Arizona National Parks

Arizona national parks have great chasms in the earth, ancient volcanic eruptions, and desert ecosystems to inspire visitors at every turn. Ancient cultures are kept alive through sites dedicated to preserving their heritage.

Visit these Arizona National Parks:

Canyon de Chelly National Monument: Reflecting one of the longest continuously inhabited landscapes of North America, the cultural resources of Canyon de Chelly include distinctive architecture, artifacts, and rock imagery while exhibiting remarkable preservation integrity that provides outstanding opportunities for study and contemplation. Canyon de Chelly also sustains a living community of Navajo people, who are connected to a landscape.

Canyon de Chelley Weather     Canyon de Chelley Ratings

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument: Casa Grande Ruins National Monument preserves an ancient Hohokam farming community and "Great House." Created as the nation's first archeological reserve in 1892, the site was declared a National Monument in 1918 "in order that better provision may be made for the protection, preservation and care of the ruins and the ancient buildings and other objects of prehistoric interest thereon."

Casa Grande Weather     Casa Grande Ratings

Chiricahua National Monument: A "Wonderland of Rocks" is waiting for you to explore at Chiricahua National Monument. This forest of rock spires was eroded from layers of ash deposited by the Turkey Creek Volcano eruption. The 8 mile paved scenic drive and 18 miles of day-use hiking trails provide opportunities to discover the beauty, natural sounds, and inhabitants of this 11,985 acre site.

Chiricahua Weather     Chiricahua Ratings

Coronado National Memorial: It was a journey of exploration, filled with wonder and cruelty. Inspired by rumors of vast quantities of gold, 339 soldiers and over 1100 Indian allies embarked on an epic journey through arid deserts and rugged mountains. They brought rich traditions and new technology into the southwest, irrevocably changing the lives of the native peoples and continuing to influence the area today.

Coronado Weather     Coronado Ratings

Fort Bowie National Historic Site: Fort Bowie commemorates the bitter conflict between Chiricahua Apaches and the U.S. military - a lasting monument to the bravery and endurance of U.S. soldiers in paving the way for settlement and the taming of the western frontier. It provides insight into a "clash of cultures," a young nation in pursuit of "manifest destiny," and the hunter/gatherer society fighting to preserve its existence.

Fort Bowie Weather     Fort Bowie Ratings

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area: Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, established in 1972, provides a dramatic example of one of nature’s most inspiring settings combined with an ambitious human project. Impounded behind the Bureau of Reclamation’s Glen Canyon Dam, waters of the Colorado River and tributaries are backed up about 185 miles, forming Lake Powell.

Glen Canyon Weather     Glen Canyon Ratings

Grand Canyon South Rim: "At sunset the pageant closes amid splendors that seem more than earthly. …the sun draws near the horizon, the great drama … begins. The western sky is all aflame. The climax has now come. The blaze of sunlight … so rich, so strong, so pure that it makes the heart ache and the throat tighten. …the sun sinks…. But its glory mounts upward and diffuses itself in the sky above." Clarence Dutton, Tertiary History of the Grand Canon District, 1882

Grand Canyon Sunrises and Sunsets

Grand Canyon  Tusayan Ruins

Grand Canyon Statistics

Grand Canyon Artist in Residence

Grand Canyon Weather     Grand Canyon Ratings

Hohokam Pima National Monument: Authorized by Congress on October 21, 1972, to protect an ancient Hohokam village known today as "Snaketown." Excavations in the 1930's and again in the 1960's revealed the site was inhabited from about 300 BC to around 1200 AD and may have had up to 2,000 inhabitants.

Hohokam Pima Weather     Hohokam Pima Ratings

Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site: Feel the old wooden floor give slightly beneath your footsteps and hear it squeak as you enter the oldest continuously operating trading post on the Navajo Nation. Let your eyes adjust to the dim lighting of the "bullpen" and you might catch the trader negotiating a deal with a Native American artist. Hubbell Trading Post offers you a chance to become a part of history.

Hubbell Trading Post Weather     Hubbell Trading Post Ratings

Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail: Map of historic sites and public access points.

History of Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail: With over 1200 miles of auto route connecting Mexico to San Francisco, the Anza Trail invites travelers to experience the interweaving of the three elements of the Spanish plan for colonization of its northern frontier: the presidio or fort (military), the mission (religious), and the pueblo or town (civilian).

Juan Bautista Trail Ratings

Lake Mead National Recreation Area: Lake Mead National Recreation Area offers a wealth of things to do and places to go year-round. Its huge lakes cater to boaters, swimmers, sunbathers, and fishermen while its desert rewards hikers, wildlife photographers, and roadside sightseers. It is also home to thousands of desert plants and animals, adapted to survive in an extreme place where rain is scarce and temperatures soar.

Lake Mead Weather     Lake Mead Ratings

Montezuma Castle National Monument: Montezuma Well is a natural sinkhole 368 feet wide, with cliffs that tower 70 feet above the water’s surface. Every day over 1.5 million gallons of warm (74°F) water flows into the Well, fed by three to four large underwater vents, some as deep as 56 feet below the surface.

