Thread:61Storm/@comment-29709319-20190621035327

National Themes For June 21: National Peaches ‘N’ Cream Day, National Day of the Gong, Go Skateboarding Day, National Daylight Appreciation Day, National Selfie Day, National Take Back the Lunch Break Day, National Seashell Day, Summer Begins, Take Your Dog to Work Day, and 🇺🇸National Arizona Day.

🍑National Peaches ‘n’ Cream Day! Peaches ‘n’ Cream is a simple, traditional and delicious summertime dessert. Of course, the Georgia peach is in season during the month of June, as are those grown in Florida, California and South Carolina. Make some homemade vanilla ice cream to sweeten the deal and your peaches ‘n’ cream will be all the cooler. It’s interesting to note that doctors theorize Typhoid Mary may have spread the bacteria through cut up raw peaches in frozen ice cream. So, wash those hands vigorously!

🎼National Day of the Gong honors and celebrates the Gong’s unique history and capacities among instruments of sound, music, creativity and healing. Mighty and gentle; earthy and celestial, the Gong is an extraordinary instrument and conduit of Creation. With an extensive international cultural history, the Gong is versatile and engaging. It sounds super-sensory and multi-dimensional. Gongs come in an array of sizes, designs and origins, thanks to skilled artisans all over the World. Expanding beyond typical applications, the Gong has become a profound presence within a delightful diversity of performances, ceremonies and events, as well as modalities for the Mind-Body-Spirit. Traditional and contemporary musicians, artists and facilitators play and incorporate the Gong into imaginative and effective spectrums of expression, experience and purpose.

🏂Go Skateboarding Day! Retailers, sponsors, parks and individuals around the world host events showcasing this rebellious and creative culture. A combination of athleticism, dance, and art that has grown up in an urban world, skateboarding has crossed multicultural divides and speaks to a diverse population. Both thrilling and exciting to watch whether the skater is testing the laws of gravity with an aerial or a McTwist. Since the 1940s skateboarding has been changing and advancing equipment, tricks, and techniques. Founded in 2004 by the International Association of Skateboard Companies in California, this day has grown into a worldwide celebration of the sport.

🕕National Daylight Appreciation Day recognizes summer solstice (the longest day of daylight in the northern hemisphere) and encourages people to celebrate the many benefits of the sun and to learn more about the importance of daylighting. Daylighting is using skylights, windows and other architectural openings to natural light interior spaces. Doing so helps not only to reduce energy consumption but may also have health benefits. Some areas are designed with automatic dimming systems when natural light is present, which reduces the amount of artificial light required. The process is known as daylight harvesting. Daylight has positive psychological effects; it can boost your mental health and help to lower depression as well as help with increased energy levels. The Vitamin D that we naturally get from the sun has many health benefits for us. Enjoy the summer solstice, enjoy the sunshine and let the sunshine into your heart.

📷National Selfie Day is to encourage oneself to take creative (appropriate) selfies and share them on social media. While the act of taking a selfie may predate social media, smartphones and the word which is now in the Oxford dictionary, the popularity of taking these self-portraits and the ability to do so has never been easier. Selfie sticks and multi-functional camera phones make it all too easy to take these kinds of photographs as well as group selfies (aka groupies).

🍽National Take Back the Lunch Break Day encourages workers to take back their lunch breaks. Why? Because there’s been an increasing trend to take less frequent and shorter lunch breaks, affecting employee morale and well-being. According to Gallup, only one in three employees are engaged at work. Because engagement affects productivity, happiness and job satisfaction. According to a 2017 study commissioned by Tork, an Essity brand, employees who take lunch breaks are more likely to report being efficient at work and satisfied with their jobs. The survey reveals that nearly 90 percent of employees consider the ability to take a lunch break critical when accepting a new job. However, once they are on the job, the average lunch break is less than 30 minutes for more than half of North American workers, barely enough time to purchase a meal, let alone enjoy it. That is why Tork created National Take Back the Lunch Break Day, to help improve workplace morale, satisfaction, and productivity across North America.

🐚National Seashell Day reminds us to put our toes in the sand and admire the beauty of seashells. Shellers get ready to shellebrate and start shelling! To those not in the know, shellers are beachcombers who collect seashells by scouring the beaches for the gems left behind by snails and mollusks. National Seashell Day is here to tell you all about it and make sure you check out your local beaches during the prime shelling season. For a sheller, the true tulip or lettered olive is almost more mesmerizing than the ocean sunset. Or maybe it’s the hunt for the rare or the unique specimen. These jewels of the sandy beaches, the kings crown conch, the apple murex, or even a pear whelk dazzle beachcombers. Their names are as musical and colorful as your adventure will be, so grab your bucket and head out around sunrise or sunset. Tips for Shellers: ✨Never collect live shells. When in doubt, always put them gently back in the water. ✨Check local ordinances. Only take a small number. Shells are part of the ecosystem helping to preserve and create the beaches we enjoy visiting. ✨The best time for shelling is one hour before and one hour after low tide. ✨Follow the high tide shell line where the largest waves stop. ✨Watch for the full and new moons. They have a higher gravitation pull on the tide and reveal more seashells. ✨Storms churn up the ocean floor sending more shells to the surface and the shore for collection.

🌞Summer Begins! The longest day of the year marks the Beginning of Summer in the Northern Hemisphere which starts on June 20th, 21st or 22nd. It is also known as the Summer Solstice. Summer Begins on different dates depending on times zones, the latest start date occurring on June 22nd.

🇺🇸Arizona is a state in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the Western and the Mountain states. It is the sixth largest by area and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona shares the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. It's Nickname(s): The Grand Canyon State, The Copper State, and The Valentine State, Motto: God enriches, State song(s): "The Arizona March Song" and "Arizona". Arizona's highest point is Humphreys Peak at 12,637 ft (3852 m). It's lowest point is the Colorado River at the Sonora border at 72 ft (22 m). Living insignia; Amphibian: 🐸Arizona tree frog, Bird: 🕊Cactus wren, Butterfly: 🦋Two-tailed swallowtail, Fish: 🐟Apache trout, Flower: 🌵Saguaro cactus blossom (Saguaros can grow over 40 feet (12 m) tall), Mammal: 🐱Ring-tailed cat, Reptile: 🐍Arizona ridge-nosed rattlesnake, Tree: 🌳Palo verde. Inanimate insignia; Colors: Blue, old gold, Firearm: 🔫Colt Single Action Army revolver, Fossil: Petrified wood, Gemstone: Turquoise, Mineral: Fire agate, Rock: Petrified wood, Ship: ⛴USS Arizona, Slogan: The Grand Canyon State. In 1539, Marcos de Niza, a Spanish Franciscan, explored parts of the present state and made first contact with native inhabitants, probably the Sobaipuri. The expedition of Spanish explorer Coronado entered the area in 1540–1542 during its search for Cíbola. Father Kino was the next European in the region and he converted many of the Indians to Christianity in what is now southern Arizona and northern Sonora in the 1690s and early 18th century. Spain founded fortified towns at Tubac in 1752 and Tucson in 1775. When Mexico achieved its independence from the Kingdom of Spain and its Spanish Empire in 1821, what is now Arizona became part of its Territory of New California. During the Mexican–American War (1847–1848), the U.S. Army occupied the national capital of Mexico City and pursued its claim to much of northern Mexico, including what later became Arizona Territory in 1863 and later the State of Arizona in 1912. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) specified that the U.S. pay the Republic of Mexico US$15 million dollars in compensation. The Southern territory of Arizona supplied the Confederate government with men, horses, and equipment. Formed in 1862, Arizona scout companies served with the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. Arizona has the westernmost military engagement on record during the Civil War with the Battle of Picacho Pass. The first territorial capital, Prescott, was founded in 1864 following a gold rush to central Arizona. The capital was later moved to Tucson, back to Prescott, and then to its final location in Phoenix in a series of controversial moves as different regions of the territory gained and lost political influence with the growth and development of the territory. During the nineteenth century, a series of gold and silver rushes occurred in the territory, the best known being the 1870s stampede to the silver bonanzas of Tombstone, Arizona. The boom and bust economy of mining also left hundreds of ghost towns across the territory, but copper mining continued to prosper with the territory producing more copper than any other state by 1907. The state continues to produce half of the nation's newly mined copper. During the Mexican Revolution from 1910 to 1920 only two significant engagements took place on U.S. soil, Pancho Villa's 1916 Columbus Raid in New Mexico, and the Battle of Ambos Nogales in 1918 in Arizona. The Americans won the latter. Arizona became a U.S. state on February 14, 1912. Arizona was the 48th state admitted to the U.S. and the last of the contiguous states to be admitted. Arizona was the site of German POW camps during World War II and Japanese-American internment camps. Arizona was also home to the Phoenix Indian School, one of several federal Indian boarding schools designed to assimilate Native American children into mainstream European-American culture. Numerous Native Americans from Arizona fought for the United States during World War II. In the 1960s, retirement communities were developed. These age-restricted subdivisions catered exclusively to the needs of senior citizens and attracted many retirees who wanted to escape the harsh winters of the Midwest and the Northeast. Sun City, established by developer Del Webb and opened in 1960, was one of the first such communities. Green Valley, south of Tucson, was another such community, designed as a retirement subdivision for Arizona's teachers. Many senior citizens from across the U.S. and Canada come to Arizona each winter and stay only during the winter months; they are referred to as snowbirds. Three ships named USS Arizona have been christened in honor of the state, although only USS Arizona (BB-39) was so named after statehood was achieved. Higher Education: 📚Arizona is served by three public universities: The University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University. These schools are governed by the Arizona Board of Regents. 