Cheron Taylor sits on a play rug in front of a bookshelf shaped like a dinosaur in the kid's section of Desierto Books in Tucson. | Steven Meckler

Desierto Books

A gila monster rests in a rocky desert setting beneath the Superstition Mountains. | Bruce D. Taubert
Nature

Gila Monster

It’s rare to encounter a Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum) — the reptiles spend most of their time underground — but exploring the desert early in...
The bright and cheery atmosphere of Gloria's Bakery is a popular place to enjoy an assortment of breakfast plates and drinks. | Dawn Kish
Dining

Gloria’s Bakery

Zaira Pozos Gonzalez can laugh now about how January 2020 was a terrible time to start a restaurant. Back then, she, along with the rest of the world, had no idea that life was about to be turned...
Barney Oldfield in his car at Steinfeld’s Race Track in Tucson in 1915. | Arizona Historical Society
History

Barney Oldfield

Sure, the drivers in this month’s Indianapolis 500 are the best of the best, but more than a hundred years ago, Barney Oldfield was the man in racing...
A concrete obelisk in Bisbee marks the Continental Divide, but it’s off by more than 100 miles. The southern end of the actual Divide is in New Mexico. | Arizona Highways Archives
Around Arizona

Off the Mark?

The road to Bisbee follows the feet of mules. Old photographs show ore-laden wagon trains crawling over the steep mountain pass. In the 1880s, mule...
Draped in a layer of snow, Pueblo del Arroyo’s massive stone walls stand deserted in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico. Early Southwestern dwellers left behind many clues that help historians understand ancient cultures. | George H.H. Huey
Culture

Delight or Defense?

WE AMERICANS ARE, at heart, a romantic people. Give us a choice and we’ll take the mysterious over the mundane, the poetic over the pragmatic. And...
Four Canyon novices huddle inside their tent during a cold night at Mather Campground on the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. By Peter Schwepker
In Depth

Maiden Voyage

I’m on Facebook, one of many social networking Web sites, when I come across a checklist. I think, I’m from Arizona! and open the page. The list...
Portrait of Gary Ladd with 4x5 camera against a backdrop of red rocks is by Renee Roundtree.
Latest Feature

Hall of Fame 2026

Gary Ladd BORN 1947   People sometimes describe a moment of clarity descending like a bolt of lightning. Gary Ladd’s was more literal...