Karen Pugliesi, writer Annette McGivney and McGivney’s son, Austin, hike out of the Hellsgate Wilderness along Hellsgate Trail 37. By Elias Butler
There were plenty of sensible reasons to not go backpacking in Hellsgate Wilderness. For starters, the name raised suspicions that it could be a Godforsaken place. And then there was the fact that…
Paloverde trees and saguaro cactuses display their spring blossoms beneath rocky peaks in the Sonoran Desert. The photos accompanying this essay are from the 1940s, when the essay first appeared in Arizona Highways. | Tad Nichols
Editor’s Note: In March 1946, a few months after V-J Day, Editor Raymond Carlson made his return to our magazine. “With this issue,” he wrote, “the under-initialed returns to the editorship of…
Falling rain and a rainbow bring a dreamlike vibe to a view of Red Rock Country. Such otherworldly views may be part of the reason the Sedona area has become a destination for those seeking paranormal experiences. | Guy Schmickle
The designated meeting spot along West Sedona’s stretch of State Route 89A couldn’t be more normal: a souvenir shop next to a gas station selling coffee mugs, cactus candy and T-shirts featuring red…
Countless lupines and a smattering of Mexican goldpoppies surround agaves, ocotillos and saguaro cactuses on the side of King’s Crown Peak,  near Superior. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the peak was named by miners who felt the nearby Silver King Mine deserved a crown. By Paul Gill
A sego lily displays its delicate bloom along the Barnhardt Trail, a hiking route in Central Arizona’s Mazatzal Mountains. Found in several Western states, sego lilies…
Flame Delhi, shown during his time with the Pacific Coast League’s San Francisco Seals, didn’t last long in Major League Baseball. But his one appearance — with the Chicago White Sox in 1912 — did make him the first Arizona native to reach the big leagues. ARIZONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS;  PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY KEITH WHITNEY
Hard out of the small town of Harqua, Arizona, Flame Delhi was a natural. “Born in the heat of the alkali country,” as one newspaper rhapsodized, Delhi stood over 6 feet tall and weighed in at a…
Sunrise illuminates a group of seven cranes as they fly in front of the full moon. By Jack Dykinga
Ever since I began my career as a news photographer in Chicago in the 1960s, I’ve felt that photography is something I’d do for free. (It’s nice to be paid for it, though.) For me, this art form goes…
Lindsey Egan (left) and Melissa Wright pose in a desert setting with the Superstition Mountains in the background. By Shondiin Mayor
Melissa Wright saw her life branching out before her like a green fig tree. Mirroring a passage in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, she was overwhelmed by the figs she could have chosen, each…
California condors scavenging
Arizona's largest Indigenous tribe has joined an effort that aims to prevent scavenging animals from suffering lead poisoning from eating the remains of animals shot by hunters. The Navajo Nation's…