Welcome to Arizona
Arizona’s rusty red plains, craggy desert canyons and saguaro-splattered landscapes make it one of the most mesmerizing states to traverse. There’s no doubt that this is road-trip country, through and through. If somebody compiled a classic American road-trip catalog, Arizona would boast many of its greatest hits.
There’s the granddaddy of them all, the Grand Canyon, which can be explored on foot, on horseback, from a helicopter, by kayak or even by way of a floating glass bridge. There’s the mighty Hoover Dam, one of the wonders of the industrial world, which wows visitors with its Art Deco construction and hard-to-believe history. Monument Valley’s array of massive sandstone buttes will take your breath away, and the out-of-this-world attraction of Meteor Crater is a one-of-a-kind spectacle.
When it’s time for a bit of world-class dining, entertainment or shopping, there’s the major metropolitan area of Phoenix and Scottsdale, where you’ll find big-league sporting events, championship golf courses and award-winning restaurants with top-name chefs.
Adventure
When it comes to outdoor adventure, it’s hard to compete with Arizona and its geological crown jewel, the Grand Canyon. At its deepest point, the canyon walls descend more than a mile to the meandering Colorado River. The views are breathtaking, and the many travel experiences are truly unforgettable.
Visitors to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon are met with an assortment of hiking trails, horseback adventures and helicopter tours. At the North Rim, adventure-seekers can brave less hospitable terrain to set their sights on some of the most rewarding views the Canyon has to offer. And at Grand Canyon West, the bold and the brave can step out onto the world-famous Skywalk, a vertigo-inducing glass bridge that juts out from the side of the cliff-face.
The Grand Canyon State has more than a few geological tricks up its sleeve, however, and anyone with a soft spot for the sublime won’t want to miss a trip to Monument Valley. This stunning landscape teems with massive sandstone buttes and mesas that will make you feel as though you’ve been plunked into the middle of your very own Wild West film. Monument Valley straddles the Arizona-Utah state line near the Four Corners, making it an easy spot around which to plan a road trip.
If you plan on a more relaxing retreat, head to Sedona, 100 miles south of the Grand Canyon. Here, art galleries, New Age gurus and world-class spas flourish at the feet of the red-rock cliffs and spires that put the town on the map.
Entertainment
Arizonans love festivals and fairs, so no matter what time of year you arrive, you can be sure something big is going on somewhere.
February, in particular, is a busy month. Things kick off with the Parada del Sol in Scottsdale, an annual extravaganza that salutes the region’s compelling frontier past. The event is considered the world’s largest horse-drawn parade, with upwards of 150 entries each year. After the parade, the Trail’s End Celebration gets going in Old Town, complete with food fairs, pony rides and exciting reenactments of Wild West gunfights. Other February highlights include the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show, the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show and Arizona Renaissance Festival.
If you have a taste for the finer things in life, then the Scottsdale Culinary Festival in April is for you. Gourmet food, fine wine and craft beer command the spotlight as celebrity chefs, sommeliers and brew masters descend on the city for a tasty dip into decadence.
The height of summer brings on the appropriately named World’s Oldest Rodeo in Prescott, a major attraction for visitors far and wide since it first kicked up dust way back in 1888. Part classic rodeo competition and part festival, the World’s Oldest Rodeo features everything from dance-offs to cook-offs to a rip-roaring parade.
Finally, there’s the Arizona State Fair, which annually attracts more than 1 million visitors to the Encanto Village in Phoenix. This event salutes Arizona’s frontier past, featuring rodeos, livestock competitions, arts and crafts fairs, culinary cook-offs, parades and even a 5K Fun Run.
Heritage
There’s no getting around the fact that echoes of the Old West still ring loudly across Arizona. After all, this was once a rugged and largely lawless frontier territory, where quick-trigger gunslingers clashed with hard-nosed lawmen in legendary shootouts.
Think it was all just a bunch of romanticized Hollywood revisionism? Head for the legendary town of Tombstone and walk in the footsteps of deputy sheriff Wyatt Earp to the OK Corral. In this iconic spot, the lawman was joined by two brothers and Doc Holliday in a barrel-to-barrel shootout against the infamous Clantons and McLaurys. The town features regularly staged shootouts, an Old West-themed museum called the Historama and a completely restored drinking hole called the Crystal Palace Saloon, which first opened in 1879.
Similarly, you can head to the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park to see where some of the Old West’s most notorious outlaws were once locked up. Today, the remains of the prison have been transformed into a museum full of informative exhibits that tell the story of the prisoners and their wardens between 1876 and 1909.
