Bruce Simballa (on oars) and Kenton Grua (steering) guide an authentic Whitehall boat, the kind used by John Wesley Powell’s party, through the Grand Canyon’s Granite Rapids for an Imax film in 1984. Powell’s group portaged these rapids, but modern boatmen have the skills and experience to run these boats through the Canyon’s largest rapids. By Rudi Petschek
Whatever Boats You Float
The rapid we started with this morning gave us to understand the character of the day’s run. It was a wild one. The boats labored hard but came out all right. The waves were frightful and, had any of…
The San Francisco Peaks, Arizona’s highest mountains, loom over a hillside of evergreens and wildflowers at sunset. The Peaks are sacred to several of Arizona’s tribes, adding deeper meaning to an effort to rename one of the summits. By Michael Wilson
Home of the Clouds
You don’t need a Ph.D. in anthropology to decipher the names of many of Arizona’s landmarks. The Grand Canyon is just that. The Vermilion Cliffs radiate a deep red at sunset. The Salt River flows…
Reddish ponderosa pine trunks contrast with green pine, spruce and Douglas-fir needles on the Kaibab Plateau, north of the Grand Canyon. Featuring elevations of up to 9,200 feet, the Kaibab Plateau is known for mild summers and snowy winters. By Tom Bean
Forested Highlands
Remembering gives a place life. Think back to plum-colored storms in summer and the sound of thunder booming through the woods. Ferns uncurl around fallen grays of aspen trees. The bright whites of…
Aspens mingle with ponderosa pines in Sandys Canyon, a scenic hiking destination southeast of Flagstaff. This view is from an overlook west of Canyon Vista Campground, which is just off Lake Mary Road (Forest Highway 3). By Tom Bean
Headed for Higher Ground
At Sheeps Crossing, in the White Mountains of Eastern Arizona, grasses and flowers grow on a log in the West Fork of the Little Colorado River. Sheeps Crossing, along…
A rolling sea of evergreens stretches to the horizon in a view from the White Mountains’ East Baldy Trail. This challenging hiking route is one of two that ascend Mount Baldy, the highest peak in the White Mountains. By Laurence Parent
Baldy: The Mountain and the Myth
Editor’s Note: This month, we continue the celebration of our centennial with another wonderful piece from our archive. Although we’re best known for our photography, we’ve also featured some…
A dramatic view of Horseshoe Bend from the rim or Marble Canyon under cloudy skies. By Shane McDermott
Shane McDermott: This Is My Story
Dramatic storms are a highlight of Arizona’s summer monsoon, especially for landscape photographers — and I’ve been fortunate to photograph several displays of clouds, rain and lightning in and…
Meenakshi Wadhwa poses with a scaled down model of an extraterrestrial land rover. By Paul Markow
Martian Geologist
Sometimes, to see the big picture, you have to look at the granular details. So, instead of studying the solar system through a telescope, planetary scientist Meenakshi Wadhwa examines meteorites…
Swimmers enjoy the Tempe Beach pool in 1943, 20 years after it opened. | TEMPE HISTORY MUSEUM
Summers at the Beach
As the sun rises over Tempe Town Lake, a goldendoodle pulls a woman wearing spandex along the paved riverwalk, past a flock of tethered swan boats. From the other direction, three college-age men on…