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Arizona hiking already has enough challenges – heat, lack of water, cacti, critters, crowds – to foil many without strong constitutions. Now try adding a layer of red tape. While most of the best hikes in the state are on BLM or Forest Service land, requiring nothing but shoes and a smile to get in, a few really extraordinary journeys lay tucked behind the gates of bureaucracy. A good hiker should know how to climb over obstacles. Here’s an insider’s guide to five of them.

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Sun City wasn’t the first retirement community in the U.S. – that would be Youngtown, its neighbor in the Northwest Valley – but it was the most successful, thanks to amenities like a grocery store and recreation center.