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Arizona National Parks
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National parks guide · Updated October 2026
Every NPS site in Arizona
22
National Park Service sites in Arizona
There are 22 National Park Service sites in Arizona: 12 national monuments, four national parks, two national historic sites, two national recreation areas, a national memorial, and a national historical park. Tap any of them to jump to its details.
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Canyon de Chelly National Monument
Today, Canyon de Chelly (pronounced duh SHAY) is home to the Navajo, but people have lived in this part of the Colorado Plateau for 5,000 years. With natural water sources and good soil for crops, the canyons provided a home for the ancestral Puebloan people. President Herbert Hoover authorized Canyon de Chelly National Monument in 1931 to protect these historic lands and preserve their ancient culture.
The monument lies entirely within Navajo lands, and the National Park Service works with the Navajo Nation to manage its 84,000 acres. Popular activities include guided tours of the canyon, hiking, and camping. Two paved scenic drives run along the canyon rims, and if you have just a half day, you can see all 10 overlooks along the north and south rims and still fit in some hiking. Nearby Petrified Forest National Park is only about an hour and a half to the south.
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
Casa Grande Ruins is one of the largest prehistoric structures ever built in North America. The ancestral Sonoran Desert people built it around 1350 C.E., but no one knows exactly why. In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison set aside the land around the site to protect it from further damage and allow restoration work to begin. It was the first cultural preserve ever established in the United States.
Today you can take a guided tour or follow the markers on a self-guided tour around the Great House. Stop in at the visitor center, which is open all year, to learn about the Hohokam culture and watch a short film about the site. There are picnic sites too. Casa Grande Ruins is southeast of Phoenix and a short drive from Saguaro National Park and Tonto National Monument. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is a few hours west of nearby Tucson.
Chiricahua National Park
Chiricahua (pronounced cheer-ih-KAH-wah) National Park is a small park in southeastern Arizona known as the “Wonderland of Rocks.” This unique landscape was formed as volcanic ash from a huge eruption 27 million years ago eroded away. What remains are rock pinnacles, hollow caves, faults, ancient lava flows, the remnants of a giant volcanic caldera, and other formations.
You can take the 8-mile scenic drive, hike 17 miles of trails, camp, or join a guided tour. The original monument was created in 1924 and protected 4,238 acres. Today it covers 11,985 acres, and most of it is designated wilderness.
Chiricahua became the country’s 64th national park on October 20, 2026, when the Chiricahua National Park Act was signed into law. The boundaries didn’t change, so it’s the same Wonderland of Rocks with a new title.
Coronado National Memorial
Coronado National Memorial tells the story of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s expedition and Europe’s first contact with Native Americans in the Southwest. There’s no direct evidence of the expedition in the area, but it’s believed to have followed the nearby San Pedro River while searching for the mythical cities of Cibola. The park guides visitors through the story of Coronado’s 1540 expedition.
One of the park’s most prominent features is Montezuma Pass. At 6,575 feet, it offers sweeping views of the San Pedro River valley and the surrounding area. Other activities include scenic drives, hiking, birding, and guided tours. The visitor center has exhibits and period replicas, but as a memorial, it has no actual artifacts from Coronado’s time. The memorial is meant as a place of reflection rather than a museum.
Fort Bowie National Historic Site
Fort Bowie was an Army outpost at the center of the conflicts with the Apache in Arizona in the late 1800s, and it saw many bloody battles. Visitors can tour the ruins of the fort, hike, and watch for wildlife. The post cemetery was restored in 2011 to match historical photographs from 1884 to 1894, the year the fort finally closed.
Fort Bowie National Historic Site is 116 miles east of Tucson via Interstate 10.
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
Just north of Grand Canyon National Park lies Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. It protects an incredible 1.25 million acres of backcountry wilderness, along with the Colorado River, its tributaries, and the scenic and natural areas within its borders, including Lake Powell. Located at the center of the Colorado Plateau, Glen Canyon is popular for all kinds of water sports, camping, hiking, fishing, swimming, and guided tours. The park’s most recognizable feature is Lake Powell, which was created when the impressive Glen Canyon Dam was built. Be sure to stop by the Carl Hayden Visitor Center at the dam to learn how it was built and to grab some great photos.
