Question to Road walking

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Hallo together,

we are thinking about to hike the Arizona National Scenic Trail either in spring, beginning of April or in fall around end of August.

Two short questions:
1. How many miles are pure road walking on the ATZ?
We are not able to find any information about that and on the online map we can not find any sections referring road walking.

2. To which season is the nature more colorful, spring or fall?

Thanks for your help
Sabine/Germany

[garlic08]

The AZT is not a road walking route. Much of the area is roadless wilderness. There are some dirt ranch roads. If you're looking for a road walking route across Arizona, the AZT web site will not help.

I've hiked the trail in the spring, and enjoyed some of the cactus blooming. There isn't a lot of deciduous forest for fall color.

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Thank so much for your quickly response.

No road walking, a pure nature trail, is perfect for us.

The ATZ traverse the Saguaro-Nationalpark with its huge cactuses.
Can we see a lot of them along the trail?

Thanks

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Would you prefer the spring or fall for hiking?

[garlic08]

Spring is probably more common, and I prefer it. In a normal year, there are more natural water sources from melting snow. I also enjoy hiking in snow on the summits. I believe most hikers begin hiking in late March and early April to avoid most of the snow. The descent into the Grand Canyon can be treacherous in snow and ice.

The AZT in Saguaro National Park climbs quickly above the saquaros and into pine forest on Mica Mountain, one of the "sky islands." At this moment, the trail is covered in snow. Saguaros mostly live between 1000 and 4000 feet above sea level in the Sonoran Desert.

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Thanks :-)