Mount Trumbull Wilderness is home to a large, basalt-capped mesa that rises up to more than 8,000 feet, as well as other fascinating natural features that invite nature enthusiasts to spend quality time away from home. Located north of the Grand Canyon and Mount Logan Wilderness, this Bureau of Land Management property in Arizona can be reached via a network of highways and roads that make accessibility easy. The use of vehicles in the wilderness, however, is prohibited.
Within the wilderness areas, excellent recreational opportunities are provided. Visitors can enjoy hikes around this BLM park and to the top of Mount Trumbull; take photographs of ancient relics and petroglyphs; view wildlife and resplendent flora; and relax within the pristine ponderosa pine forest. The Mount Trumbull Scenic Loop Drive offers drivers and riders the chance to also enjoy wonderful views. Night sky viewing, a fading art, is yet another way to spend time around the park. Nearby attractions to Mount Trumbull Wilderness include Parashant National Monument and Kaibab National Forest.
Primitive camping opportunities are available within the wilderness, particularly in previously disturbed areas. Developed campgrounds and facilities are not available. RV camping opportunities are provided at Grand Canyon National Park.
Mount Trumbull Wilderness is located north of the Grand Canyon, 40 miles south of Colorado, Arizona. Sited within the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, this BLM wilderness can be accessed from Colorado and Fredonia in Arizona, as well as from St. George in Utah. Routes that lead to the park include Mohave County Roads 109 and 5, BLM Road 1069, and Arizona State Road 389. Other local roads that branch off the highways also lead to the park. As you drive to the park, it is recommended that your vehicle(s) be high clearance, four-wheel drives, and you carry enough supplies, a full tank of fuel and an appropriate road map. An extra spare tire won’t hurt.
Within the wilderness itself, no vehicles and motorized equipment are allowed, meaning that you’ll have to park your car, motorbike, bicycle, or any other vehicle at the parking spaces provided just outside the wilderness boundary. Navigation within the wilderness is on foot and on horses.
There are no direct public transportation services to this BLM land in Arizona. If you’d like to rent camping equipment and vehicles, visit Grand Canyon National Park.
Tent camping and vehicle camping opportunities are available at Tuweep Campground, located east of Mount Trumbull Wilderness. Featuring nine campsites that can accommodate vehicles and motorcycles, as well as a large group campsite, both primitive and semi-developed camping opportunities are available within the campground.
Campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis, but if you intend to reside at the site, you should arrive before sunset. Amenities in the campground include composting toilets and picnic tables. Charcoal grills and fire are prohibited, but fossil fuel stoves are allowed. Come with drinking water as no water is available. Vehicle length limit is 22 feet.
This campground is an amazing site for viewing sunrise and sunset.
Even though the use of vehicles is not permitted within Mount Trumbull Wilderness, this does not in any way take away the fun that drivers enjoy at this BLM property. This is because the Mount Trumbull Scenic Loop Drive presents explorers with stunning views of raging volcanoes, the Grand Canyon, Native American Petroglyphs, and other ancient relics. This scenic drive, one of the most popular in the region, requires high clearance, four-wheel-drive vehicles. So, fill up your tanks and enjoy the view.
Nampaweap is a popular attraction in the area, as the site is home to messages left by native inhabitants of the area. Meaning “foot canyon”, Nampaweap is believed to have been a passageway that native people who traveled from the Grand Canyon to the ponderosa pine forest uphill used.
Numerous petroglyphs marked on basalt record events, stores, and memories of these ancestors and present explorers with exciting interpretation challenges. You are required to respect the site and not destroy the petroglyphs. Pictures are allowed.
As one of the most remote areas in the contiguous United States, Parashant National Monument features high elevation plateaus within a setting with cloud-free weather and excellent air quality, all of which combine to provide the best possible opportunity to enjoy astronomy and dark night sky viewing.
The natural darkness and dark night skies in the park are an important resource and so observers benefit from the efforts in place by the National Monument and the National Park Service Colorado Plateau Dark Sky Cooperative to preserve this disappearing beauty.
Mount Trumbull Wilderness features a wide variety of fauna species that reside within different parts of the park. Home to various wildlife, enthusiasts come across mule deer, jackrabbits, coyotes, Kaibab squirrels and porcupines within this BLM park’s areas. Those rarely seen in the park include mountain lions and pronghorn deer, so if you do see them, take photographs. A variety of lizards also live in the area, and so do birds such as common ravens, red crossbills and Steller's jays.
Mount Trumbull is decorated by resplendent flora species, and so the wilderness is a hot spot for nature lovers and enthusiasts. As you stroll around the steep slopes in the southern and western areas in the park, you’ll come across juniper and piñon as well as shrub live oak, cliff rose, and silktassel. Don’t be surprised to see stands of aspen, agave, Gambel oak, and cactus too. The top of the plateau in the wilderness is home to ponderosa pine forest untouched by loggers.
Unique hiking opportunities are available at Mount Trumbull Wilderness along designated hiking trails and other paths open for casual strolls and nature observation. By far the most prominent trail in the park is the Mount Trumbull Trail that stretches to the summit of Mount Trumbull and is a five-mile round-trip. As you approach the top, the trail fades out, so it’s essential you have a compass and map to guide you the rest of the way. At the top, you will get to enjoy amazing views of the surrounding areas as far as 90 miles away.
