Arizona USA
Destination Travel Guide & Hotel Reservations
The tourism industry in ARIZONA has, literally, one colossal advantage - the Grand
Canyon of the Colorado River. It's the single most awe-inspiring spectacle in a land
of unforgettable geology, and one of the few places in the world that you absolutely have
to see at least once in your life. However, the Grand Canyon is by no means the most
interesting or memorable destination in the state. Indeed, in comparison to its inhuman
scale, other parts of Arizona have a more abiding emotional impact, precisely because of
the sheer drama of human involvement in this forbidding but deeply resonant desert
landscape.
Over a third of the state still belongs to the Native Americans who have lived
here for centuries, and who outside the cities form the majority of the population. In the
so-called Indian Country of northeastern Arizona, the reservation lands of the Navajo
Nation hold the stupendous Canyon de Chelly and dozens of other marvellously
sited Ancestral Puebloan ruins , as well as the stark rocks of Monument Valley
. The Navajo surround the homeland of one of the most stoutly traditional of all Native
American peoples, the Hopi , who live in remote mesa-top villages . The
third main tribal group are the Apache , in the harshly beautiful southeastern
mountains - the last Native Americans to give in to the overwhelming power of the white
American invaders.
Away from the reservations, Wild West towns like Tombstone , site of the
famed gunfight at the OK Corral, give a clear sense of Arizona's characteristically
rough-and-ready, pioneer mentality; this was the last of the lower 48 states to join the
Union, in 1912. The cities , however, are not much fun. In Phoenix , the
capital, well over a million souls are scattered over a 500-square-mile morass of shopping
malls and tract-house suburbs; Tucson is a bit more civil, but still wears thin
after a day or so.
Though the open spaces of southern Arizona can be harsh and violent - most of the
southwestern quarter, along the parallel I-8 and I-10 highways, is used as a bombing range
- the bleakness is balanced somewhat by the many nature reserves which protect its amazing
flora and fauna, such as Saguaro National Park , just outside Tucson, with its
giant cactuses, real-life roadrunners and rare Gila monsters.
Reserve a Hotel Room in Arizona USA
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