Montezuma Castle Weather     Montezuma Castle Ratings

Navajo National Monument: Navajo National Monument preserves three intact cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan people. A visitor center, museum, three short self-guided trails, two small campgrounds, and a picnic area provide service to travelers that make the trek to this remote hamlet. Rangers guide tours to cliff dwellings.

Navajo Weather     Navajo Ratings

Old Spanish National Historic Trail: Take a journey across the Southwest on the Old Spanish National Historic Trail between Santa Fe and Los Angeles for history, culture, and scenic beauty.

Old Spanish Trail Ratings

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument celebrates the life and landscape of the Sonoran Desert. In this desert wilderness, you may drive a lonely road, hike a backcountry trail, camp beneath a clear desert sky, marvel at magnificent cactus, or soak in the warmth and beauty of the Southwest.  We welcome you into this desert wild. It is yours to discover.

Organ Pipe Cactus Weather     Organ Pipe Cactus Ratings

Parashant National Monument: Grand Canyon Parashant's natural splendor provides a sense of solitude to those who venture into its isolated domain. Located on the edge of one of the most beautiful places on earth, the Grand Canyon, the Monument's expansive landscape encompasses a chronicle of natural and cultural history.

Parashant Weather     Parashant Ratings

Petrified Forest National Park: With one of the world's largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood, multi-hued badlands of the Painted Desert, historic structures, archeological sites, and displays of 225 million year old fossils, this is a surprising land of scenic wonders and fascinating science.

Petrified Wood: This high, dry Arizona grassland was once a vast floodplain crossed by many streams. Tall, stately conifer trees grew along the banks. Crocodile-like reptiles, giant amphibians, and small dinosaurs lived among a variety of ferns, cycads, and other plants and animals known only as fossils today.

Petrified Forest Weather    Petrified Forest Ratings

Pipe Spring National Monument: American Indians, Mormon pioneers, plants, animals, and others have depended on the life-giving water found at Pipe Spring. Learn about pioneer and Kaibab Paiute life: -at the Visitor Center and Museum -on guided tours of an historic fort -during living history demonstrations -on self-guided tours of the grounds (historic buildings, farm animals, an orchard, garden, and ½ mile trail).

Pipe Spring Weather    Pipe Spring Ratings

Saguaro National Park: How to Grow Cactus: Enormous cacti, silhouetted by the setting sun, for most of us the Giant Saguaro is the universal symbol of the American West. And yet, these majestic plants are only found in a small portion of the United States. Saguaro National Park protects some of the most impressive forests of these sub-tropical giants, on the edge of the modern City of Tucson.

Saguaro Weather     Saguaro Ratings

Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument: Erupting sometime between 1040 and 1100 Sunset Crater is the most recent volcanic activity in the Flagstaff area. This cinder cone reminds us of the powerful forces that shape the Earth – forces that have created more than 600 hills and mountains in the San Francisco volcanic field.

Sunset Crater Volcano Weather      Sunset Crater Volcano Ratings

Tonto National Monument: The first people to settle here permanently arrived between the years 100 and 600. Eagle Ridge, a village of 15 pit houses, is one of Tonto Basin's earliest farming communities.

Tonto Weather     Tonto Ratings

Tumacácori National Historical Park: When the Jesuit Eusebio Kino and his party approached the Pima settlement of Tumacacori in January 1691, they were riding the wave of a century of expansion northward along New Spain’s west coast corridor. The Jesuits had reaped tens of thousands of baptisms and made themselves the most powerful social and economic force in the region. But the tide carried them no further north than the Pimeria Alta, home of the upper Pima Indians.

Tumacacori Weather     Tumacacori Ratings

Tuzigoot National Monument: Crowning a desert hilltop is an ancient pueblo. From a roof top a child scans the desert landscape for the arrival of traders, who are due any day now. What riches will they bring? What stories will they tell? Will all of them return? From the top of the Tuzigoot Pueblo it is easy to imagine such an important moment. Tuzigoot is an ancient village or pueblo built by a culture known as the Sinagua.

Tuzigoot Ratings

Walnut Canyon National Monument: The Sinagua story has been pieced together by examining objects, comparing them with the ways of historic groups elsewhere in the Southwest, and learning the oral traditions of the Hopi, the probable descendants of the Sinagua. Though incomplete, this information tells us a good bit about life in Walnut Canyon.

Walnut Canyon Weather     Walnut Canyon Ratings

Wupatki National Monument: The past peoples of Wupatki lived as beneficiaries of the land over which they made epic migrations. In a region of scarce water and climate extremes, they developed self-sustaining cultural and economic systems. The result is a complex story of people interacting with their environment and with each other to live successfully where many would not.

Wupatki Weather     Wupatki Ratings

Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area: Located in the southwestern corner of Arizona, Yuma served as a vital crossing of the Lower Colorado River in the 19th Century and an innovator of water management and desert agriculture in the 20th Century.  The Heritage Area's mission is to conserve and enhance the Colorado River, the historic downtown, but most importantly, its sense of place in a rapidly changing community.

Yuma Weather     Yuma Crossing Ratings