Arizona's best motorcycle roads are the ones that climb. In under two hours you can leave saguaro desert and be in ponderosa pine, and the four roads that do it best are State Route 89A from Prescott over Mingus Mountain through Jerome and Sedona to Flagstaff, US 191's Coronado Trail through the Apache–Sitgreaves National Forest, State Route 260 along the Mogollon Rim, and the paved half of the Apache Trail. That last one comes with a warning: the famous dirt section past Tortilla Flat is now a primitive road restricted to high-clearance four-wheel drives and UTVs, and it is not a place to take a street bike.
The thing Arizona does that other states can't
Elevation, and a lot of it, inside a single tank of gas. The state runs from Sonoran desert floor to the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau, and the transition zone between them is where all the good roads live. You can plan around temperature rather than fight it: ride the low country at dawn in summer, spend the afternoon up around 7,000 feet where it's thirty degrees cooler. It also means the season never really closes. December in Phoenix is perfect riding; December on the Coronado Trail is snow. For the same desert-to-alpine sequencing one state north, see Scenic Byway 12 over Boulder Mountain.
Top roads in Arizona
| Road | Length | What it is | End to end |
|---|---|---|---|
| SR 89A | 84 miles | Three scenic designations in one road — Mingus Mountain, historic Jerome, and Oak Creek Canyon | Prescott to Flagstaff |
| US 191 (Coronado Trail) | Byway runs Clifton to Springerville | Hairpins with no shoulders along steep mountainsides; the emptiest good road in the state | Clifton to Springerville via Alpine |
| SR 260 | 218 miles total | Runs along much of the Mogollon Rim through pine country; the White Mountain Scenic Road | Cottonwood to Eagar |
| SR 88 (Apache Trail) | Paved to Tortilla Flat | Desert canyon road past Goldfield and Canyon Lake; unpaved beyond, restricted to 4WD and UTVs | Apache Junction to Tortilla Flat |
Open the full SR 89A route in Google Maps — Prescott over Mingus Mountain through Jerome and Sedona to Flagstaff, ready to send to your navigation.
SR 89A, Prescott to Flagstaff
Eighty-four miles that change character four times, and probably the single best day of riding in Arizona. It starts at SR 89 in Prescott, climbs over and through Mingus Mountain — a designated scenic road on its own — and drops into Jerome, a former copper town built onto a mountainside so steep the main street is a series of switchbacks with buildings on both sides. From there it runs down through Clarkdale and Cottonwood in the Verde Valley, then out to Sedona.
The last act is Oak Creek Canyon. North of Sedona, 89A follows the creek up the canyon under sheer red and buff walls, then climbs the north wall in a set of tight switchbacks to the rim, where the landscape changes to ponderosa pine in about a mile. From the top it's a straight run into Flagstaff. Three separate stretches of this road carry scenic or historic designations — the Mingus Mountain climb, the Jerome–Clarkdale–Cottonwood corridor, and Sedona–Oak Creek Canyon — which is unusual for one highway.
The catch is Sedona. It's one of the busiest tourist towns in the state and 89A runs straight through the middle, which means stop-and-go in full desert heat if you time it badly. Go early, or ride north in the morning and come back on I-17. Slow tourist traffic is also where riders get squeezed, so it is worth knowing where drivers lose sight of a motorcycle.
US 191, the Coronado Trail
The Coronado Trail Scenic Byway is the section of US 191 between Clifton and Springerville, and it is both an Arizona scenic road and a National Scenic Byway. It roughly approximates the path Francisco Vázquez de Coronado took through the region between 1540 and 1542, and it used to be numbered US 666 — a detail that still shows up on tank stickers.
North out of Clifton the highway runs through the Morenci mine — the designation temporarily changes and the road threads an active open-pit copper operation — and then climbs into the Apache–Sitgreaves National Forest. What follows is the most demanding pavement in Arizona. There are no shoulders. There are many hairpin turns along steep mountainsides. It climbs from desert into spruce and stays high for a long time. Hannagan Meadow sits about 53 miles from the forest boundary and is where most tourist traffic turns around; Alpine is roughly 75 miles in. Mexican wolves have been spotted in the country around Hannagan Meadow, which gives you a sense of how empty it is.
Treat it seriously. There is essentially nothing between Morenci and Alpine — no fuel, no food, no cell coverage in places — and snow closes the high sections in winter. Riders who finish it call it the best road in the state, but it punishes casual planning. If you want more of that kind of altitude further north, our Colorado guide covers Independence Pass on CO 82.
SR 260 along the Mogollon Rim
Two hundred and eighteen miles from SR 89A in Cottonwood east to US 180 and US 191 in Eagar, running along much of the Mogollon Rim — the escarpment that forms the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau. Parts of it are known as the General George Crook Trail and the Zane Grey Highway, and the eastern portion carries the White Mountain Scenic Road designation.
The best riding is the middle: the climb out of the Verde Valley through Camp Verde, the run through Payson where SR 87 comes up from Phoenix, and then the section east through Heber-Overgaard and Show Low into the White Mountains. This is high pine forest with long sweepers and rim views out to the south. It's less technical than 89A or the Coronado Trail and better suited to covering distance, which makes it the natural connector for a multi-day loop — 260 links the Sedona side of the state to the Coronado Trail's northern end at Eagar without backtracking.