Several other national park units share a boundary with Glen Canyon, including Grand Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Rainbow Bridge National Monument. Glen Canyon also borders about 9.3 million acres of other federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, including Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, and the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness.
Other popular areas of Glen Canyon include the famous Horseshoe Bend, Rainbow Bridge National Monument (one of the largest natural bridges in the world), Lees Ferry, and the Orange Cliffs, which border Canyonlands National Park. Four visitor centers are scattered throughout the park and are worth a stop for information, exhibits, and current conditions. The Escalante Interagency Visitor Center in Escalante, Utah, shares offices with Glen Canyon, Dixie National Forest, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and it has some amazing views.
Grand Canyon National Park
The Grand Canyon is immense, and you’ll have no trouble finding things to do in this awesome park. The dimensions are staggering, up to a mile deep and 18 miles wide. As the Colorado River continues its slow work, the canyon only becomes more spectacular.
Grand Canyon National Park has two main areas. The South Rim is open all year, while the North Rim is less developed and closes in winter. The South Rim is the busier of the two, but whichever one you visit, plan ahead and consider going in spring or fall. Grand Canyon is one of the most visited national parks in America, so expect crowds, especially in summer.
Update, October 2026: In July 2025, the Dragon Bravo Fire burned through the North Rim and destroyed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge along with dozens of other buildings. Select areas of the North Rim have reopened for the 2026 season, so check the park’s North Rim page to see what’s open before you go.
Popular activities include hiking, camping, RVing, fishing, whitewater trips down the river, and much more. This park has just about everything. Some of our favorite things from our visit were watching the sunset from one of the overlooks along Hermit Road, driving out to the Desert View Watchtower on the east end of the park, and dining at the historic El Tovar. Whatever you decide to do, it’s a great park to explore.
Grand Canyon celebrated its 100th birthday in 2019. Congress established it as a national park in 1919, but President Theodore Roosevelt first protected it as a national monument in 1908. In 1979, it was also named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Hohokam Pima National Monument
The Hohokam (pronounced ho-ho-KAHM) people lived in Arizona from around 300 A.D. to 1200 A.D., and the village of Snaketown was home to as many as 2,000 people. Archaeologists first excavated the village in the 1930s and found evidence of “urban” living, with a central plaza, pit houses, a crematorium, sophisticated irrigation systems, and rooms where jewelry and pottery were made.
Hohokam Pima National Monument lies entirely within the Gila River Indian Community and is not open to the public. To learn more about the Hohokam culture, visit Casa Grande Ruins National Monument.
Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site
Hubbell Trading Post has served customers since 1878 and is the oldest operating trading post in the Navajo Nation. John Lorenzo Hubbell bought it in 1878, and he and his family built a trading empire selling all kinds of goods. He was especially fond of Navajo rug weaving and silversmithing.
The National Park Service bought the trading post in 1967, and it’s still active today, run by the Western National Parks Association. The site has preserved nearly all of the Hubbell family’s belongings, and the buildings still hold their original furnishings and artifacts.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area
Lake Mead National Recreation Area was created after the Colorado River was dammed, and it runs along the Nevada-Arizona border. It’s immense at 1.5 million acres, and it was America’s first national recreation area. Lake Mead and Lake Mohave are the park’s highlights, with boating, fishing, paddling, camping, hiking, and much more. Paddlers might like the 30-mile Black Canyon National Water Trail, established in 2014. Book a tour and set out from below Hoover Dam to explore beaches, caves, coves, hot springs, and wildlife. If you’re looking for solitude, Lake Mead has nine designated wilderness areas to explore.
The Alan Bible Visitor Center is the park’s main visitor center, near Boulder City, Nevada. The impressive Hoover Dam is nearby too and offers guided tours.
