, AZ.
One of the specific instructions on the Navajo Tribal permit was to call the office at the end of my hike to let them know I’d returned safely. The number has voicemail, so highpointers can call after office hours to fulfill this obligation.
#12 — Why did you want to highpoint Arizona’s counties?
I love everything about Arizona! But it wasn’t until I hiked the 800-mile Arizona Trail from the Mexico. border to Utah in 2022 that I discovered the genuine diversity throughout the Grand Canyon State. There are more than 200 named mountain ranges in the state, with rugged desert peaks and sky islands in the south, red rock formations of Sedona and the Mogollon Rim in the center, and Mount Humphreys’s volcanic peak and the mesas and buttes of Monument Valley in the north.
Once I began my county highpointing quest in my home state of Oregon, I knew I definitely wanted to emulate this backcountry bucket list in the other Western states I love. Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah are all places I really want to explore more, and what better way to force you off the beaten track and into every corner of a state than to visit the highest natural point in each of its counties?
#13 — How many miles did you have to drive?
I didn’t keep track of my exact mileage, but I estimate I drove more than 5,500 miles in my quest for Arizona’s CoHPs over the course of four trips. Here’s a quick rundown of each trip to visit Arizona CoHPs between 2024 and 2026.
- In February 2024, I flew into Palm Springs, CA, and rented a car to visit the Yuma, La Paz, and Pinal, and Pima CoHPs. This amounted to approximately 1,025 miles of driving.
- In February 2025, I drove from Oregon to Arizona to spend three weeks in Tucson, and I visited the Santa Cruz CoHP. The drive to Arizona was 2,680 miles round-trip,
- In March 2026, I was visiting Las Vegas, NV, and I detoured to the Mohave CoHP, which was 250 miles round trip.
- In April 2026, I flew into Phoenix, AZ, and rented a car to visit my remaining 8 CoHPs. This epic road trip amounted to driving a 1,570-mile circuit around Arizona.
#14 – Which season is best for highpointing in Arizona?
In my opinion, March to early June is the ideal time to visit Arizona’s CoHPs.
Winter. Weather and road conditions can make highpointing difficult in the winter months. The Arizona Department of Transportation closes numerous roads leading to the higher elevation CoHPs from November to mid-April. It’s still possible to visit the southernmost Arizona counties during the winter months, but many of the remaining CoHPs remain inaccessible until mid- to late-April. To check highway conditions and closures before your travels, visit AZ 511.
Spring. This season brings pleasant weather, blooming cactus, vibrant wildflowers, wildlife sightings, and accessible CoHPs. The higher-elevation peaks may still have patchy snow and brisk weather, but the roads are generally open, and the trails tend to be less crowded.
Summer. By June, the snow has usually melted on all peaks above 9,000 feet. These higher peaks provide a fantastic respite from the Arizona heat, with an average temperature drop of 4-5 degrees per 1,000 feet of elevation gain. However, hikers will need to time their ascents around the monsoon season, which runs from mid-June to mid-September, to avoid lightning. During drought years, the summer may also bring wildfires to many of the national forests surrounding the CoHPs.
Autumn. Like the spring season, autumn can be a wonderful time to visit the CoHPs. The weather is generally mild, but smoke from wildfires may also obscure the best views during dry years. The risks of snow and road closures also increase as you head later into the season. Visitors should always wear bright clothing while highpointing in autumn, as it overlaps with hunting season.
#15 – Do you have other Arizona adventures planned?
100% yes!!! I only have four more mountains to summit to complete the list of the most prominent peaks in each county (the Arizona CoPPs). I also have my eye on the Arizona 20-20 Challenge, which requires hikes up 20 of Arizona’s tallest peaks and down into 20 of Arizona’s deepest canyons. There are several longer trails and routes I’d like to hike too, including the 800-mile Grand Enchantment Trail from Phoenix, AZ, to Albuquerque, NM; the 500-mile Mogollon Rim Trail from Cottonwood, AZ, to Alma, NM; the 39-mile route through Paria Canyon to Lee’s Ferry; a 30-mile route that circumnavigates Humphreys Peak; and visiting the seven iconic wonders of the Navajo Nation. I have so many more adventures to come in Arizona!