📚Private higher education in Arizona is dominated by a large number of for-profit and "chain" (multi-site) universities. 📚Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott and Prescott College are Arizona's only non-profit four-year private colleges. 📚Arizona has a wide network of two-year vocational schools and community colleges. These colleges were governed historically by a separate statewide Board of Directors but, in 2002, the state legislature transferred almost all oversight authority to individual community college districts. The Maricopa County Community College District includes 11 community colleges throughout Maricopa County and is one of the largest in the nation. Professional sports teams in Arizona include: 🍃Arizona Cardinals, National Football League, 🍃Phoenix Suns National, Basketball Association, 🍃Arizona Diamondback, Major League Baseball, 🍃Arizona Coyotes, National Hockey League, 🍃Phoenix Rising FC, United Soccer League, 🍃Phoenix Mercury, Women's National Basketball Association. State Farm Stadium hosted Super Bowl XLII on February 3, 2008, and Super Bowl XLIX on February 1, 2015. Due to its numerous golf courses, Arizona is home to several stops on the PGA Tour, most notably the Phoenix Open, held at the TPC of Scottsdale, and the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Marana. Auto racing is another sport known in the state. Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale is home to NASCAR race weekends twice a year. Firebird International Raceway near Chandler is home to drag racing and other motorsport events. Climate: Due to its large area and variations in elevation, the state has a wide variety of localized climate conditions. About midway through February, the temperatures start to rise, with warm days, and cool, breezy nights. The summer months of June through September bring a dry heat from 90 to 120°F (32 to 49°C), with occasional high temperatures exceeding 125°F (52°C) having been observed in the desert area. Arizona's all-time record high is 128°F (53°C) recorded at Lake Havasu City on June 29, 1994, and July 5, 2007; the all-time record low of -40°F (-40°C) was recorded at Hawley Lake on January 7, 1971. Arizona has an average annual rainfall of 12.7 in (323 mm). It is rare for tornadoes or hurricanes to occur in Arizona. With the variation in Arizona's climate it is the state which has both the metropolitan area with the most days over 100°F (38 °C) (Phoenix), and the metropolitan area in the lower 48 states with the most days with a low temperature below freezing (Flagstaff). 1️⃣Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon on Navajo land east of Page, Arizona. Antelope Canyon includes two separate, scenic slot canyon sections, referred to individually as Upper Antelope Canyon, and Lower Antelope Canyon. The Navajo name for Upper Antelope Canyon is Tsé bighánílíní, which means 'the place where water runs through rocks'. Lower Antelope Canyon is called Hasdestwazi by the Navajo, or 'spiral rock arches'. Both are in the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation. The canyons are accessible by Guided Tour Only. Antelope Canyon was formed by erosion of Navajo Sandstone, primarily due to flash flooding and secondarily due to other sub-aerial processes. Rainwater, especially during monsoon season, runs into the extensive basin above the slot canyon sections, picking up speed and sand as it rushes into the narrow passageways. Over time the passageways eroded away, making the corridors deeper and smoothing hard edges in such a way as to form characteristic "flowing" shapes in the rock. Flooding in the canyon still occurs. A flood occurred on October 30, 2006, that lasted 36 hours, and caused the Tribal Park Authorities to close Lower Antelope Canyon for five months. Antelope Canyon is a popular location for photographers and sightseers, and a source of tourism business for the Navajo Nation. It has been accessible by tour only since 1997, when the Navajo Tribe made it a Navajo Tribal Park. All visits are through one of several licensed tour operators. It is not possible to visit the Canyon independently. Photography within the canyons is difficult due to the wide range exposure range (often 10 EV or more) made by light reflecting off the canyon walls. Upper Antelope Canyon is the most frequently visited by tourists for two reasons. First, its entrance and entire length are at ground level, requiring no climbing. Second, beams or shafts of direct sunlight radiating down from openings at the top of the canyon are much more common in Upper than in Lower. Beams occur most often in the summer months, as they require the sun to be high in the sky. Winter colors are more muted. Summer months provide two types of lighting. Light beams start to peek into the canyon March 20 and disappear October 7 each year. Lower Antelope Canyon, is located several miles from Upper Antelope Canyon. Prior to the installation of metal stairways, visiting the canyon required climbing along pre-installed ladders in certain areas. Even following the installation of stairways, it is a more difficult hike than Upper Antelope. It is longer, narrower in spots, and even footing is not available in all areas. Five flights of stairs of varying step widths are currently available to aid in descent and ascent. At the end, the climb out requires flights of stairs. Additionally, visitors should be aware of sand which consistently falls from the above crack as it can make the stairs particularly slippery. Despite these limitations, Lower Antelope Canyon draws a considerable number of photographers, though casual sightseers are much less common there. Specific photographer-only tours are available for booking around midday, when the beam of light is at its peak. Photographers are required to bring a tripod to participate. The lower canyon is in the shape of a "V" and shallower than the Upper Antelope. Lighting is better in the early hours and late morning. Antelope Canyon is visited exclusively through guided tours, in part because rains during monsoon season can quickly flood the canyon. Rain does not have to fall on or near the Antelope Canyon slots for flash floods to whip through, as rain falling dozens of miles away upstream of the canyons can funnel into them with little prior notice. 2️⃣The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum located in Phoenix, Arizona, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. The museum presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitions of traditional and contemporary art by American Indian artists and artists influenced by American Indian art. The Heard Museum collaborates with American Indian artists and tribal communities on providing visitors with a distinctive perspective about the art of Native people, especially those from the Southwest. The mission of the Heard Museum is to be "the world's preeminent museum for the presentation, interpretation and advancement of American Indian art, emphasizing its intersection with broader artistic and cultural themes." The main Phoenix location of the Heard Museum has been designated as a Phoenix Point of Pride. The Heard Museum was founded in 1929 by Dwight B. and Maie Bartlett Heard to house their personal collection of art. Much of the archaeological material in the Heards' collection came from La Ciudad Indian ruin, which the Heards purchased in 1926 at 19th and Polk streets in Phoenix. From its start as a small museum in a small southwestern town, the Heard has grown in size and stature to where now it is recognized internationally for the quality of its collections, its educational programming and its festivals. The current collection of the Heard Museum consists of over 40,000 items including a library and archives with over 34,000 volumes. The museum has over 130,000 square feet (12,000 m²) of gallery, classroom, and performance space. Some exhibits include: 🍃Home: Native Peoples in the Southwest. 🍃The Mareen Allen Nichols Collection containing 260 pieces of contemporary jewelry. 🍃The Barry Goldwater Collection of 437 historic Hopi katsina dolls. An exhibition on the 19th century boarding school experiences of Native Americans. According to the New York Times, the exhibit admirably "captures the little-known experience of thousands of children bused, sometimes forcibly, from their reservations to government schools in order to erase their culture and "civilize" them. Haunting photographs, old uniforms, oral interviews and memorabilia offer a powerful look at this chapter in history." The Heard is an affiliate in the Smithsonian Affiliations program. The director of the museum from January 2010 through July 2012 was Dr. Letitia Chambers, the first Heard director to be of American Indian descent. From August 5, 2013 to February 27, 2015, the museum was led by James Pepper Henry, a member of the Kaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Muscogee Creek Nation. The museum is now led by David M. Roche, who began his tenure January, 2016. The museum is a member of the North American Reciprocal Museums program. Festivals: The Heard hosts the annual El Mercado de Las Artes, usually in November, with strolling mariachis and artwork by Hispanic artists from Arizona and New Mexico including santos, pottery, colcha embroidery, furniture making, painting, printmaking and silver and tinwork. The Heard also hosts the annual World Championship Hoop Dance Contest, typically held in early February. The Indian Fair and Market (since 1958) is held annually in March and features over 600 Native American artists, and includes a juried competition for the best artwork of the fair appropriately called "Best of Show." Approved artists compete in eight classifications: Jewelry and Lapidary Work; Pottery; Paintings, Drawings, Graphics, Photography; Wooden Carvings; Sculpture; Textiles/Weavings/Clothing; Diverse Art Forms; and Baskets. The judges of this competition come from a diverse range of occupations including experienced artists, museum curators, gallery directors, and art collectors. All have in-depth experience in judging artwork, and the majority of these judges come from American Indian tribes. Awards and cash prizes are given for Best of Show, Best of Division (first and second place), and an additional Conrad House award. The judges also confer a Judge's Choice ribbon and an Honorable Mention ribbon. 