Arizona Parks and Recreation Areas with Wildlife Watching

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

As a result of this expedition, what has been truly characterized by historians as one of the greatest land expeditions the world has known, a new civilization was established in the great American Southwest reported the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1939. To commemorate permanently the explorations of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado¦would be of great value in advancing the relationship of the United States and Mexico upon a friendly basis of cultural understanding, stated E. K. Burlew, Acting Secretary of the Interior in 1940. read more...

Phone: (520) 366-5515   Price Range: N/A   Open Season: N/A   Camping: No
Nearest Popular City: Hereford   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Monument   Activities: Birding, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Wildlife Watching, Auto Touring, Nature Walks   Details Provided By: Coronado

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

Pea Ridge National Military Park is a 4,300 acre Civil War Battlefield that preserves the site of the March 1862 battle that saved Missouri for the Union. On March 7 & 8, nearly 26,000 soldiers fought to determine whether Missouri would remain under Union control, and whether or not Federal armies could continue their offensive south through the Mississippi River Valley. Major General Earl Van Dorn led 16,000 Confederates against 10,250 Union soldiers, under the command of Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis. Van Dorn's command consisted of regular Confederate troops commanded by Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch, and Missouri State Guard Forces commanded by Major General Sterling Price. The Confederate force also included some 800 Cherokees fighting for the Confederacy. The Union army consisted of soldiers from Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Ohio. Half of the Federals were German immigrants. The park also includes a two and one half mile segment of the Trail of Tears. The Elkhorn Tavern, site of bitter fighting on both days, is a NPS reconstruction on the site of the original. The park is one of the most well preserved battlefields in the United States. read more...

Phone: 479-451-8122   Price Range: $0 - $3   Open Season: N/A   Camping: No
Nearest Popular City: Garfield   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Military Park   Activities: Hiking, Horseback Riding, Wildlife Watching, Auto Touring, Interpretive Programs   Details Provided By: Pea Ridge National Military Park

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

Fort Bowie commemorates in its 1000 acres, the story of the bitter conflict between the Chiricahua Apaches and the United States military. For more than 30 years Fort Bowie and Apache Pass were the focal point of military operations eventually culminating in the surrender of Geronimo in 1886 and the banishment of the Chiricahuas to Florida and Alabama. It was the site of the Bascom Affair, a wagon train massacre, and the battle of Apache Pass, where a large force of Chiricahua Apaches under Mangus Colorados and Cochise fought the California Volunteers. read more...

Phone: 520-847-2500   Price Range: N/A   Open Season: N/A   Camping: No
Nearest Popular City: Bowie   Nearest Lake or River: N/A   Park Type: National Historic Site   Activities: Birding, Hiking, Wildlife Watching   Details Provided By: Fort Bowie