PARK YOURSELF

A guide to Arizona's national parks, monuments, historic sites, recreation areas and more.

EDITED BY ROBERT STIEVE ILLUSTRATION BY JEN BANCINO Although Ken Burns is usually credited with the quote, it was Wallace Stegner who first proclaimed, “National parks are the best idea we ever had.” If you've ever watched a sunset from Point Sublime or hiked to the ancient ruins at Keet Seel or photographed goldpoppies in Organ Pipe, you get it. Some of Arizona's most important people, places and things are preserved within our national parks. This month, the National Park Service celebrates its 105th anniversary, and we're joining in with a focus on Arizona's 22 national parks, which range in size from 40 acres to 1.5 million. Because there's some jurisdictional crossover in the management of the parks, we included only those units managed by the Park Service. Therefore, you won't see anything about Agua Fria, Ironwood Forest, Sonoran Desert or Vermilion Cliffs national monuments, which are managed by the Bureau of Land Management, or Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area, which is managed by a nonprofit group. Also, we left out Hohokam Pima National Monument, a Park Service unit that's closed to the public. In addition, please note that at press time, parks on the Navajo Nation remain closed to due to precautions related to COVID-19. Please respect those closures. And please adhere to the Leave No Trace ethics whenever you visit our national parks.

The National Parks of ARIZONA