3️⃣Mystery Castle is located in the city of Phoenix, Arizona, in the foothills of South Mountain Park. It was built in the 1930s by Boyce Luther Gulley for his daughter Mary Lou Gulley. After learning he had tuberculosis, Gulley moved from Seattle to the Phoenix area and began building the house from found or inexpensive materials. Boyce Gulley died in 1945, and Mary Lou and her mother were notified by attorney that they had inherited the property. Shortly after, the mother and daughter moved in. Their story attracted attention, giving the home some notoriety as well as its exotic name: A Life Magazine story (January 26, 1948) used the headline "Life Visits a Mystery Castle: A Young Girl Rules Over the Strange Secrets of a Fairy Tale Dream House in the Arizona Desert." The photograph featured Mary Lou posing atop the cantilever staircase leading to the roof of the house. That same year, Mary Lou and her mother began offering tours of the home. Said to be held together by a combination of mortar, cement, calcium, and goat milk, the sprawling 18-room, three story castle is built from a wide range of materials: stone, adobe, automobile parts, salvaged rail tracks from a mine, telephone poles, etc. It features a chapel, cantina, and a dungeon. Parts of the castle remain unfinished, and electricity and plumbing weren't added until 1992. As the housing boom progressed in Phoenix, new development encroached close to the castle and its grounds, making it far less isolated. Mary Lou Gulley died on November 3, 2010. The property is now maintained by the Mystery Castle Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization. The Mystery Castle has been designated as a Phoenix Point of Pride. 4️⃣Montezuma Castle National Monument protects a set of well-preserved dwellings located in Camp Verde, Arizona which were built and used by the Sinagua people, a pre-Columbian culture closely related to the Hohokam and other indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States, between approximately 1100 and 1425 AD. The main structure comprises five stories and about 45 to 60 rooms and was built over the course of three centuries. Neither part of the monument's name is correct. When European-Americans first observed the ruins in the 1860s, by then long-abandoned, they named them for the famous Aztec emperor Montezuma in the mistaken belief that he had been connected to their construction. In fact, the dwelling was abandoned more than 40 years before Montezuma was born, and was not a "castle" in the traditional sense, but instead functioned more like a "prehistoric high rise apartment complex". Montezuma Castle is situated about 90 feet (27 m) up a sheer limestone cliff, facing the adjacent Beaver Creek, which drains into the perennial Verde River just north of Camp Verde. It is one of the best-preserved cliff dwellings in North America, in part because of its ideal placement in a natural alcove that protects it from exposure to the elements. The precariousness of the dwelling's location and its immense scale of floor space across five stories suggest that the Sinagua were daring builders and skilled engineers. Access into the structure was most likely permitted by a series of portable ladders, which made it difficult for enemy tribes to penetrate the natural defense of the vertical cliff. But maybe the main reason the Sinagua chose to build the Castle so far above the ground, however, was to escape the threat of natural disaster in the form of the annual flooding of Beaver Creek. During the summer monsoon season, the creek frequently breached its banks, inundating the floodplain with water. The Sinagua recognized the importance of these floods to their agriculture, but likely also the potential destruction they presented to any structures built in the floodplain. Their solution was to build a permanent structure in the high recess afforded by the limestone cliff. The walls of Montezuma Castle are examples of early stone-and-mortar masonry, constructed almost entirely from chunks of limestone found at the base of the cliff, as well as mud and/or clay from the creek bottom. The ceilings of the rooms also incorporated sectioned timbers as a kind of roof thatching, obtained primarily from the Arizona sycamore, a large hardwood tree native to the Verde Valley. Evidence of permanent dwellings like those at Montezuma Castle begins to appear in the archaeological record of Arizona's Verde Valley about 1050 AD, though the first distinctly Sinagua culture may have occupied the region as early as 700 AD. The area was briefly abandoned due to the eruption of Sunset Crater Volcano, about 60 miles (97 km) to the north, in the mid-11th century. Though the short-term impact may have been destructive, it is possible that nutrient-rich sediment deposited by the volcano may have aided more expansive agricultural endeavors in the decades following the eruption. During the interim, the Sinagua lived in the surrounding highlands and sustained themselves on small-scale agriculture dependent on rain. After 1125, the Sinagua resettled the Verde Valley, utilizing the reliable watershed of the Verde River alongside irrigation systems left by previous inhabitants, perhaps including Hohokam peoples, to support more widespread farming. Construction of the Castle itself is thought to have begun around this time, though the building efforts probably occurred gradually, level-by-level, over many generations. The region's population likely peaked around 1300 AD, with the Castle housing between 30 and 50 people in at least 20 separate rooms. A neighboring segment of the same cliff wall suggests the existence of an even larger dwelling (referred to as "Castle A") around the same time, of which only the stone foundations have survived. The discovery of Castle A in 1933 revealed many Sinagua artifacts and greatly increased understanding of their way of life. The latest estimated date of occupation for any Sinagua site comes from Montezuma Castle, around 1425 AD. After this date, like other cultural groups in the southwestern United States, the Sinagua people appear to have abandoned their permanent settlements and migrated elsewhere. The reasons for the abandonment of these sites are unclear, but drought, resource depletion, and clashes with the newly arrived Yavapai people have been suggested. As a result of the very little human contact since the abandonment of the Sinagua people in 1425 AD, the Montezuma Castle remained well preserved. Due to heavy looting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, very few original artifacts survive from Montezuma Castle, though other Sinagua sites have remained more or less intact. Because of the rise in settlers, tourists and industries in or surrounding the Montezuma Castle, the monument and even Verde Valley have been threats to the preservation of the Montezuma Castle. Plants and Animals: Due to the lack of basic knowledge on the natural resources of the National Parks, the National Park Service created a program in order to record and identify any changes in the environment and its inhabitants. The inventory of plants and animals of the Montezuma Castle were done between 1991 and 1994 by a collaborative project between researchers from Northern Arizona University and the United States Geological Survey. According to the United States Geological Survey, there have been about 784 species recorded at the Montezuma Castle National Monument. The species that were recorded vary from plants, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. From those 784 species recorded, only 11% of them were non-native. The monument itself encloses 860 acres near the geographic center of Arizona and the intersection of the Colorado Plateau and Basin and Range physiographic provinces. The dwellings and the surrounding area were declared a U.S. National Monument on December 8, 1906 as a result of the American Antiquities Act, signed earlier that year. It is one of the four original sites designated National Monuments by President Theodore Roosevelt. Montezuma Castle was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. It is an easy monument to visit, just a short distance off Interstate 17, at exit 289. There is a 1⁄3 mile (0.54 km) paved trail starting at the visitor center that follows the base of the cliff containing the ruins. Access to the interior of the ruins has not been allowed since 1951 due to concerns about visitor safety and damage to the dwelling. The park is open from 8am to 5pm every day of the year, except for Christmas Day. The visitor center includes a museum about the Sinagua culture and the tools they used to build the dwellings. The museum houses many artifacts, such as stone tools, metates used for grinding corn, bone needles, and ornaments of shell and gemstone, which prove that the Sinagua were fine artisans as well as prolific traders. There is also a Park Store operated by Western National Parks Association. Montezuma Well, a natural limestone sinkhole, measuring approximately 100 by 120 yards, also containing Sinagua dwellings, was purchased by the federal government in 1947 and is considered a detached unit of Montezuma Castle National Monument. It is located about 5 miles north of the Castle near the town of Rimrock, Arizona, accessible from exits 293 and 298 off Interstate 17. 5️⃣Canyon de Chelly National Monument was established on April 1, 1931, as a unit of the National Park Service. Located in northeastern Arizona, it is within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation and lies in the Four Corners region. Reflecting one of the longest continuously inhabited landscapes of North America, it preserves ruins of the indigenous tribes that lived in the area, from the Ancestral Puebloans (formerly known as Anasazi) to the Navajo. The monument covers 83,840 acres (131.0 sq mi; 339.3 km2) and encompasses the floors and rims of the three major canyons: de Chelly, del Muerto, and Monument. These canyons were cut by streams with headwaters in the Chuska Mountains just to the east of the monument. None of the land is federally owned. Canyon de Chelly is one of the most visited national monuments in the United States. Canyon de Chelly is entirely owned by the Navajo Tribal Trust of the Navajo Nation. It is the only National Park Service unit that is owned and cooperatively managed in this manner. About 40 Navajo families live in the park. Access to the canyon floor is restricted, and visitors are allowed to travel in the canyons only when accompanied by a park ranger or an authorized Navajo guide. The only exception to this rule is the White House Ruin Trail. The park's distinctive geologic feature, Spider Rock, is a sandstone spire that rises 750 feet (229 m) from the canyon floor at the junction of Canyon de Chelly and Monument Canyon. Spider Rock can be seen from South Rim Drive. According to traditional Navajo beliefs, the taller of the two spires is the home of Spider Grandmother. Most park visitors arrive by automobile and view Canyon de Chelly from the rim, following both North Rim Drive and South Rim Drive. Ancient ruins and geologic structures are visible, but in the distance, from turnoffs on each of these routes. Deep within the park is Mummy Cave. It features structures that have been built at various times in history. Private Navajo-owned companies offer tours of the canyon floor by horseback, hiking or four-wheel drive vehicle. The companies can