Grandview Point at the Grand Canyon by Jack Dykinga
There’s no wrong way to spend time at the Grand Canyon. It is, after all, one of the world’s most famous natural wonders and the pride of the Grand Canyon State. The problem is that most people don’t…
David Roberts
The Navajos called them “Anasazi.” And, for seven decades, so did archaeologists. But, in the 1990s, a new generation of politically correct scholars proposed the term “Ancestral Puebloans,” and it…
A young organ pipe cactus grows amid saguaros and ocotillos in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument’s Alamo Canyon. | Paul Gill
When European immigrants ventured into the southwest corner of Arizona Territory in the late 19th century, they considered the Sonoran Desert a barren wasteland and saw little of value except the…
RIGHT: The Lower Cliff Dwelling at Tonto National Monument is the ruin most accessible to visitors. | Laurence Parent
Tonto National Monument Also a cultural melting pot, the site now known as Tonto National Monument was one of the most densely occupied areas for the Salado people, who lived in the Tonto Basin…
Photo by Larry Lindahl
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Year Designated: 1972Area: 1.25 million acres (Arizona and Utah)Wilderness Acreage: None; however, 588,855 acres have been proposed as the Glen Canyon Wilderness…
What remains of a Sinaguan cliff dwelling clings to the canyon wall at Walnut Canyon National Monument. This view is from the Island Trail, which traverses another set of ruins. | Tom Bean
The memories are starting to chip a little. Like nail polish on fingers that have plunged too many times into the dishwater or planted too many things into too-hard layers of earth. I do remember,…
Photograph by Jeff Maltzman
In October 1775, as a nascent United States was breaking away from Great Britain on America’s East Coast, Juan Bautista de Anza and a party of some 240 Spanish colonists began a 1,200-mile journey…
Photo by Sean Parker
JK: How did this photograph come together? SP: I shot this in the Gila Bend area on an August evening last year. I was storm-chasing and looking for haboobs, which are large dust storms that happen…