Things To Do in Arizona - National Parks

Canyon De Chelly National Monument - At the base of sheer red cliffs and in canyon wall caves are ruins of Indian villages built between AD 350 and 1300. Canyon de Chelly National Monument offers visitors the chance to learn about Southwestern Indian history from the earliest basketmakers to the Navajo Indians who live and farm here.

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area - Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (NRA) offers unparalleled opportunities for water-based & backcountry recreation. The recreation area stretches for hundreds of miles from Lees Ferry in Arizona to the Orange Cliffs of southern Utah, encompassing scenic vistas, geologic wonders, and a panorama of human history. The park offers opportunities for boating, fishing, swimming, backcountry hiking and four-wheel drive trips.

Grand Canyon National Park - Located entirely in northern Arizona, the park encompasses 277 miles of the Colorado River and adjacent uplands. One of the most spectacular examples of erosion anywhere in the world, Grand Canyon is unmatched in the incomparable vistas it offers to visitors on the rim. Grand Canyon National Park is a World Heritage Site.

Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site - As the oldest continuously operating trading post on the Navajo Reservation, Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site offers the visitor a chance to experience a piece of history. The trading post was purchased by John Lorenzo Hubbell in 1878, and the Hubbell family operated the post until it was sold to the National Park Service in 1967. The site consists of the original 160 acre homestead, with the trading post, family home and visitor center as the primary attractions.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area - Lake Mead National Recreation Area (NRA) offers a wealth of things to do and places to go year-round. Its huge lakes cater to boaters, swimmers, sunbathers, and fishermen while its desert rewards hikers, wildlife photographers, and roadside sightseers. Three of America's four desert ecosystems--the Mojave, the Great Basin, and the Sonoran Deserts--meet in Lake Mead NRA.

Navajo National Monument - Navajo National Monument preserves three of the most-intact cliff dwellings of the Anasazi (Hisatsinom). The monument is high on the Shonto Plateau, overlooking the Tsegi Canyon system in the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona. The monument features a visitor center, two short self-guided mesa top trails, a small campground, and picnic area. In the summer, Rangers guide visitors on tours of the Keet Seel and Betatakin cliff dwellings.

Old Spanish National Historic Trail - The Old Spanish Trail was a pack mule trail linking land-locked New Mexico with coastal California between 1829 and 1848. Over this trail moved people, goods, and ideas. Recognizing the national significance of this historic long distance trade route, in 2002 Congress designated it the Old Spanish National Historic Trail.

Parashant National Monument - Parashant National Monument, located on the northern edge of the Grand Canyon was established by presidential proclamation on January 11, 2000. This remote area of open, undeveloped spaces is an impressive and diverse landscape that includes an array of scientific and historic resources.

Petrified Forest National Park - Petrified Forest is a surprising land of scenic wonders and fascinating science. The park is located in northeast Arizona and features one of the world's largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood. Also included in the park's 93,533 acres are the multi-hued badlands of the Chinle Formation known as the Painted Desert, historic structures, archeological sites and displays of 225 million-year-old fossils.

Pipe Spring National Monument - Pipe Spring National Monument, a little known gem of the National Park System, is rich with American Indian, early explorer and Mormon pioneer history. The water of Pipe Spring has made it possible for plants, animals, and people to live in this dry, desert region.

Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument - Here, past meets present. Pueblos and cliff dwellings are so well preserved that it's hard to believe their builders moved on 700 years ago. Amid lava and cinders, one can imagine a landscape still hot to the touch. There is something for everyone: prehistoric cliff dwellings at Walnut Canyon, the mountain scenery and geology of Sunset Crater Volcano, and the painted desert landscape and masonry pueblos of Wupatki National Monument.

Walnut Canyon National Monument - Hike down into Walnut Canyon and walk in the footsteps of the people that lived here over 900 years ago. Under limestone overhangs, the Sinagua built their homes. These single story structures, cliff dwellings, were occupied from about 1100 to 1250.

Wupatki National Monument - Less than 800 years ago, a large agricultural community spread across this volcanic plateau. The warm, arid climate and sparse vegetation today make the successes of these pueblo farmers remarkable. Here you'll see stunning artistry in masonry pueblos that emerge from bedrock to stand several stories high.