be contacted directly for prices and arrangements. No entrance fee is charged to enter the park, apart from any charges imposed by tour companies. Accommodations for visitors are located in the vicinity of the canyon, on the road leading to Chinle, which is the nearest town. The National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Placeson August 25, 1970. ✨Mummy Cave is located along the North Rim Drive in the Canyon de Chelly National Monument near Chinle, Arizona. The alcove complex contains an Anasazi cliff dwelling that shows evidence of having been occupied for nearly a thousand years. With over 70 rooms it is the largest Puebloan village that is preserved in Canyon de Chelly. It is 12 miles to the Mummy Cave Overlook Road along the North Rim Drive, Indian Route 64, measuring from its intersection with the South Rim Drive. After making a right turn it is about 1 mile to another fork where a right turn leads to the Mummy Cave Overlook. As the short trail leaves the parking area it follows a cement path. The trail transitions to sand and slickrock as it approaches the overlook. The Mummy Cave complex looks like a miniature city clinging to the cliffs, 300 feet above the valley floor, opposite of the overlook. The cave was occupied until about 1300 when Puebloan life in Canyon de Chelly abruptly ended. A severe drought that began in the 1200's is thought to have led to its abandonment. A pair of binoculars would come in handy to truly appreciate the ruins from that distance. The traditional Navajo name for the site is Tséyaa Kini which translates to 'House Under the Rock'. In 1880 archaeologists discovered two well-preserved mummies which led them to call the site 'Mummy Cave'. A good bit of dirt has blown into the ruins but the outlines of multi story rooms, several kivas, and a large terrace can still be seen. The walls were decorated with white and pale green plaster some of which can be seen from the overlook. The central tower is said to be Mesa Verde in style and appears to have been constructed at a later date than the rooms in the alcoves. Timbers can still be seen protruding from the walls. Most every cave or alcove that you can see appears to have been used for something. The Navajo people called the cliff dwellers Anasazi which means 'ancient ones'. Canyon de Chelly preserves many sites that even predate the Anasazi. ✨There are several dozen paths into the three main ravines in Canyon de Chelly National Monument, all ancient Navajo routes in use for centuries, but only one is open to unaccompanied hikers, this is the White House Ruin Trail, which descends nearly 600 feet down the cliffs on the south side of Canyon de Chelly, crosses the seasonal Chinle Wash and ends beside one of the most famous ancient dwellings in the monument, a two-level structure with one part on the valley floor and the other 50 feet up in an alcove. All other paths in the monument require permits and guides; there are approximately 14 such routes, along either the south side of Canyon de Chelly or the north side of Canyon del Muerto. The White House Ruin Trail begins at an overlook at the end of a short spur road, 7 miles east of Chinle - an often busy place, with space for several dozen vehicles. For those not hiking the trail, a walk of just 350 feet reaches the overlook, which has a good view of the ruins, 2,000 feet east, plus another, smaller structure nearly opposite. Typical round trip times for the trail are 1 to 2 hours, and the path is wide, well-used and not too steep. The Trail: The trail starts off due south, running along the canyon edge for a short distance then dropping below the rim, down the uppermost section of the cliffs, to a bushy bench, followed by a short series of switchbacks descending a boulder-covered slope, close to bigger cliffs to the north. The final switchback curves around a slickrock bowl, the lowest segment of the main cliffs, and ahead the land is more gently sloping, and sandy. The trail now moves northwards, descending into a little ravine, passing at two points through short tunnels, and emerging to the flat land beside Chinle Wash. Near the lower end, just before the second tunnel, the path takes an interesting short-cut down a narrow gully, using old foot-holes carved in the sandstone walls. On the valley floor, a huge protruding rock rises 560 feet directly ahead, inside a U-bend along the wash, while to the south is a line of trees and a sizeable cultivated area. This has fences, fields, an orchard and a hogan, but all is off-limits to hikers, and a sign directs people away to the north, along the base of cliffs which soon become very tall and sheer. The path then crosses the wash on a footbridge and follows the east bank for a quarter of a mile to the ruins. Once at the White House, rest rooms and Indian jewelry sellers detract a little from the experience but the delicate well-preserved buildings beneath the sheer, desert varnish-streaked, cliff are well worth the trip. 6️⃣Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum! (Note: This is a museum, zoo, aquarium and desert botanical garden all in one.) When someone visualize the Sonoran Desert it's unlikely that images of massive rivers with six-foot minnows, or oceans teeming with whales, stingrays, eels, and thousands of invertebrates come to mind. Yet, a full understanding of the Sonoran Desert region isn't possible without recognizing the importance of the freshwater rivers that flow through it and the Sea of Cortez which are critical to this desert's status as the lushest desert on earth. The aquarium exhibition, "Rivers to the Sea", highlights the roles of the region's rivers, including the mighty Colorado, and the Gulf of California. The modest, 1,100 sq. ft. aquarium houses two galleries: one highlighting the region's freshwater rivers and aquatic life and the other featuring the Sea of Cortez and representative sea life. ✨Desert Museum Exhibits; 🍃Earth Sciences: Geology is often viewed as a static science, in contrast to the "life sciences" of biology. Yet the earth's surface behaves as if it were a living, squirming organism, constantly reshaping itself, forming new habitats and altering others, providing much of the momentum of natural selection and the resulting diversity of life. 🍃Geology Overlook: At the Geology Overlook visitors have a view over Avra Valley and its neighboring mountains, in the very midst of this process of uprising, shifting, and erosion. Also visible from the overlook is Brown Mountain and its stratified rocks dating to the time of the dinosaurs. Nearer to our times, only 12,000 years ago, were the camel and mammoth whose bones and tracks were found protruding from an arroyo's bank in the valley. 🍃Earth Sciences Center: Bright sunlight fades as you descend the gentle incline into ASDM's artificial cave. A yielding wall of cool air parts to let you inside, and the blackness seems total at first, until your eyes adapt and you begin to make out the dim silhouettes of arches and side chambers. Along this passage, the mechanisms and residents of a rarely seen environment are revealed within pools of light that lead you from each display to the next. One charts the development of a limestone cave and the formation of stalagmites and stalagtites, another shows the animals that frequent the twilight zones of cave entrances. A side tunnel, posted with a warning for those with claustrophobic tendencies, provides a realistic caving experience in 75 feet of low-clearance maneuvering. A little farther, the sound of burbling water invites a peek into an adjacent room, revealing a glistening mass of cave formations, gently floodlit from beneath the surface of a turquoise pool. The cave exhibits lead to a room containing a NASA-funded Earth from Space: A Satellite's View of Earth exhibit, where videos reveal a satellite's view of wildfire, drought, water, extreme weather, and other large-scale changes on our planet. This exhibit is surrounded by a sweeping circle of backlit globes depicting the birth of our world. In an adjacent hall, part of the Museum's breathtaking mineral collection glows in crystalline hues of ruby, amethyst, and emerald. Mineral Collection Tour: The Desert Museum's permanent mineral collection has been said to be one of the finest regional mineral collections in the world. ✨Exhibits; Mountain Woodland: Like islands rising out of the desert sea, southwestern mountain ranges are refuges for plants and animals that wouldn't otherwise survive here. The Desert Museum has re-created a habitat based on Mexican Pine-Oak Woodland, and the animals are what you might find in many nearby mountain ranges. Currently on exhibit in their Mountain Woodland: Mountain lion (our mascot), Black Bear, White-tailed Deer, Mexican Gray Wolves, Thick-billed Parrots, Merriam's Turkeys, American Kestrels. The foothills and lower mountain slopes east of the Sonoran Desert are wooded with oaks and pines, a mixture of coniferous forest and temperate deciduous forest tree types. The oaks, however, are mostly evergreen species; they are not deciduous except during severe droughts. This Madrean evergreen woodland is a warm-temperate community of the Sierra Madre Occidental. It extends as far north as central Arizona, where it is squeezed out by the cool-temperate Rocky Mountain forests above it and the more arid grassland and desert below. (Though its official name is woodland, in its southern part it's actually a forest; i.e., the tree canopies overlap.) This is a semiarid community which experiences a dry season in spring. ✨Exhibits; Desert Grassland: At their Desert Grassland exhibit you will be surrounded by native grasses and animals that are found in desert grasslands. Grassland is a semiarid biome characterized by warm, humid summers with moderate rain and cold, dry winters. Grass is the dominant life form; scores of species form a nearly continuous cover over large areas. Other well-represented life forms are annuals and geophytes (herbaceous perennials such as bulbs that die to the ground each year). Populations of trees, shrubs, and succulents are kept at low levels by periodic fires during the dry season. Most of the grasslands in the western states are intermediate between the true prairies of the American Midwest and deserts. They are called semi-desert or desert grasslands. Compared with prairie grassland, the grasses in desert grassland are shorter, less dense, and are more frequently interspersed with desert shrubs and succulents. Desert grassland or chaparral borders the northern Sonoran Desert on the east. Currently on exhibit in our Desert Grassland: Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures, Black-tailed Prairie Dog, and Great Blue Heron. ✨Exhibits: Desert Loop Trail: The loop is one half mile long, downhill and back up where you will encounter javelinas, coyotes and lizards in very naturalistic enclosures. Also along the way you will learn about the marvels of the agave plant and identify various legume trees native to the region. ✨Exhibits: Cat Canyon: At Cat Canyon you can view small mammals in naturalistic grotto settings. Cat Canyon is home to a variety of animals which can be viewed from overhead and at eye level. Currently on exhibit in Cat Canyon: Bobcats, Porcupine, Grey Fox and Ocelot. ✨Exhibits; Riparian Corridor: This exhibit is a burbling, shady respite near the middle of the Desert Museum grounds. It serves as a reminder that a stream is one of the most precious things you can find in a desert. Currently on exhibit in the Riparian Corridor: River Otters, Beavers, Bighorn Sheep, Coatis, Aquatic Invertebrates and Desert Toad Lifecycle Installation. ✨Exhibits: Walk-in Aviary: Cardinals, Gambel's quail, ducks, doves, and nearly 20 other species of native birds live together in the museum's walk-in aviary. ✨Stingray Touch: The pool features cow nose stingrays that are regularly debarbed, a process compared with trimming a fingernail. This provides a comfortable environment for guests to interact with the stingrays. ✨Cactus Garden: The Garden is a regional collection of cacti and succulents grouped by growth forms and specific genera. While walking through the garden you will be able to view dozens of species. 