Montezuma Castle National Monument
Montezuma Castle National Monument protects a 20-room cliff dwelling in Camp Verde, and it was one of the first four national monuments President Theodore Roosevelt named under the new Antiquities Act in 1906. The Sinagua people built the dwelling nearly 800 years ago. The park has a scenic trail and ranger-led talks, and the museum and visitor center show exhibits and artifacts about daily life for the Sinagua.
Nearby Tuzigoot National Monument is Montezuma Castle’s sister park and just a short drive away. The Sinagua built both along the Verde River, and the Park Service manages them together.
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
Thirty-one species of cacti live in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, including organ pipe and saguaro. Located in the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona along the Mexican border, the monument is full of life. Besides its most famous residents, you might spot kangaroo rats, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, mule deer, coyotes, and jackrabbits.
You can bike or drive the park’s scenic drives, camp, hike, and ride horses on the developed horse trails. Ranger-led programs include evening programs in the park’s amphitheater, away from the heat of the day. You can also visit Organ Pipe’s sister park in Mexico, El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar in Sonora. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is one of the only places in the United States to see organ pipe cactus, since nearly all of them grow in Mexico.
Petrified Forest National Park
Like many parks in the western U.S., Petrified Forest National Park sits on the Colorado Plateau, so it’s full of unique geology, beautiful colors, and plenty to see and do. There are several areas of the park to explore, but its most famous residents are the petrified logs left from the forest that once grew here. You can easily find them on hikes throughout the park. Some of the best examples are at the south end near the Rainbow Forest Museum and on the Giant Logs Trail.
Petrified Forest is easy to get to since it’s just off Interstate 40, and you can drive the scenic road from one end of the park to the other and back in half a day. Be sure to stop at the overlooks, especially in the Painted Desert. Hiking trails throughout the park lead to highlights like ancient Puebloan sites and dwellings. There are visitor centers at both the north and south ends of the park. Backpacking, wilderness hiking, horseback riding, and geocaching are also popular here.
Pipe Spring National Monument
Pipe Spring National Monument protects a vital spring in the dry country of northern Arizona. The spring was important to the Kaibab Paiute people, Mormon settlers, and other travelers making their way through the area, and the monument tells the story of how people have lived with this landscape.
Be sure to explore the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians Visitor Center and Museum to learn about the people who shaped the area and about Paiute culture today. Guided tours are offered at Winsor Castle, the fort built over the spring. In summer, the site offers demonstrations of pioneer life and how settlers adapted to the dry climate and challenging landscape.
Saguaro National Park
Saguaro (pronounced suh-WAH-roh) National Park in Tucson protects some of the largest cacti in the United States, but there’s more to a visit than the cacti themselves. Hiking and backcountry camping are popular here, and the trails offer great views of the desert landscape. The park also has 57,930 acres of designated wilderness, which makes overnight backpacking trips possible.
President Herbert Hoover first protected Saguaro as a national monument in 1933. Congress made it a national park in 1994, and today it protects a large stretch of the Sonoran Desert on both sides of Tucson.
Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument
Around 1085, Sunset Crater erupted and devastated everything around it. Plant life didn’t recover until about 500 years ago. Today, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument protects two volcanoes, Sunset Crater and its smaller neighbor, Lenox Crater.
Visitors can enjoy hiking trails, interpretive programs, and night sky events. The visitor center is open all year. Walnut Canyon and Wupatki national monuments are both nearby. Sunset Crater and Wupatki are connected by a 34-mile scenic loop drive, so you can easily see both in one day and still have time to hike a few trails and stop at both visitor centers.
Tonto National Monument
Tonto National Monument protects cliff dwellings built by the Salado people, who lived in the area from about 1250 to 1450 C.E. This northern Sonoran Desert community is known for its colorful pottery and woven cotton goods. Guided tours of the Upper Cliff Dwelling are offered on certain days of the week. You’ll find more hiking, camping, and other activities throughout the Tonto Basin and Salt River areas, in Tonto National Forest, and at nearby Tonto Natural Bridge State Park.
