Arizona Parks and Recreation Areas with Backpacking

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (NRA) offers unparalleled opportunities for water-based & backcountry recreation. The recreation area stretches for hundreds of miles from Lees Ferry in Arizona to the Orange Cliffs of southern Utah, encompassing scenic vistas, geologic wonders, and a panorama of human history. Additionally, the controversy surrounding the construction of Glen Canyon Dam and the creation of Lake Powell contributed to the birth of the modern day environmental movement. The park offers opportunities for boating, fishing, swimming, backcountry hiking and four-wheel drive trips. read more...

Phone: 928-608-6404   Price Range: $5 - $10   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Page   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: Recreation Area   Activities: Backpacking, Biking / Bicycling, Birding, Boating and Watercraft, Fishing, Hiking, Kayaking, Swimming, Wildlife Watching, Camping, Auto Touring, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Navajo National Monument preserves three of the most-intact cliff dwellings of the ancestral puebloan people (Hisatsinom). The Navajo people who live here today call these ancient ones Anasazi. The monument is high on the Shonto Plateau, overlooking the Tsegi Canyon system in the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona. The monument features a visitor center, two short self-guided mesa top trails, two small campgrounds, and picnic area. In the summer, rangers guide visitors on tours of the Keet Seel and Betatakin cliff dwellings. Tours are usually available during the winter, spring, and fall months as well. read more...

Phone: 928-672-2700   Price Range: N/A   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Tonalea   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Backpacking, Birding, Hiking, Wildlife Watching, Camping, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs, Star Gazing   Details Provided By: Navajo National Monument

Petrified Forest National Park is a surprising land of scenic wonders and fascinating science. The park features one of the world's largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood, the multi-hued badlands of the Chinle Formation known as the Painted Desert, historic structures, archeological sites, and displays of 225 million-year-old fossils. read more...

Phone: 928-524-6228   Price Range: $5 - $10   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Petrified Forest   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Park   Activities: Backpacking, Biking / Bicycling, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Wildlife Watching, Auto Touring, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Petrified Forest National Park

The Grand Canyon is more than a great chasm carved over millennia through the rocks of the Colorado Plateau. It is more than an awe-inspiring view. It is more than a pleasuring ground for those who explore the roads, hike the trails, or float the currents of the turbulent Colorado River. read more...

Phone: 928-638-7888   Price Range: $5 - $10   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Grand Canyon   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Park   Activities: Backpacking, Biking / Bicycling, Birding, Boating and Watercraft, Cross Country Skiing, Fishing, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Whitewater Rafting, Wildlife Watching, Camping, Auto Touring, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs, Snowshoeing   Details Provided By: Grand Canyon National Park

Rainbow Bridge is the world's largest natural bridge. The span has undoubtedly inspired people throughout time--from the neighboring American Indian tribes who consider Rainbow Bridge sacred, to the 300,000 people from around the world who visit it each year. Please visit Rainbow Bridge in a spirit that honors and respects the cultures to whom it is sacred. While Rainbow Bridge is a separate unit of the National Park Service, it is proximate to and administered by Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. For additional information about services and facilities connected with Rainbow Bridge. read more...

Phone: 928-608-6404   Price Range: N/A   Open Season: N/A   Camping: No
Nearest Popular City: Page   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Backpacking, Hiking   Details Provided By: Rainbow Bridge National Monument

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument celebrates the life and landscape of the Sonoran Desert. Here, in this desert wilderness of plants and animals and dramatic mountains and plains scenery, you can drive a lonely road, hike a backcountry trail, camp beneath a clear desert sky, or just soak in the warmth and beauty of the Southwest. The Monument exhibits an extraordinary collection of plants of the Sonoran Desert, including the organ pipe cactus, a large cactus rarely found in the United States. There are also many creatures that have been able to adapt themselves to extreme temperatures, intense sunlight and little rainfall. Acreage: 330,688.86; Federal: 329,316.31; Non-federal: 1,372.55. Wilderness area: 312,600 read more...

Phone: 520-387-6849   Price Range: N/A   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Ajo   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Backpacking, Biking / Bicycling, Birding, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Wildlife Watching, Auto Touring, Nature Walks, Star Gazing   Details Provided By: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

The staff at Saguaro National Park invite you to Experience Your America in a way that only the Sonoran Desert can offer. This unique desert is home to the most recognizable cactus in the world, the majestic saguaro. Visitors of all ages are fascinated and enchanted by these desert giants, especially their many interesting and complex interrelationships with other desert life. Saguaro cacti provide their sweet fruits to hungry desert animals. They also provide homes to a variety of birds, such as the Harris hawk, Gila woodpecker and the tiny elf owl. Yet, the saguaro requires other desert plants for its very survival. During the first few years of a very long life, a young saguaro needs the shade and protection of a nurse plant such as the palo verde tree. With an average life span of 150 years, a mature saguaro may grow to a height of 50 feet and weigh over 10 tons. read more...

Phone: (520) 733-5153   Price Range: $5 - $10   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Tucson   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Park   Activities: Backpacking, Biking / Bicycling, Birding, Hiking, Wildlife Watching, Auto Touring, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Saguaro National Park