🌵Cactaceae (cactus family): Most people think they know a cactus when they see one, but they are often mistaken. All cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti. To be a cactus, the plant must produce flowers with the following characteristics: many tepals (combined sepals and petals) that intergrade with each other; many stamens (usually hundreds), and numerous stigma lobes (rarely only three). If a plant lacks such a flower, it cannot be a cactus. The majority of cactus species are pollinated by numerous species of bees, birds, moths, and bats. 🌵Saguaro are a columnar cactus that grow notable branches, usually referred to as arms. As many as 25 arms may grow on one plant. They are slow growing but routinely live to 150 or 200 years old. They are the largest cactus in the United States. Their roots are shallow yet wide, growing only to 6 inches (150 mm) deep, but extend as wide as the plant is tall. The growth rate of saguaros is strongly dependent on precipitation; saguaros in drier western Arizona grow only half as fast as those in and around Tucson. Saguaros grow slowly from seed, never from cuttings, and grow to be over 40 feet (12.2 metres) in height. The largest known living saguaro is the Champion Saguaro growing in Maricopa County, Arizona, measuring 45.3 feet (13.8 metres) high with a girth of 10 feet (3.1 metres). The tallest saguaro ever measured was an armless specimen found near Cave Creek, Arizona. It was 78 feet (23.8 metres) in height before it was toppled in 1986 by a windstorm. When rain is plentiful and the saguaro is fully hydrated it can weigh between 3,200–4,800 pounds (1,500–2,200 kg). The white, waxy flowers appear in April through June, opening well after sunset and closing in mid-afternoon. They continue to produce nectar after sunrise. Flowers are self-incompatible, thus requiring cross-pollination. Large quantities of pollen are required for complete pollination because many ovules are present. This pollen is produced by the extremely numerous stamens, which in one notable case totaled 3,482 in a single flower. A well-pollinated fruit contains several thousand tiny seeds. Saguaros have a redundant pollination system, i.e. full fruit set is possible even if only a fraction of the pollinating species are present. The ruby red fruits are 2.4 to 3.5 inches (6 to 9 cm) long and ripen in June, each containing around 2,000 seeds, plus sweet, fleshy connective tissue. The fruits are edible and prized by local people. 🌵Organ Pipe Cactus: The many, usually unbranched stems that arise from ground level readily distinguish an organ pipe cactus from a saguaro. The stems also are thinner, and have solid woody cores. Plants are usually 9 to 11 feet (2.7-3.4 m) in height, but occasionally exceed 20 feet (6.1 m). The pinkish-white flowers, produced from April through August, open after dark and close shortly after sunrise. The spines on the fruit loosen and fall at ripeness. The juicy, sweet, red pulp contains many tiny seeds. Nectar-feeding bats are the primary pollinators and some of the major seed dispersers. Because the flowers close at daybreak, diurnal animals are not significant pollinators as they are of saguaros. The fruits of organ pipe cactus are widely regarded as the second-best-tasting fruit of all cacti. Commercial harvest is feasible in some large populations, and fruits are sold in markets in Sonora and Baja California. 🌵Senita generally grows 10 to 13 feet (3 to 4 m) tall and has the same general form as organ pipe cactus. It differs in having stems with only 5 to 7 (rarely up to 10) ribs and very short spines on the juvenile stems, giving them a sharply angular aspect. Mature (flower-producing) stems are quite different; they're densely covered with long, bristly, gray spines. Pink, nocturnal flowers about an inch (2.5 cm) in diameter emerge through the bristles from April through August; they emit an unpleasant odor. They are followed by marble-sized red fruits with juicy red pulp. Senita has a recently discovered mutualistic relationship with a moth that deliberately pollinates the flowers and uses the developing fruit as food for its larvae. The relationship is very similar to that of the yucca and its pollinating moth, and only the third such example of a tight pollination-related mutualism known in the world. Senitas are very long-lived. When sites in Baja California photographed in 1905 were revisited in the 1990s, nearly every senita was still present. 🌵Fishhook barrel: The thick, barrel-shaped body of this cactus is usually 2 to 4 feet (0.6-1.2 m) tall, occasionally reaching over 10 feet (3 m). The ribs bear broad, flat, strongly-hooked central spines as well as several bristly radial spines, but not enough of these to obscure the stem. The flowers are not strongly crowded by the spines and open wide. Flower color is extremely variable; on most plants they are some shade of orange, often with a stripe of darker shade on each petal. About 10% of the plants have yellow or red flowers. They are produced over a 2-month-long season, August and September, much longer than the blooming period of other barrels. Cactus bees pollinate the flowers. The fruit persists until it is removed by animals and may remain on the plant for more than a year. Birds, squirrels, and large mammals such as deer and javelina are the main consumers of the fruit. Plants grow fairly slowly, and large specimens are more than a century old. In cultivation, with supplemental water and fertilizer, they reach flowering size of 10 inches (25 cm) diameter and the same in height in about 12 years. 🌵Engelmann prickly pear is a shrubby cactus forming hemispherical mounds up to 5 feet (1.5 m) high and 2 or 3 times as wide. Pad size varies with individual plants; the largest are over a foot (30 cm) long. The spines are also variable. The O'odham recognize this variability in applying 4 or 5 names to different forms. The flowers are yellow, about 3 inches (8 cm) in diameter, and bloom in May near the end of the spring flowering season. They last a day each, and those of some plants age to orange by afternoon. The juicy fruit ripens to varying shades (from plant to plant) of rich purple to red. The specific status of this plant is still in dispute; it has been shuttled between Opuntia phaeacantha, O. discata, and O. engelmannii by different taxonomists during the past few decades. 🌵Beavertail cactus: New pads of this species grow mostly from bases of older ones, resulting in sprawling plants seldom more than 2 pads tall. Clumps grow up to 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter. The pads are spineless, but have many hair-like glochids that make the areoles look like dots of felt. The incandescent-pink flowers appear from late February at the lowest elevations to May at the highest. The dry fruits contain very large seeds, even for an opuntia. Nearly everyone who has had a close encounter with this or other ãspinelessä opuntias would rather have dealt with spines. Glochids are often too small to see, and they cause prickling pain and intense itching as the barbs work deeper into the skin with every movement. Removing hundreds or thousands of them after falling into such a plant is an exhausting and tormenting task. Some people shave them off at skin level, which somewhat reduces the irritation, even though this leaves the tips beneath the skin. A better remedy is to gently draw very sticky tape across the afflicted skin. Another effective treatment is to cover the area with a layer of white glue, then peel it off after it dries. (And thank goodness for sticky tape and glue! Yes, that's right, it's from experience.) 🌵Teddy bear cholla: This distinctive cholla has a vertical trunk 3 to 5 feet (1-1.5 m) tall with densely-packed horizontal side branches on the upper foot (30 cm) or so. Older, lower side branches die and fall off. The joints are very densely spined; very little of the living surface can be seen through its armor. The spines are especially sharp and strongly-barbed. Young spines are yellow and become black with age. Yellow-green flowers in spring are followed by spineless fruits that usually contain no fertile seeds. The detached joints will readily generate new plants by rooting and branching. During the cooler months the terminal joints are detached by a slight touch by a passing animal, or even strong winds. The joints that attach to animals may be transported considerable distances before being dislodged. Since the fruits rarely contain viable seeds, this species reproduces almost entirely by this asexual process. Many plants have 3 sets of chromosomes instead of the ordinary 2; these are usually sterile. In some localities they form nearly impenetrable stands that occupy as much as 2 square miles of land almost to the exclusion of other plants. These giant, hillside-engulfing cholla forests may be a single (clonal) plant. ✨Exhibits: Pollination Gardens: Birds, bees and butterflies are the stars of these gardens. The Hummingbird Aviary is a scene of constant action as the tiny, iridescent "jewels of the desert" dart and hover so closely you can feel the air disturbed by their wings! In breeding season, nest are near enough to sneak a peek at the babies! The aviary is a marked contrast to the lovely Pollination Garden outside, where butterflies and bees float and drone peacefully between blossoms. 