A cowboy stretches out to fire his lasso at a calf during the calf roping competition at the Arizona Cowpuncher’s Reunion Association rodeo in Williams. | Bev Pettit
Keeping It Real
Officials wait at the chutes for the opening of the rodeo. “These cowboys and cowgirls use their own gear, ride their own horses and don’t compete for money,” Pettit says.   Williams entertains…
National Park Service Chief of Resources and Science Bill Parker logs artifacts that were strewn from vehicles on Historic Route 66 in Petrified Forest National Park during the 1950s. The paved road no longer exists. | Jeff Kida
Pick Of The Litter
It's easy to miss the old bed of Route 66 in Petrified Forest National Park, even though the Tawa Trail starting at the Painted Desert Visitor Center crosses directly over the top of it. The National…
With the snowy San Francisco Peaks in the background, a motorist heads west on the stretch of Route 66 between Williams and Parks, likely in the 1930s or ’40s. | NORMAN G. WALLACE/ARIZONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
One For The Road
Beneath the Painted Cliffs, travelers stop at an inspection station in Lupton, just across the Arizona-New Mexico state line, in 1938. A nearly identical shot appeared in John Ford’s 1940 film…
Master Diné silversmith Alvin Yellowhorse stands on the property of the former Ortega’s Indian Market in Lupton, with the Painted Cliffs behind him. | Joel Grimes
Previously, on Route 66
EAST OUT OF KINGMAN, I’m swimming upstream on Historic Route 66. It’s the weekend of the Route 66 Fun Run car rally, and two-toned Bel-Airs and big-finned Caddies, hot rods and pick-ups and stray VW…
A flock of birds is partially obscured by clouds as it flies upwards against a blue and white backdrop. By Norma Jean Gargasz
This Is My Story … By Norma Jean Gargasz
I made this photograph during a planned trip to Sabino Canyon. I routinely monitor the weather, and snow had been forecast overnight for the lower elevations in the region. When it snows at night in…
A presenter guides visitors on a tour of the night sky at Lowell Observatory. By Dawn Kish
Astronomy Discovery Center
Most planetariums are indoors, where images are projected onto a domed ceiling to create a digital facsimile of the cosmos. But there’s no ceiling above Lowell Observatory’s new Richard F. Caris Dark…
Light spills out of the Nankoweap granaries as the moon rises over the Colorado River at the Grand Canyon. | Adam Schallau
This Is My Story … By Adam Schallau
Moonrise Over Nankoweap was made on my first Colorado River trip, a photo expedition arranged and led by David Edwards. Dave created the opportunities, but being 80 years old at the time, he didn’t…
Photograph of a woman painting from an easel outside by a pond is by John Burcham
Sedona Plein Air Festival
The scene at D.A. Ranch in Cornville on this late-October afternoon couldn’t be more bucolic. The pastoral grounds of the vineyard feature a mirror-like pond that reflects weeping willows draped in…