Countless lupines and a smattering of Mexican goldpoppies surround agaves, ocotillos and saguaro cactuses on the side of King’s Crown Peak, near Superior. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the peak was named by miners who felt the nearby Silver King Mine deserved a crown. By Paul Gill
Wildflowers 2025
A sego lily displays its delicate bloom along the Barnhardt Trail, a hiking route in Central Arizona’s Mazatzal Mountains. Found in several Western states, sego lilies…
Flame Delhi, shown during his time with the Pacific Coast League’s San Francisco Seals, didn’t last long in Major League Baseball. But his one appearance — with the Chicago White Sox in 1912 — did make him the first Arizona native to reach the big leagues. ARIZONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY KEITH WHITNEY
Down In Flames
Hard out of the small town of Harqua, Arizona, Flame Delhi was a natural. “Born in the heat of the alkali country,” as one newspaper rhapsodized, Delhi stood over 6 feet tall and weighed in at a…
Sunrise illuminates a group of seven cranes as they fly in front of the full moon. By Jack Dykinga
Jack Dykinga: This Is My Story
Ever since I began my career as a news photographer in Chicago in the 1960s, I’ve felt that photography is something I’d do for free. (It’s nice to be paid for it, though.) For me, this art form goes…
Lindsey Egan (left) and Melissa Wright pose in a desert setting with the Superstition Mountains in the background. By Shondiin Mayor
Women Who Explore
Melissa Wright saw her life branching out before her like a green fig tree. Mirroring a passage in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, she was overwhelmed by the figs she could have chosen, each…
California condors scavenging
Navajo Nation Joins Group Working to Prevent Lead Poisoning in Animals
Arizona's largest Indigenous tribe has joined an effort that aims to prevent scavenging animals from suffering lead poisoning from eating the remains of animals shot by hunters. The Navajo Nation's…
A young man in a black beanie and glasses calibrates a large telescope.
Grand Canyon's New Astronomer in Residence
Grand Canyon, Ariz. — Grand Canyon Conservancy (GCC) is excited to welcome Stephen Hummel as the first Astronomer in Residence onsite at Grand Canyon National Park this year. Hummel is the Dark Skies…
A spot near John Ford Point offers a dramatic view of the weathered buttes of Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation. | Jerry Jacka
Photographs by Jerry D. Jacka
One of Jacka’s favorite Arizona spots was Coal Mine Canyon, southeast of Tuba City on the Navajo Nation. “Each time I take a photograph, I feel as though I am capturing a moment in time,” he wrote. “…
Superstition Mountain is the title of this painting by David Swing, depicting the iconic mountain with a foreground of a dirt road through desert landscape dotted by saguaros.
The Nature Of An Artist
CORONADO TRAIL   LAKE MEAD   THE NATURAL BRIDGE   Cochise Head…