You should buy the latest edition of Charlie Wells' Arizona 4x4 guide. It just came out. They re-drove the trails about 18 months ago.

I started by using his first edition book and a Subaru Tribeca. Yes. Probably the only one ever LOL. Never had a failure and never got stuck. But even the easy trails were often tough for a newbie in a Tribeca. Forget about a moderate in that vehicle. Then I had an Outback and used Wells for Utah and CO. I still use Wells a lot though I am running out of options for reasonable day trips from Phoenix. Be very wary of trails for which he says "brush marks likely" or anything like that because he truly means it.

You should not start from the harder trails, 4R or otherwise. Easy classics like the Senator Highway, Bloody Basin, Four Peaks, Schnebly Hill Rd are must-drives at least once. The latter has become bumpy and annoying but it is still easy (trying to get to low-end moderate).

The majority of trails that offer great scenery are easy or moderate. The difficult rated trails that he calls suitable for stock vehicles like Broken Arrow, Crown King, Red Rock Powerline, CLiffhanger, are very straightforward unless you run optional stuff on Crown King. I am quite familiar with Wells' various books and I am not sure why Cliffhanger is rated difficult but differences between easy/moderate/difficult/hardcore are more like wide frontiers than firm borders. All these are much easier than stock-suitable but difficult rated Moab trails. Crapshoot has one spot where you can roll if you don't know what you are doing. Horseshoe Canyon was downgraded to moderate and I am not sure it deserves that rating either. It was easy a couple weeks ago. Rice Peak was also downgraded to moderate. But it is just far enough from home to be a good day trip with the kids.

Any desert trail, no matter how easy, begs for a firmer than stock suspension. I was totally stock my first times on Broken Arrow or Crown King and that was fine but the stock suspension was a slow-going, bump-stop loving disaster on KOFA and other easier but long and bumpy trails.

I assume you have replaced your tires already. If not, that's the one indispensable mod. I tried hard to use SL Wildpeaks and did so with lots of success between Sedona and the Canadian border but 3 punctures in SW AZ caused me to get stronger tires. So, just go LT. A stiffer suspension can handle heavy tires easily with very good road ride quality.

The trails in the OHV areas and Crown King are totally overcrowded. You would want to stay clear or go mid-week if given the chance. Otherwise, you risk people flying around on UTVs to have very little patience for you. It feels more like trying to enter or exit a stadium before/after a big game than being out in nature.

be safe and enjoy the desert! Soon it will be awesome...for a couple months lol.