West Coast

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Juan Bautista De Anza National Historic Trail - The national trail commemorates the route followed by Anza in 1775-76 when he led a contingent of 30 soldiers and their families to found a presidio and mission on the San Francisco Bay. Along the trail route, visitors can experience the varied landscapes; learn the stories of the expedition, its members, and descendants; better understand the American Indian role in the expedition and the diversity of their cultures; and appreciate the extent of the effects of Spanish colonial settlement of Arizona and California.

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Montezuma Castle National Monument - Nestled into a limestone recess high above the flood plain of Beaver Creek in the Verde Valley stands one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America. The five-story, 20-room cliff dwelling served as a "high-rise apartment building" for prehistoric Sinagua Indians over 600 years ago. Early settlers to the area assumed that the imposing structure was associated with the Aztec emperor Montezuma, but the castle was abandoned almost a century before Montezuma was born.

Tonto National Monument - Well-preserved cliff dwellings were occupied by the Salado culture during the 13th, 14th, and early 15th centuries. The people farmed in the Salt River Valley and supplemented their diet by hunting and gathering native wildlife and plants. The Salado were fine craftsmen, producing some of the most exquisite polychrome pottery and intricately woven textiles to be found in the Southwest. Many of these objects are on display in the Visitor Center museum.

Tuzigoot National Monument - Tuzigoot is an ancient village or pueblo built by a culture known as the Sinagua. The pueblo consisted of 110 rooms including second and third story structures. The first buildings were built around A.D. 1000. The Sinagua were agriculturalists with trade connections that spanned hundreds of miles. The people left the area around 1400. The site is currently comprised of 42 acres.

Phoenix & Central

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Casa Grande Ruins National Monument - For over a thousand years, prehistoric farmers inhabited much of the present-day state of Arizona. When the first Europeans arrived, all that remained of this ancient culture were the ruins of villages, irrigation canals and various artifacts. Among these ruins is the Casa Grande, or "Big House," one of the largest and most mysterious prehistoric structures ever built in North America.

Tucson & Southern

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Chiricahua National Monument - Twenty seven million years ago a volcanic eruption of immense proportions shook the land around Chiricahua National Monument. One thousand times greater than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, the Turkey Creek Caldera eruption eventually laid down two thousand feet of highly silicious ash and pumice. This mixture fused into a rock called rhyolitic tuff and eventually eroded into the spires and unusual rock formations of today.

Coronado National Memorial - Commemorating the first major exploration of the American Southwest by Europeans, Coronado National Memorial lies on the United States-Mexico border within sight of the San Pedro River Valley, through which the Coronado Expedition first entered the present U.S. in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola. It is a cultural area situated in a natural setting comprised of 4,750 acres of oak woodlands.

Fort Bowie National Historic Site - Fort Bowie commemorates in its 1,000 acres, the story of the bitter conflict between the Chiricahua Apaches and the United States military. For more than 30 years Fort Bowie and Apache Pass were the focal point of military operations eventually culminating in the surrender of Geronimo in 1886 and the banishment of the Chiricahuas to Florida and Alabama. It was the site of the Bascom Affair, a wagon train massacre, and the battle of Apache Pass, where a large force of Chiricahua Apaches under Mangus Colorados and Cochise fought the California Volunteers.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument - Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument celebrates the life and landscape of the Sonoran Desert. Here, in this desert wilderness of plants and animals and dramatic mountains and plains scenery, you can drive a lonely road, hike a backcountry trail, camp beneath a clear desert sky, or just soak in the warmth and beauty of the Southwest.

Saguaro National Park - The saguaro has been described as the monarch of the Sonoran Desert, as a prickly horror, as the supreme symbol of the American Southwest, and as a plant with personality. Giant saguaro cacti, unique to the Sonoran Desert, sometimes reach a height of 50 feet in this cactus forest, which covers the valley floor, rising into the Rincon and West Tucson mountains. Since 1933 this extraordinary giant cactus has been protected within Saguaro National Park.

Tumacácori National Historic Park - Tumacácori National Historical Park, located in the Santa Cruz River Valley in southern Arziona, is the site of one of the oldest Spanish missions in the Southwest. The 45-acre park consists of three distinct units: Tumacácori, Guevavi, and Calabazas.

Arizona National Parks