The Apache Trail, and what's actually rideable
State Route 88 runs 45.67 miles from US 60 in Apache Junction northeast to SR 188 near Roosevelt Lake, and the historic Apache Trail is the section east of Tortilla Flat. Built in the mid-1920s and numbered in 1927, it winds steeply through desert mountains past Canyon Lake and Apache Lake. On paper it's one of the great American drives.
In practice, riders need the current status, not the legend. The road washed out badly in 2019 after flooding on ground burned by the Woodbury Fire, and it stayed closed for five years. The state transportation department completed an interim restoration and reopened a stretch in September 2024, but the terms matter: SR 88 is a primitive dirt road between milepost 220 and milepost 229.2, and the section from Fish Creek Vista at milepost 222 to Fish Creek Bridge at milepost 223.5 is restricted to high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicles and UTVs only, with no trailers permitted. The department's own guidance is that drivers of other vehicles should not attempt to travel through it. That includes street motorcycles.
So ride the paved half. From Apache Junction, SR 88 leaves the four-lane, narrows to two, and runs past the Goldfield ghost town into Tonto National Forest near Lost Dutchman State Park, then along the south shore of Canyon Lake to Tortilla Flat. That's a genuinely good desert road with tight canyon corners and water views, and Tortilla Flat is the obvious turnaround — the last fuel is well behind you. If you want the Roosevelt Lake end, approach it from SR 188 instead. Conditions here change with every monsoon season, so check the state's traveler information service the morning you ride rather than trusting a guide.
Heat, altitude and the practical details
Heat. The desert sections are genuinely dangerous from June through September. Pavement temperature, dehydration and heat exhaustion put riders down more often than corners do. Ride the low country before 10 a.m., carry more water than feels reasonable, and don't treat a mesh jacket as optional — direct desert sun on bare skin costs you more than the airflow gains.
Altitude and cold. The other half of the same problem. A hot morning in Cottonwood can be jacket weather at the top of Oak Creek Canyon and colder still on the Coronado Trail. Pack a layer even on a summer day.
Monsoon. July through September brings afternoon storms that flood washes and drop water across the road with no warning. Never ride into a flooded dip, however shallow it looks. Storms also leave gravel and sand fanned across pavement at every wash crossing for days afterward.
Fuel. Fine on 89A and 260, a real planning item on the Coronado Trail, where the Morenci-to-Alpine gap has no services at all. Fill in Clifton or Morenci going north, Alpine or Springerville going south.
Winter closures. The high sections of US 191 and SR 260 get snow and ice. There's no fixed closure calendar the way there is on a national park road, so check road conditions before committing to a high crossing between November and April.
Gear notes for desert and rim riding
Arizona punishes two specific setup mistakes. The first is glare — a phone screen mounted on the bars is unreadable in direct Sonoran sun, which is exactly when you least want to be squinting at a route into Oak Creek Canyon traffic. A sunlight-readable handlebar riding display solves it, and cached maps matter because there's no signal for most of the Coronado Trail. The second is tire pressure, and here the swing is larger than almost anywhere else in the country: the cold-start numbers you set on a cool desert morning are not the numbers you have on a pine-country afternoon a mile higher, and hot pavement adds more on top. Our guide to what desert heat and a mile of climbing do to your pressure covers how far the reading moves, and a Bluetooth TPMS sensor shows the live figure so a slow leak on an empty stretch of US 191 isn't a surprise you discover in a hairpin. The JADO S6 puts navigation and tire data on one 6-inch sunlight-readable screen and keeps front and rear cameras recording, which is reassurance worth having when the nearest other vehicle is thirty minutes away.
FAQ
What is the best motorcycle road in Arizona?
SR 89A from Prescott to Flagstaff for a single great day — Mingus Mountain, Jerome, Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon in 84 miles. The Coronado Trail on US 191 is the more challenging road and the better one if you have the time and the planning discipline.
Is the Apache Trail open?
Partly. The paved section from Apache Junction to Tortilla Flat is open and worth riding. Beyond it, SR 88 is a primitive dirt road, and the stretch from Fish Creek Vista to Fish Creek Bridge is restricted to high-clearance four-wheel drives and UTVs. Turn a street bike around at Tortilla Flat, and check the state traveler information service first — conditions change with every monsoon.
When is the best time to ride Arizona?
October and November, then March through May. Summer works if you start at dawn and spend the afternoon at elevation. Winter is excellent in the desert and closed off at the top of the Coronado Trail.
How long does the Coronado Trail take?
Plan a full day for Clifton to Springerville. It is not a road you rush — no shoulders, constant hairpins, and no services through the middle. Many riders base in Alpine and take it in halves.
Do I need to worry about wildlife?
Elk in the pine country along SR 260 and the high sections of US 191 are the main concern, and an elk is a far bigger problem than a deer. Dawn and dusk is when they move. Cattle range freely on open-range sections too.