7️⃣Horseshoe Bend is a horseshoe-shaped incised meander of the Colorado River located near the town of Page, Arizona, United States. It is also 5 miles (8.0 km) downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, about 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Page. It is accessible via hiking a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) round trip from a parking area just off U.S. Route 89 within southwestern Page. Horseshoe Bend can be viewed from the steep cliff above. The overlook is 4,200 feet (1,300 m) above sea level, and the Colorado River is at 3,200 feet (980 m) above sea level, making it a 1,000-foot (300 m) drop. The rock walls of Horseshoe Bend contain hematite, platinum, garnet, and other minerals. ✨Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, United States, near the town of Page. The 710-foot (220 m) high dam was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) from 1956 to 1966 and forms Lake Powell, one of the largest man-made reservoirs in the U.S. with a capacity of 27 million acre feet (33 km3). The dam is named for Glen Canyon, a series of deep sandstone gorges now flooded by the reservoir; Lake Powell is named for John Wesley Powell, who in 1869 led the first expedition to traverse the Colorado's Grand Canyon by boat. ✨Lake Powell has nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of fish-holding shoreline and provides opportunity to fish for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and striped bass that swim in the midst of the recreation area. Because most of the lake is surrounded by steep sandstone walls, access is limited to developed marinas. Activities include boating, fishing, waterskiing, jet-skiing, swimming and hiking. Several local marinas provide houseboats, powerboats, jet skis, kayaks, fishing gear, and related equipment to visitors. 8️⃣Desert Botanical Garden is a 140-acre (57 ha) botanical garden located in Papago Park, at 1201 N. Galvin Parkway in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded by the Arizona Cactus and Native Flora Society in 1937 and established at this site in 1939, the garden now has more than 50,000 plants, in more than 4,000 taxa, one-third of which are native to the area, including 379 species, which are rare, threatened or endangered. (In biology, a taxon (plural taxa; back-formation from taxonomy) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit.) Of special note are the rich collections of agave (4,026 plants in 248 taxa) and cacti (13,973 plants in 1,320 taxa), especially the Opuntia sub-family. Plants from less extreme climate conditions are protected under shadehouses. It focuses on plants adapted to desert conditions, including an Australian collection, a Baja California collection and a South American collection. Several ecosystems are represented: a mesquite bosque, semidesert grassland, and upland chaparral. Desert Botanical Garden has been designated as a Phoenix Point of Pride. 9️⃣The Phoenix Art Museum is the Southwest United States' largest art museum for visual art. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is 285,000-square-foot (26,500 m2). It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 works of American, Asian, European, Latin American, Western American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. A community center since 1959, it hosts year-round programs of festivals, live performances, independent art films and educational programs. It also features The Hub: The James K. Ballinger Interactive Gallery, an interactive space for children; photography exhibitions through the museum’s partnership with the Center for Creative Photography; the landscaped Sculpture Garden; dining at Palette, and shopping at The Museum Store. Phoenix Art Museum has been designated a Phoenix Point of Pride. 🔟Bright Angel Trail a trail in Grand Canyon; Directions: The Bright Angel trailhead is located in Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim just west of the Bright Angel Lodge near the beginning of the West Rim road shuttle stop. Trail description: This is the park’s most popular rim-to-river route, offering spectacular views, rest houses, water (seasonal), and shade at Indian Garden. Day hikers have several options: turn around at the Mile-and-a-Half or Three-Mile rest houses, Indian Garden, or Plateau Point (described below as an optional side trip). Backpackers can camp at Indian Garden or Bright Angel campgrounds. (Note: If you are planning to camp anywhere below the rim you must get a backcountry camping permit through the backcountry office.) Endless switchbacks: to Mile-and-a-Half and Three-Mile rest houses: As you journey down the Bright Angel Trail, you descend into rock that is almost 2 billion years old. Starting with the youngest, the Kaibab Limestone at the trailhead, you progress down gentle switchbacks through progressively older rock. The canyon’s steep, vertical walls limit rim-to-river routes. But this trail follows the Bright Angel Fault, a naturally occurring break that allows access to the inner canyon. Long, sweeping switchbacks take you to Mile-and-a-Half rest house. Take a moment to enjoy the shade, refill your water bottle (May-October), and rest your feet. Pit toilets are located just down the trail to your right. Any rim-to-river hike in the canyon involves seemingly endless switchbacks. Every turn brings an impossibly more beautiful view as you drop deeper into the canyon. Zigzag your way down through the iron-rich Supai Formation to the top of the Redwall Limestone, where Three-Mile rest house waits. Indian Garden; a desert oasis: From Three-Mile rest house, a series of switchbacks known as Jacob’s Ladder takes you down the Redwall Limestone. As you approach Indian Garden, the grade flattens out and makes for easy walking across the slopes of Bright Angel Shale. Cottonwood trees flag you towards Indian Garden, an oasis in this hot, dry environment. Life thrives in the presence of water, and the lush grasses, shrubs, and trees along Garden Creek offer a welcome, shady respite on this hike. Around 4.5 miles, you arrive at Indian Garden, first passing the ranger station on your left, followed by the campground (permit required). Pit toilets, water (year-round), and shaded benches are farther down the trail. Final switchbacks: the Devil’s Corkscrew: Soon after leaving Indian Garden, you reach trail junctions with Tonto West and Tonto East. Continue south along Garden Creek as it cuts a ravine into the terraced ledges of Tapeats Sandstone. A chockstone around 5.25 miles marks the beginning of the Tapeats Narrows, where the creek has sculpted channels and plunge pools into the bedrock. The trail branches away from Garden Creek in a series of switchbacks known as the Devil’s Corkscrew. This lightning bolt-like trail gashes its way through the dark cliffs of 2-billion-year-old Vishnu Schist, the oldest rock in the Grand Canyon. Avoid hiking this section during the hottest part of the day—the almost-black walls absorb heat and can cook you in the afternoon sun. A few long meanders lead into tight, sharp switchbacks that descend about 500 feet in a half mile. Beyond the corkscrew, the trail levels out as you begin following Pipe Creek. Around 7 miles, you arrive at another set of plunge pools and waterfalls where Garden Creek flows into the Pipe Creek drainage. Prickly pear, willows, and brittlebush line the banks as the trail descends gently to the River House rest area. A side trail leads to the shore of the Colorado River and Pipe Creek Beach, while the Bright Angel trail continues to the right of the pit toilets. Turn east above the river, traveling across sand dunes for the next 1.5 miles. You arrive at a suspension bridge, which not only allows hikers passage across the swift Colorado River, but also supports a transcanyon waterline that carries water from the north side of the canyon to Indian Garden. After crossing the river, the trail continues past park buildings and private residences. Follow signs towards Bright Angel Campground until the trail turns north along Bright Angel Creek around 9 miles. The campground is a little ways up the creek, and camping is by permit only. Phantom Ranch, which has cabins, bunkhouses and a dining room facility, is about a half mile farther north. Reservations typically need to be made months in advance to stay here. If you are hiking during the warmer months, plan on leaving well before sunrise for the climb back up to Grand Canyon village. Optional Side Trip to Plateau Point: If you’re day hiking or spending a night at Indian Garden, you may want to go to Plateau Point as a side trip. This is an easy 3-mile, out-and-back hike that takes you to an overlook on the edge of the Tonto Platform with excellent views of the Colorado River. The Plateau Point Trail begins south of the pit toilets at Indian Garden. Just past a livestock area, look for a wooden sign that points towards Plateau Point and Tonto West trails. You cross Garden Creek and walk along the Tonto Platform for about a mile. When you reach a junction with the Tonto West Trail, veer right and continue south towards Plateau Point. Another half mile and you arrive at the overlook. The trail dips down to a rock platform bound by safety rails. From here, you can both see and hear the Colorado River raging a thousand feet below. On the north side of the canyon, you can see (left to right): Cheops Pyramid, Bright Angel Canyon, and Zoraster and Brahma Temples. Retrace your steps to return to Indian Garden. 1️⃣1️⃣Petrified Forest National Park is an American national park in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona. Named for its large deposits of petrified wood, the area of the park covers about 230 square miles (600 square kilometers), encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded and colorful badlands. The park's headquarters is about 26 miles (42 km) east of Holbrook along Interstate 40 (I-40), which parallels the BNSF Railway's Southern Transcon, the Puerco River, and historic U.S. Route 66, all crossing the park roughly east–west. The site, the northern part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was declared a national monument in 1906 and a national park in 1962. Typical visitor activities include sightseeing, photography, hiking, and backpacking. Averaging about 5,400 feet (1,600 m) in elevation, the park has a dry windy climate with temperatures that vary from summer highs of about 100°F (38°C) to winter lows well below freezing. More than 400 species of plants, dominated by grasses such as bunchgrass, blue grama, and sacaton, are found in the park. Fauna include larger animals such as pronghorns, coyotes, and bobcats, many smaller animals, such as deer mice, snakes, lizards, seven kinds of amphibians, and more than 200 species of birds, some of which are permanent residents and many of which are migratory. About one third of the park is designated wilderness—50,260 acres (79 sq mi; 203 km2). Petrified Forest National Park straddles the border between Apache County and Navajo County in northeastern Arizona. The park is about 30 miles (48 km) long from north to south, and its width varies from a maximum of about 12 miles (19 km) in the north to a minimum of about 1 mile (1.6 km) along a narrow corridor between the north and south, where the park widens again to about 4 to 5 miles (6 to 8 km). Holbrook, about 26 miles (42 km) west of park headquarters along I-40, is the nearest city. The Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees that lived about 225 million years ago (late Triassic Epoch). The sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation, from which the Painted Desert gets its name. During the Late Triassic, downed trees accumulating in river channels in what became the park were buried