Places to Visit in Arizona

Cathedral Rock, Sedona

Cathedral Rock in Sedona is one of the most famous landmarks in the U.S. and one of the best places to visit in Arizona. It is located in Yavapai County in the Coconino National Forest, a great place for a day trip. The rock is carved from red sandstone created from sand dunes around the ancient Pedregosa Sea.

The elevation of Cathedral Rock’s summit is 4,921 feet, and reaching that summit is the goal of thousands of hikers every year. Named Cathedral Rock Trail, the steep, short ascent starts at the Back O' Beyond trailhead and climbs all the way to the gaps or saddle points in Cathedral Rock. This challenging but popular trail offers more of a rock climb than a hike. It is not shaded and is very difficult and steep in places.

It takes 1.5 miles to get to the summit and back the same way, and the spectacular views all along the way (especially at the top) make the effort worthwhile. If you are looking for top attractions in Arizona, don't miss this unique destination.

Saguaro National Park

The giant saguaro, a well-known symbol of the American West, grows in very few places in the United States, and Saguaro National Park near Tucson was created to protect these rare and magnificent plants.

The park is located at the heart of the Sonoran desert, at about 2,400 feet above sea level and is one of the top Arizona attractions.

The best time to visit the park is from November to March when the temperatures are cooler.

In February and March, these giant cacti and several other desert plants create a spectacular show with their colorful blooms. Saguaro National Park is one of the top Arizona destinations.

The park is a great location for short, pleasant hikes for families, but it also offers more challenging adventure wilderness hikes and camping in the backcountry. Bikers can enjoy Cactus Forest Loop Drive or the Hope Camp Trail.

Grand Canyon, Arizona

The Grand Canyon is an enormous crack in the Earth that can be seen from space, and visiting this magnificent natural formation is on almost everyone’s wish list. The canyon is the result of millions of years of erosion by the waters of the mighty Colorado River. You can see layers of red rock bands that show its long history on the walls of the canyon. The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is about an hour and a half from Flagstaff.

The canyon is 277 miles long, a mile deep and up to 18 miles wide. Its vast scale and magnificent colors attract millions of visitors every year.

The majority of tourists enjoy the canyon from its south rim, but more adventurous visitors hike its walls, take mule rides, or enjoy thrilling white-water rafting on the Colorado River. Most of the canyon is located within Grand Canyon National Park.

While some parts of the canyon on the upper plateau are covered with forests, most of the area is arid. Nevertheless, it is home to 1,500 plants, 89 mammalians, 355 birds, 9 amphibians, 47 reptiles, and 17 fish speciess.

Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley

Located on Native American Navajo land east of Page, Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley is made up of two slot canyons: a slot canyon is a deep and narrow canyon formed by water running through several kinds of rocks including basalt, granite, limestone, and sandstone.

The name of the canyon comes from the fact that there used to be many pronghorn antelope living in the canyon. Cattle also used to graze here. The two canyons are called Upper Antelope Canyon, or the Crack; and Antelope Canyon, or the Corkscrew.

The canyons are popular with photographers: tours of the canyons only began in 1997 when it was made a Navajo Tribal Park by the Navajo people.

Bisbee

Bisbee, 90 miles southeast of Tucson, is located on the slopes of the Mule Mountains, and it was founded in 1880 as an Old West mining camp. It was one of the richest mining towns in the world. With the riches, the town population grew to more than 20,000 people at the beginning of the 20th century.

The lively town had a library, opera house, ball fields, and the first golf course, along with 47 saloons. By the mid 1970’s, the mine closed, the miners left, and the artists and free spirits started moving in, as they found the spectacular nature and colorful history inspiring and attractive.

Bisbee, with a population of less than 6,000, is today a popular tourist destination because of its magnificent surrounding red rocks, its colorful history and even more colorful inhabitants. The town is full of galleries, museums, new age shops, restaurants, hotels, and tour guides.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was created in 1937 to preserve one of the few natural habitats of the Organ Pipe Cactus, along with other rare and amazing animals, plants, history, and geology of the Sonoran Desert. This 517 square mile park is full of trails and scenic paths and drives, providing a magnificent destination for days of adventures, camping under the star-lit skies, and exploring the surprisingly alive desert. There are excellent, informative ranger-guided tours that last from half days to several days.

The unique habitat of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument has an amazing collection of desert animals and plants; 26 species of cactus thrive in this arid area, the most famous of them being the Organ Pipe Cactus and giant Saguaros. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is located about two hours from Phoenix.

Barringer Crater, Arizona

Barringer Crater is a meteor crater near Winslow, Arizona, a popular tourist destination, and the source of endless speculations about the origin of this perfectly round giant hole in the ground. The first person to venture a guess that the hole was created by an impact from a meteor was Daniel Barringer, who gave it the name and whose family also owns the crater and the surrounding land. The big hole is 4,100 feet in diameter and 570 feet deep. It was created about 50,000 years ago by an asteroid about 130 feet wide. Scientists believe that the asteroid was a part of a larger asteroid that broke apart while passing through the atmosphere.

Barringer and other researchers found pieces of this space rock made of iron weighing from one to 1,000 pounds in a six-mile-diameter area around the crater. The latest theory is that the remaining rock hit the Earth at about 26,800 mph, creating the popular Arizona crater. Barringer Crater is one of the must see places in Arizona.

Montezuma Castle National Monument

Montezuma Castle is an awe-inspiring National Monument about 50 miles from Flagstaff, which tells the story of the intelligence, ingenuity, and resilience of people who built it thousands of years ago. It is a five-story dwelling cut into the soft limestone cliffs of Beaver Creek Canyon that is located 100 feet above the canyon floor. The castle consists of twenty very well preserved rooms built by fieldstone glued together by mud and clay mortar. Montezuma Castle National Monument is one of the top things to do in Arizona.

Montezuma Castle was probably built and occupied some time during the period between 1200 and 1450 AD at a time when there was an influx of Sinagua people from the north into the region. The name Montezuma Castle came from white settlers who believed that the ruins belonged to Aztecs – Montezuma was one of Aztec rulers.

Lake Powell, AZ

Lake Powell is a man-made reservoir on the Colorado River located on the border between Arizona and Utah. It was created when construction of the Glen Canyon Dam caused flooding of the Glen Canyon in 1972 and is one of the top Arizona destinations. The lake and the area around it are established as the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, today a very popular summer tourist destination. The reservoir got its name in honor of John Wesley Powell who explored the river in 1869 in wooden boats. Lake Powell also serves as water storage for Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, the Upper Basin states of the Colorado River Compact. The Compact obliges them to provide minimum of 7,500,000 feet of water annually to the Lower Basin states Arizona, California and Nevada. The lake offers many activities for tourists, including fishing, boating, jet skiing, waterskiing, romantic walks, and hiking. Video, website

Havasu Falls, AZ

Located close to the isolated village of Supai, the capital of the Havasupai Indian Reservation, Havasu Falls is a waterfall of the Havasu Creek which flows through the Havasupai land in the Havasu Canyon, a part of the Grand Canyon. If you are looking for waterfalls in Arizona to visit on vacation, this place is amazing.

Of the various waterfalls on the Havasu Creek, Havasu Falls is the most visited and most famous: it drops 100 feet (30 meters) down a vertical cliff into a beautiful blue green pool. The color comes from the high amount of calcium carbonate in the water. Visiting the village, the creek, and the waterfalls is popular but requires a two to three day hike.