Arizona Parks and Recreation Areas with Interpretive Programs

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

Reflecting one of the longest continuously inhabited landscapes of North America, the cultural resources of Canyon de Chelly--including distinctive architecture, artifacts, and rock imagery--exhibit remarkable preservational integrity that provides outstanding opportunities for study and contemplation. Canyon de Chelly also sustains a living community of Navajo people, who are connected to a landscape of great historical and spiritual significance--a landscape composed of places infused with collective memory read more...

Phone: 928-674-5500   Price Range: N/A   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Chinle   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Hiking, Horseback Riding, Auto Touring, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Canyon de Chelly

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

Congress established Hot Springs Reservation on April 20, 1832 to protect hot springs flowing from the western slope of Hot Springs Mountain. This makes it the oldest area currently in the National Park System--40 years older than Yellowstone National Park. People have used the hot spring water in therapeutic baths for more than two hundred years to treat rheumatism and other ailments. The reservation eventually developed into a well-known resort nicknamed The American Spa because it attracted not only the wealthy but also indigent health seekers from around the world. Today the park protects eight historic bathhouses with the former luxurious Fordyce Bathhouse housing the park visitor center. The entire Bathhouse Row area is a National Historic Landmark District that contains the grandest collection of bathhouses of its kind in North America. By protecting the 47 hot springs and their watershed, the National Park Service continues to provide visitors with historic leisure activities such as hiking, picnicking, and scenic drives. Hot Springs Reservation became Hot Springs National Park by a Congressional name change on March 4, 1921. read more...

Phone: 501-624-2701   Price Range: $0 - $10   Open Season: N/A   Camping: Yes
Nearest Popular City: Hot Springs   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Park   Activities: Birding, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Camping, Auto Touring, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Hot Springs National Park

For its time and place, there was no other pueblo like Wupatki. Less than 800 years ago, it was the tallest, largest, and perhaps the richest and most influential pueblo around. It was home to 85-100 people, and several thousand more lived within a days walk. And it was built in one of the lowest, warmest, and driest places on the Colorado Plateau. What compelled people to build here? read more...

Phone: (928) 679-2365   Price Range: N/A   Open Season: N/A   Camping: No
Nearest Popular City: Flagstaff   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Birding, Hiking, Wildlife Watching, Auto Touring, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Wupatki National Monument

For over a thousand years, prehistoric farmers inhabited much of the present-day state of Arizona. When the first Europeans arrived, all that remained of this ancient culture were the ruins of villages, irrigation canals and various artifacts. Among these ruins is the Casa Grande, or Big House, one of the largest and most mysterious prehistoric structures ever built in North America. Casa Grande Ruins, the nation's first archeological preserve, protects the Casa Grande and other archeological sites within its boundaries. read more...

Phone: 520 723-3172   Price Range: $0 - $3   Open Season: N/A   Camping: No
Nearest Popular City: Coolidge   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Birding, Wildlife Watching, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Casa Grande Ruins

Tumaccori National Historical Park in the upper Santa Cruz River Valley of southern Arizona is comprised of the abandoned ruins of three ancient Spanish colonial missions. The Park is located on 360 acres in three separate units. San Jose de Tumacacori and Los Santos Angeles de Guevavi, established in 1691, are the two oldest missions in Arizona. The third unit, San Cayetano de Calabazas, was established in 1756. Visitation to the Guevavi and Calabazas units is available only by reservation during monthly tours guided by the Park staff. All visitor services and Park operations are based out of the Tumaccori unit. read more...

Phone: 520-398-2341   Price Range: $0 - $3   Open Season: N/A   Camping: No
Nearest Popular City: Tumacacori   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Historic Park   Activities: Birding, Hiking, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Tumacácori National Historical Park

Well-preserved cliff dwellings were occupied by the Salado culture during the 13th, 14th, and early 15th centuries. The people farmed in the Salt River Valley and supplemented their diet by hunting and gathering native wildlife and plants. The Salado were fine craftsmen, producing some of the most exquisite polychrome pottery and intricately woven textiles to be found in the Southwest. Many of these objects are on display in the Visitor Center museum. read more...

Phone: (928) 467-2241   Price Range: $0 - $3   Open Season: N/A   Camping: No
Nearest Popular City: Roosevelt   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Birding, Hiking, Nature Walks, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Tonto National Monument