periodically by sediment containing volcanic ash. Groundwater dissolved silica (silicon dioxide) from the ash and carried it into the logs, where it formed quartz crystals that gradually replaced the organic matter. Traces of iron oxide and other substances combined with the silica to create varied colors in the petrified wood. In Petrified Forest National Park, most of the logs in the park retained their original external form during petrification but lost their internal structure. However, a small fraction of the logs and most of the park's petrified animal bones have cells and other spaces that are mineral-filled but still retain much of their original organic structure. With these permineralized fossils, it is possible to study the cellular make-up of the original organisms with the aid of a microscope. Other organic matter—typically leaves, seeds, cones, pollen grains, spores, small stems, and fish, insect, and animal remains—have been preserved in the park as compression fossils, flattened by the weight of the sediments above until only a thin film remains in the rock. Much of the park’s petrified wood is from Araucarioxylon arizonicum trees, while some found in the northern part of the park is from Woodworthia arizonica and Schilderia adamanica trees. At least nine species of fossil trees from the park have been identified; all are extinct. The park has many other kinds of fossils besides trees. The park is open every day except Christmas (December 25) on a schedule that varies slightly with the seasons. The Painted Desert Inn (a historic museum and bookstore) is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. year-round except Christmas. Park clocks are always set to Mountain Standard Time, as Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time. No campgrounds or overnight lodging are available in the park, although nearby communities such as Holbrook offer motels and other accommodations. Overnight parking is not allowed except in the case of backpackers with wilderness hiking permits. Sightseeing is available by private automobile, motorcycle, commercial tour, bicycle, and hiking. The park road, parking lots, and turn-outs are big enough to accommodate large recreational vehicles. Off-road vehicle travel, including by mountain bike, is not allowed. With a few exceptions such as unpaved Old Highway 66, bicycles must stay on paved roads such as the 28-mile (45 km) main park road and stay off trails and unpaved surfaces. The park's seven maintained hiking trails, some paved, vary in length from less than 0.5 miles (0.8 km) to nearly 3 miles (4.8 km). Pets are allowed on these trails if kept on a leash, but bicycles are not. Hikers and backpackers may also visit the park's wilderness areas. Free permits are required for overnight stays; they are issued from the Painted Desert Visitor Center, Painted Desert Inn, and Rainbow Forest Museum. Most backpackers enter the wilderness at the north end of the park, where parking and an access trail are available at Painted Desert Inn. Group camping is limited to eight people. Horseback riding is allowed in the wilderness areas; water for horses is available at the service station near the Painted Desert Visitor Center. Riders and hikers are asked to travel along dry washes as much as possible to reduce the impact on fragile desert soils. Rangers offer a variety of programs about the park. Regularly scheduled events include a Painted Desert Inn tour, a Triassic program at the Rainbow Forest Museum sunroom, a talk or walk along the Giant Logs Trail behind the museum, and a Puerco Pueblo guided walk. 1️⃣2️⃣The Painted Desert is a United States desert of badlands in the Four Corners area running from near the east end of Grand Canyon National Park and southeast into Petrified Forest National Park. It is most easily accessed in the north portion of Petrified Forest National Park. The Painted Desert is known for its brilliant and varied colors, that not only include the more common red rock, but even shades of lavender. The Painted Desert was named by an expedition under Francisco Vázquez de Coronado on his 1540 quest to find the Seven Cities of Cibola, which he located some 40 miles east of Petrified Forest National Park. Finding the cities were not made of gold, Coronado sent an expedition to find the Colorado River to resupply him. Passing through the wonderland of colors, they named the area El Desierto Pintado ("The Painted Desert"). Much of the Painted Desert within Petrified Forest National Park is protected as Petrified Forest National Wilderness Area, where motorized travel is limited Nonetheless, the park offers both easy and longer hikes into the colored hills. The Painted Desert continues north into the Navajo Nation, where off-road travel is allowed by permit. The desert is composed of stratified layers of easily erodible siltstone, mudstone, and shale of the Triassic Chinle Formation. These fine grained rock layers contain abundant iron and manganese compounds which provide the pigments for the various colors of the region. Thin resistant lacustrine limestone layers and volcanic flows cap the mesas. Numerous layers of silicic volcanic ash occur in the Chinle and provide the silica for the petrified logs of the area. The erosion of these layers has resulted in the formation of the badlands topography of the region. In the southern portions of the desert the remains of a Triassic period coniferous forest have fossilized over millions of years. Wind, water and soil erosion continue to change the face of the landscape by shifting sediment and exposing layers of the Chinle Formation. An assortment of fossilized prehistoric plants and animals are found in the region, as well as dinosaur tracks and the evidence of early human habitation. The Painted Desert extends roughly from Cameron to Tuba City southeast past Holbrook and the Petrified Forest National Park. The desert is about 120 miles (190 km) long by about 60 miles (97 km) wide, making it roughly 7,500 square miles (19,425 km2) in area. Bordering southwest and south is the Mogollon Plateau, and on the plateau's south border the Mogollon Rim, the north border of the Arizona transition zone. Owing to the strong rain shadow of the Mogollon Rim, the Painted Desert has a cold desert climate (Köppen BWk), with hot, dry summers and cold, though virtually snow-free winters. The annual precipitation is the lowest in northern Arizona and in many places is lower even than Phoenix. Much of the region is accessible only by foot or unpaved road though major highways and paved roads cut across the area. The towns of Cameron and Tuba City, both on the Navajo Nation, are two major settlements. A permit is required for all backroad travel on the Navajo Nation. 1️⃣3️⃣Grand Canyon National Park, located in northwestern Arizona, is the 15th site in the United States to have been named a national park. The park's central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often considered one of the Wonders of the World. The park covers 1,217,262 acres (1,901.972 sq mi; 4,926.08 km2) of unincorporated area in Coconino and Mohave counties. The Grand Canyon was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. The park celebrated is 100th anniversary on February 26, 2019. The first bill to establish Grand Canyon National Park was introduced in 1882 by then-Senator Benjamin Harrison, which would have established Grand Canyon as the third national park in the United States. Harrison was unsuccessful. Grand Canyon was officially designated a national park on February 26, 1919. Its national park status may have helped thwart proposals to dam the Colorado River within its boundaries. (Later, the Glen Canyon Dam would be built upriver.) In 1975, the former Marble Canyon National Monument, which followed the Colorado River northeast from the Grand Canyon to Lee's Ferry, was made part of Grand Canyon National Park. In 1979, UNESCO declared the park a World Heritage Site. In 2010, Grand Canyon National Park was honored with its own coin under the America the Beautiful Quarters program. The Grand Canyon, including its extensive system of tributary canyons, is valued for its combination of size, depth, and exposed layers of colorful rocks dating back to Precambrian times. The canyon itself was created by the incision of the Colorado River and its tributaries after the Colorado Plateau was uplifted, causing the Colorado River system to develop along its present path. The primary public areas of the park are the South and North Rims, and adjacent areas of the canyon itself. The South Rim is more accessible than the North Rim. The rest of the park is extremely rugged and remote, although many places are accessible by pack trail and backcountry roads. The park headquarters are at Grand Canyon Village, not far from the south entrance to the park, near one of the most popular viewpoints. Grand Canyon Village is the primary visitor services area in the park. It is a full-service community, including lodging, fuel, food, souvenirs, a hospital, churches, and access to trails and guided walks and talks. Grand Canyon National Park has a BSk (Köppen climate classification) - tropical and subtropical steppe type of climate consisting of dry, hot summers and cold winters. Activities: ✨On the North Rim there are few roads, however, there are some notable vehicle accessible lookout points including Point Imperial, Roosevelt Point, and Cape Royal. Mule rides are also available that go to a variety of places including several thousand feet down into the canyon. Many visitors to the North Rim choose to make use of the variety of hiking trails including the Widforss Trail, Uncle Jim's Trail, the Transept Trail, and the North Kaibab Trail, the latter of which can be followed all the way down to the Colorado River, and to across to the South Kaibab Trail and the Bright Angel Trail, which continue up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The Toroweap Overlook is located in the western part of the park on the North Rim. Access is via unpaved roads off Route 389 west of Fredonia, Arizona. The roads lead through Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument and to the overlook. ✨A variety of activities at the South Rim cater to park visitors. A driving tour (35 miles (56 km)) along the South Rim is split into two segments. The western drive to Hermit's Point is 8 miles (13 km) with several overlooks along the way, including Mohave Point, Hopi Point, and the Powell Memorial. From March to December, access to Hermit's Rest is restricted to the free shuttle provided by the Park Service. The eastern portion to Desert View is 25 miles (40 km), and is open to private vehicles year round. Walking tours include the Rim Trail, which runs west from the Pipe Creek viewpoint for about 8 miles (13 km) of paved road, followed by 7 miles (11 km) unpaved to Hermit's Rest. Hikes can begin almost anywhere along this trail, and a shuttle can return hikers to their point of origin. Mather Point, the first view most people reach when entering from the South Entrance, is a popular place to begin. Private canyon flyovers are provided by helicopters and small airplanes out of Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Grand Canyon National Park Airport. Due to a crash in the 1990s, scenic flights are no longer allowed to fly within 1,500 feet (460 m) of the rim within the Grand Canyon National Park. Flights within the canyon are still available outside of park boundaries. 