Linda and I spent several weeks in March of 2014 visiting Arizona for bicycling and hiking. This was our third Spring visiting Arizona and we were curious to see locations we had not previously visited. I enjoyed hiking several Arizona “prominence peaks”: Mount Ord, Pinal Peak, Mount Graham, and Chiricahua Peak. The only significant snow I encountered was on Mount Graham, and it was manageable. The weather was ideal for hiking and enjoying the scenery.
Our first camps in Arizona were near Sedona and at nearby Cottonwood State Park, where we first got on our bikes to explore around Cottonwood. After a few days we relocated March 13 to Payson which was our base for four days.
The next day we drove to a locked gate and hiked up Mount Ord just off Highway 87, a 2000 foot prominence peak in the Mazatzal Mountains. The weather on the summit was light and intermittent hail turning to drizzle with thunder in distance, but it was a pleasant hike with good views of the mountains and valleys south of Payson. We then visited Fountain Hills, near Mesa.
