Arizona's Best Vacation Spots
Places To See, Things To Do
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Some of the Best Vacation Spots in Arizona

One of the best vacation spots is Arizona, also known as the Grand Canyon State. Located in the American Southwest, Arizona has the Grand Canyon, along with 113,909 square miles of scenery, national forests, parks, monuments, and Indian reservations. California and Nevada border Arizona on the west, Utah on the north, New Mexico on the east, and Colorado on the northeast. Arizona shares its southern border with Mexico.

The terrain of Arizona will surprise you. Unlike the Sonora Desert of the south, the north is a high mountainous region with winter snows. In fact, 27% of Arizona is forest. The largest stand in the world of Ponderosa pine trees is contained in Arizona. Although we think of Arizona as desert, it has 350 square miles of water for recreation on Lake Havasu, Lake Powell, Lake Mead and the Colorado River. Everywhere are important landscape features, like the red rocks of Sedona, the tall, windswept towers of Monument Valley and the saguaro cactus desert valleys around Phoenix and Tucson. The low desert regions around Phoenix and Tucson are the best vacation spots to enjoy the mild climate during the fall, winter and spring. Mountain biking, hiking, rock climbing and camping are all popular in Arizona. Arizona is home to 22 Native American tribes that helped shape the history, culture and economy of the state. This state is famous for Native American art, blazing sunsets, coyotes and desert plants. Many Hollywood films have been made here.

Major Cities in Arizona with the Best Vacation Spots

These major cities in Arizona offer many of the best vacation spots.

1. The capital of Arizona is Phoenix, the fifth largest city in the United States, a sprawling metropolis surrounded by suburbs. It offers many of the best vacation spots, including the Arizona Science Center, Desert Botanical Garden, the Heard Museum of Native American Cultures, the Phoenix Art Museum and the Japanese Friendship Garden.
   
   Phoenix offers a full slate of cultural amenities and a full roster of professional sports for vacationers. You can enjoy baseball with the Diamondbacks, football with the NFL Cardinals, hockey with the NHL Phoenix Coyotes, and basketball with the NBA Phoenix Suns. During spring training, Phoenix is host to the Cactus League, nine major league baseball teams who play exhibition games here.
   
   
2. Tucson is the second largest city in Arizona and home to the University of Arizona. In the Sonora Desert of southern Arizona, Tucson has been occupied even 10,000 years ago. Between A.D. 200 and 1450, the Hohokam Native American culture dominated the area. Descendants of the Hohokam still remain here. Some of the best vacation spots in Tucson are the Sabino Canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains with a tram and hiking path. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, shows the zoology and botany of the desert, bears, coyotes, scorpions, hawks, and a walk-in aviary. The Saguaro National Park has the world's largest forests of Saguaro cactus. Old Tucson Studios, the wild west set where Hollywood filmed cowboy movies, is also a theme park. Astronomers can tour the Kitt Peak National Observatory and the Whipple Observatory. The Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil show is an international market held every winter at venues throughout the city. The Mission San Xavier del Bac the White Dove of the Desert iwas build in 1797.
   
   
3. Flagstaff is a high mountain town with a forest of ponderosa pine trees, near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It is also a popular winter ski destination. Some of the best vacation spots in Flagstaff are the Lowell Observatory, the Museum of Northern Arizona for American Indian folk art, the Arboretum, the Riordan Mansion, and the Pioneer Museum.
   
   
4. Visit Prescott, an historic old west town in central Arizona with a four-seasons climate. Whiskey Row is its celebrated former red-light district. Prescott hosts the world's oldest rodeo, begun in 1888.
   
   
5. Sedona, a town 120 miles north of Phoenix is known for its beautlful setting and the spectacular Red Rocks. At this vacation spot is a lively art and film community, and local Native American crafts. Spend time in Sedona to enjoy outdoor adventures like mountain biking, hiking and off-road biking.
   
   
6. Scottsdale is home to many galleries, high quality resorts, and golf courses. It is also one of the wealthier parts of the Phoenix Metro Area. High-end shopping destinations are one of the primary attractions here. The canals of Scottsdale were created to irrigate farms. Today they offer a scenic water view for walkers.Scottsdale is also known for Taliesin West the winter home of Frank Lloyd Wright, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park for children, Out of Africa Wildlife Park, and tours of the Sonora Desert. Fashion Square Mall is one of the largest malls in the US.

The Grand Canyon Vacation Spot

Grand Canyon National Park is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, and one of the best vacation spots in Arizona, and even in the United States. This spectacular gorge, a mile deep, and about 277 miles long, was carved in northern Arizona by the Colorado River which runs through it. The walls expose rock layers with two billion years of geological history. The South Rim is a popular vacation spot. At the bottom of the canyon, near the towering waterfalls, Mooney Falls and Havasu Falls, the Havasupi Indians live on their reservation. To reach the bottom of the canyon, you can hike its trails and camp at the bottom of the canyon, ride a mule 8 miles down, or take a whitewater raft trip through it on the Colorado River. Helicopter tours also offer excellent views and trips to the floor of the Canyon. For people on the canyon rim, the Watchtower building is a vantage point to view the scenery. Rare California Condor can be sighted here. Coyote, mule deer, mountain lions, bobcats, elk, big horn sheep and black bears are regular visitors.