1️⃣4️⃣Chiricahua National Monument is a unit of the National Park System located in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. The monument was established on April 18, 1924, to protect its extensive hoodoos and balancing rocks. The Faraway Ranch, which was owned at one time by Swedish immigrants Neil and Emma Erickson, is also preserved within the monument. A visitor center is located two miles from the entrance to Chiricahua National Monument. The visitor center has exhibits relating to the geology, natural history, and cultural history of the area. A park ranger is available to provide visitors with trail guides and information. Approximately 17 mi (27 km) of trails lead hikers through various ecosystems of meadows, forests, and rock formations. The visitor center has a free shuttle that leaves each morning at 9:00am. The shuttle takes hikers to the Echo Canyon or Massai Point trailheads. Hikers return to the visitor center by following the designated trails. Located approximately 36 miles (58 km) southeast of Willcox, Arizona, the monument preserves the remains of an immense volcanic eruption that shook the region about 27 million years ago. The thick, white-hot ash spewed forth from the nearby Turkey Creek Caldera, cooled and hardened into rhyolitic tuff, laying down almost 2,000 ft (610 m) of highly siliceous, dark volcanic ash and pumice. The volcanic material eventually eroded into the natural rock formations of the present monument. One of the trails, Echo Canyon Loop: located in Chiricahua National Monument, 50 miles southeast of Willcox Ariz. Trail: Up and down through tight canyons and rock formations, the Echo Canyon Loop shows off the highlights of the wilderness scenery in Chiricahua National Monument. This route consists of the Echo Canyon, Hailstone, and Ed Riggs Trails. The route winds through spectacular hoodoo rock formations including the Grottoes and Wallstreet to the densely wooded Echo Park. At the start of the Hailstone Trail, hikers find themselves just above a streambed. The trail follows the wash on the sunny southern exposure of the hillside, home to desert plants such as yucca, agave, prickly pear, and hedgehog cactus. Looking down the canyon will give a view of the seemingly endless stone spires that lead toward the visitor's center and the meadows at the park's entrance and beyond. The Ed Riggs Trail climbs back up through a few more pinnacles and takes hikers back to the trailhead among the pines. 1️⃣5️⃣Kartchner Caverns State Park features a show cave with 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of passages. The park is located 9 miles (14 km) south of the town of Benson, Arizona and west of the north-flowing San Pedro River. The park encompasses most of a down-dropped block of Palaeozoic rocks on the east flank of the Whetstone Mountains. The caverns are carved out of limestone and filled with spectacular speleothems which have been growing for 50,000 years or longer, and are still growing. Careful and technical cave state park development and maintenance are designed to preserve the cave system. Long hidden from view, the caverns were discovered in 1974 when cavers Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts found a narrow crack in the bottom of a sinkhole, and followed the source of warm, moist air toward what ended up being more than 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of pristine cave passages. While there they realized that this discovery could place the caverns at risk. Hoping to protect the cave from vandalism, they kept the location a secret for fourteen years, deciding that the best way to preserve the cavern, which was near a freeway, was to develop it as a tour cave. After gaining the cooperation of the Kartchner family and working with them for ten years, together they decided that the best way to achieve the goal of protection through development as a tour cave was to approach Arizona State Parks. In 1985, The Nature Conservancy acquired an option to purchase the land. The discovery of the cave was finally made public in 1988 when the landowners sold the area to the state for development as a park and show cavern. Prior to its grand opening in 1999, the state spent $28 million on a high-tech system of air-lock doors, misting machines and other equipment designed to preserve the cave. Tourism Information: The two major features of the caverns currently available to the public are the Throne Room and the Big Room. The Throne Room contains one of the world's longest (21 ft 2 in (6.45 m)) soda straw stalactites and a 58-foot (18 m) high column called Kubla Khan, after the poem. The Big Room contains the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk. Although the cave is largely uninhabited, as many as 2000 Myotis velifer bats nest in the cave during late spring. The Big Room cave tours are closed during the summer for several months (April 15 to October 15) each year because it is a nursery roost for the cave bats, however the Throne Room tours remain open year-round. Other features publicly accessible within the caverns include Mud Flats, Rotunda Room, Strawberry Room, and Cul-de-sac Passage. Approximately 60% of the cave system is not regularly explored. Many different cave formations can be found within the caves and the surrounding park. These include cave bacon, helictites, soda straws, stalactites, stalagmites and others. Cave formations like the stalactites and stalagmites grow approximately a 16th of an inch every 100 years. The park also includes hiking trails above the caverns for public use. The longest trail, the Guindani Trail, is 4.2 miles, while the shorter trail, the Foothills Loop Trail, measures 2.5 miles. 1️⃣6️⃣Beaver Falls is one of many that runs from Havasu Creek. It's at the bottom of the Havasu Creek falls and not as tall and impressive as the others, but still quite nice. 1️⃣7️⃣Grand Falls is a natural waterfall located 30 miles (48.3 kilometers) northeast of Flagstaff, Arizona in the Painted Desert on the Navajo Nation. At 185 feet (56 meters) tall, it is taller than Niagara Falls. It dumps snow melt or monsoon rain into the Little Colorado River below. It is known for its extremely muddy flow, which is a major contributor to Little Colorado River opacity. Heavy rains or snow melt will produce spectacular viewing. 1️⃣8️⃣Sycamore Falls, a 100-foot waterfall near the headwaters of Sycamore Creek just southeast of Williams. There's also Upper Sycamore Falls and Lower Sycamore Falls. 1️⃣9️⃣Deer Creek Falls is one of the Grand Canyon’s more impressive and accessible falls. It’s located on the north side of the Colorado River, where Deer Creek drops more than 180 feet to the canyon bottom. Most commercial rafting trips will stop here, and if you’re backpacking, take the Bill Hall Trail from the North Rim near Monument Point. 2️⃣0️⃣Navajo Fall, is 75 ft. high, Location: Supai, Havasupai Reservation, Grand Canyon National Park, hiking distance: 9.5 miles (1 way). 2️⃣1️⃣Cibecue Falls, White Mountains Apache Reservation. The main attraction of Cibecue(town) is a canyon, and a beautiful waterfall which cuts right through the tall canyon walls just outside its limits. A permit is required to visit the falls and visitors have to take a 2.5-mi (4-km) hike along a trail that traverses the Cibecue Creek. Following the creek upstream it is easy to get to the waterfall. 2️⃣2️⃣Chiva Falls is a waterfall in the shadow of the Rincon Mountains east of Tucson. Found in Joaquin Canyon, it only flows after heavy rain events, periods of consistent rainfall, or during snowmelt. 2️⃣3️⃣Havasu Falls is a waterfall on Havasu Creek in Grand Canyon, Arizona, United States. It is within Havasupai tribal lands. Havasu Falls is located 1 1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) from Supai. It consists of one main chute that drops over a 90 to 100 foot (27 to 30 m) vertical cliff into a series of plunge pools. High calcium carbonate concentration in the water creates the vivid blue-green color and forms the natural travertine dams that occur in various places near the falls. 2️⃣4️⃣Mooney Falls is the largest of the Havasupai waterfalls, plunging over 190 feet into the stunning blue pool below. While it is only a .5 mile hike from the campgrounds. Descending to Mooney Falls requires you to enter a small tunnel, followed by chains, ladders, and metal handles that allow you descend the cliff. Exercise caution and take your time descending down the cliff. 2️⃣5️⃣The Grand Canyon Skywalk is a horseshoe shaped steel frame with a 4 inch thick glass floor and sides that overhangs 70 feet (21 m) from the Grand Canyon's rim looking through down 4,000 feet to the bottom of the canyon. The Skywalk, also known as the "Glass Bridge" is the most famous attraction at Grand Canyon West, but there are other points of interest and unique canyon views as well. The Skywalk is strong enough to bear the weight of seventy 747 passenger jets. The Skywalk is most easily accessed through Kingman or Las Vegas as opposed to the more commonly visited South Rim accessed through Williams or Tusayan, AZ. The Grand Canyon Skywalk is managed by the Hualapai Tribe and located on tribal lands, consisting of just less than 1,000,000 acres. The tribe has about 2,300 members with Peach Springs on Highway 66 being the location of the tribal headquarters. The tribe operates a hotel, restaurant, and gift shop in Peach Springs. Visitors are not permitted to drive themselves to the Grand Canyon Skywalk. A "tour package" offering everything from basic transportation to the Skywalk including photos with tribe members, to adding a river rafting or helicopter ride when visiting the Skywalk must be purchased in order to get to this part of the Grand Canyon. A minimum tour package is $49 + tax with an additional $25 admission fee to walk the Skywalk itself, making it about $80 per person to interact with this attraction. We recommend purchasing your tour package through one of the tour companies. Many of the recommended tours companies upgrade the quality of transportation, provide knowledgeable guides, lunch and even include other perks and types of tours at a reasonable price. In Short: You MUST purchase one of the Packages to visit Grand Canyon West. Packages do include your Grand Canyon West Entrance Fees to the Hualapai Tribal Lands. The Entrance Fees are Per Person. Grand Canyon West is located on the Hualapai’s Tribal lands, therefore, the National Park Passes and Entrance Fees DO NOT apply at Grand Canyon West.

I've been to Arizona once, when I was a kid, but I would love to go back. Those waterfalls look awesome. I would probably be good on the Skywalk until I looked down and the height problem kick in, then there would go the whole adventure.

Warm hugs!💕🐶🐶☁️ 