One of the reasons many of us live in Arizona is the opportunity to do things outside during much of the year. Whether it’s camping, swimming, fishing, or hiking, the opportunities are here in abundance. Hikers are able to go from one end of the state to the other on the Arizona Trail. Now in Washington, D.C., the process has started to move the Arizona Trail to a national level.

Part of the Arizona Trail runs through Molino Basin, in the shadows of the Catalina Mountains. At that point it’s a narrow path surrounded by wildlife and scenic views, but the entire thing goes on for 807 miles.

Tucson business owner David Baker hiked the whole trail this past spring. “Hiking the Arizona trail was an intensely rewarding experience,” Baker says. “I think the things that probably stand out the most to me were, first, the beauty. There’s just a lot of beautiful country to walk through.”

The trail starts on the Mexican border, and then snakes up through the Rincon Mountains. “You go in and out of the Grand Canyon, and it finally ends at a very obscure spot called Coyote Wash on the Utah state line,” Baker says.

On July 15, a House subcommittee in Washington met to discuss legislation that would make the Arizona Trail the nation’s ninth national scenic trail. “The Arizona Trail is many things to many,” says U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, “an invitation to discovery, an oasis from urban life, and a valuable economic resource.”

Giffords says designating the trail as a national scenic trail would further enhance it’s ability to fulfill these missions. Experts say the Arizona Trail is 94% complete. Percentage-wise, that makes it more complete than six of the existing national scenic trails, which is all the more reason, many say, it deserves the designation.

“Such a designation would be very, very positive, very meaningful for the Arizona Trail effort,” says Baker. Now it’s an effort that could possibly come to fruition this year. 99% of the Arizona Trail is on public land, and if federal lawmakers pass the bill, it would be the first national scenic trail in the American Southwest.