The Grand Canyon Skywalk at Eagle Point is a glass-bottomed walkway extending out over the canyon. The Skywalk is reached by an unpaved road out of the town of Dolan Springs.

Some of the Best Vacation Spots in Arizona

1. Jerome is an old copper mining town between Prescott and Sedona. It is now one of the West's largest ghost towns and a National Historic District. Jerome is an artist colony and vacation spot where you can visit Mine Museum, art museums and galleries.
   
   
2. Take a vortex tour in Sedona. Sedona is home of five New Age vortexes, spots where the magnetism of the Earth is said to have special properties. Take a guided tour, or hike to the sites, and experience them for yourself. Many of the Red Rocks of Sedona have spiritual significance to the locals and native American Indians.
   
   
3. Barringer Meteor Crater is well-preserved Crater east of Flagstaff, a gigantic hole in the middle of the arid sandstone of the Arizona desert, probably created by the impact of a meteor from space. A rim of smashed and jumbled boulders rises 150 feet above the level of the surrounding plain. The crater itself is nearly a mile wide, and 570 feet deep. It could hold 20 football fields, and 2 million people.
   
   
4. Wupatki National Monument contains the pueblo homes built by the Anasazi and Sinagua Indians during the 12th and 13th centuries. Over 800 ancient ruins have been found. It is thirty miles northeast of Flagstaff and open to tourists. This monument also contains a relatively new volcano. The main eruption around 1064 C.E. built most of the cinder cone,
   
   
5. The Four Corners is a scenic vacation spot created at the juncture of four states, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico.
   
   
6. The Navajo Nation is the single largest Native American reservation in the United States. Its capital is Window Rock in northeast Arizona. These 27,000 square miles contain towns and trading posts where visitors are welcome. Authentic Navajo woven rugs, pottery and jewelry are for sale. Hubbell Trading Post is a National Historic Site in the Nation where an antique trading post can be seen. Watch Navajo ceremonial dances. Try fry bread, the typical Navajo food. Purchase your souvenirs at the trading posts. The Hopi Indian Reservation is on land inside the Navaho Nation.
   
   
7. The Painted Desert is a long expanse of badlands and buttes that stretches over 160 miles in Arizona. It begins near the southeastern rim of the Grand Canyon, and includes the Petrified Forest. As you drive through the Painted Desert, you can see nature's palette of color from purple to gray to vibrant colors of red, orange and pink. The colors come from sedimentary layers of bentonite clay and sandstone. The Painted Desert Visitor Center is 26 miles east of Holbrook and 115 miles east of Flagstaff. Combine this vacation spot with your visit to the Petrified Forest.
   
   
8. Wupatki National Monument near Flagstaff contains fine Native American ruins and cliff dwellings comparable to those of Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.
   
   
9. Montezuma Castle National Monument is a cliff dwelling of five stories and 20 rooms that was built into the cliffs. Nearby are the remains of a Sinquan Village and the Montezuma Well. There is no castle and Montezuma never visited here, but more than one million visitors come every year to marvel at these cliff community homes built by an ancient Indian tribe called the Sinaquas around 1300 AD. Montezuma Castle is about fifty miles south of Flagstaff.
   
   
10. Kartchner Caverns State Park in Tucson is a stunning limestone cave system which ranks as one of the top ten in the world. These caves were just discovered in 1974 in near-pristine condition.
    
    
11. Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is known for its Rainbow Bridge National Monument, a natural stone bridge formation.
    
    
12. Monument Valley is a famous example of the classic American West landscape with inspiring red rock formations. It is located within the Navajo Nation on the border of Arizona and Utah. Here, more than 100 sites have been discovered where the ancient Anasazi people lived until 1300 AD. Monument Valley has been the backdrop for thousands of western movies.
    
    
13. Travel the Grand Circle, a wide sweep of vacation spots in several states. The Grand Circle includes the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Mesa Verde, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef, Natural Bridges National Monument, Hovenweep, Arches National Park, and many other attractions.
    
    
14. Mount Lemmon is a famous sky island over 9,000 feet high in the Catalina Mountains about 45 minutes from Tucson. It is the best local spot to escape the summer heat of the southern desert.
    
    
15. Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook, Arizona, has the remains of pine trees turned to stone after millions of years of erosion, water and silica deposits. Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals once roamed here and left the impressive fossils that have been discovered.
    
    
16. You could spend an entire summer touring the National Monuments, the National Forests and the State Parks of Arizona. These vacation spots are too numerous to mention them all. They include Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Chiricahua National Monument, Four Corners Monument, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Parashant National Monument, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, to name a few.

I wish you a trip full of adventure and happy memories of the best vacation spots of Arizona.

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Arizona Best Vacation Spots





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