Tumacácori National Historical Park
Tumacácori (pronounced too-muh-KAH-kor-ee) National Historical Park protects Spanish mission churches founded along the Santa Cruz River in southern Arizona, most of them by Padre Kino. The Park Service manages three of them: San José de Tumacácori, Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi, and San Cayetano de Calabazas, and tours are available at all three. Padre Kino began founding missions in this region, known as the Pimería Alta, in 1687, and it became a crossroads of Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries, Native Americans, and settlers passing through.
Today you can tour the missions, hike around the grounds, and enjoy cultural demonstrations. The park’s museum and visitor center have exhibits and artifacts that give insight into life in the Santa Cruz Valley during this time.
Tumacácori National Historical Park is about 45 miles south of Tucson.
Tuzigoot National Monument
Tuzigoot (pronounced TOO-zee-goot) National Monument protects an ancient pueblo built by the Sinagua people, who lived in the Verde River Valley about 1,000 years ago. You can walk the trail through the pueblo and visit the museum to see artifacts and learn more. Tuzigoot is less than an hour from Montezuma Castle National Monument, where you can see more ancient cliff dwellings, and the two parks are managed together.
Walnut Canyon National Monument
Walnut Canyon National Monument preserves the cliff dwellings and culture of the Sinagua people, who lived in the area from about 600 until 1400 A.D. The park’s two main trails, the Rim Trail and the Island Trail, show the cliff dwellings from two different perspectives. The Rim Trail has views of the canyon and the rooms built into its walls. The Island Trail gets you up close to the dwellings, but it takes you down and back up more than 700 steps.
The visitor center is open all year and offers information and guided walks. A museum also displays artifacts and exhibits from the site.
Walnut Canyon is close to other ancient Puebloan sites at Tuzigoot, Sunset Crater Volcano, and Wupatki national monuments.
Wupatki National Monument
Wupatki (pronounced woo-POT-kee) National Monument protects ancient pueblos that people lived in about 900 years ago, and several of them are open to explore. The largest is Wupatki Pueblo, with about 100 rooms. It was probably the largest and most influential pueblo in the region at its peak.
The park offers interpretive programs and guided hikes to some of the pueblos for a closer look. It’s about an hour’s drive from Flagstaff, and it shares a scenic loop drive with Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, so plan to see them together.
Partners of the Park Service
NPS-affiliated sites in Arizona
These sites aren’t run by the National Park Service, but they’re part of the NPS family through national trails and heritage areas.
Arizona National Scenic Trail
The Arizona National Scenic Trail was designated by Congress in 2009 and runs for more than 800 miles, from the U.S.-Mexico border in the south up to Utah. The trail highlights Arizona’s diverse history, wilderness, scenery, and wildlife. It’s managed by the U.S. Forest Service, with support from other agencies like the National Park Service.
The trailhead pictured above is at Theodore Roosevelt Lake near Tonto National Monument. The Arizona Trail Association has maps and more about hiking the trail.
Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail
The Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail follows the route of the Butterfield Overland Mail, which carried passengers and mail by stagecoach between St. Louis, Memphis, and San Francisco from 1858 to 1861. The route swung across the southern United States through Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Congress added it to the National Trails System in 2023, so it is one of the newest sites in the NPS family and visitor facilities are still being developed. In Arizona the trail crossed Apache Pass near Fort Bowie National Historic Site and ran through Tucson on its way to the Colorado River at Yuma.
Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail
In 1775 and 1776, Juan Bautista de Anza led a group of about 240 men, women, and children from Arizona to the San Francisco Bay Area to establish the first non-Native settlement there. The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail tells the story of their 1,800-mile journey, which began in Mexico. The 1,200-mile U.S. portion of the trail includes historic sites in Arizona and California that are open to visitors, along with an auto tour route and the Anza Recreation Trail, supported by communities along the way. The Anza Trail Foundation has more information and markers along the trail.
The section of trail pictured is at Tumacácori National Historical Park.
Old Spanish National Historic Trail
The Old Spanish National Historic Trail tells the story of the people and places along the trail between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Los Angeles, California. Traders used it heavily in the early 1800s to move goods across the Southwest, and it made Santa Fe a center of commerce. For a few decades, Mexican and American traders depended on the trail, until the United States took control of the Southwest and opened new trade routes and wagon roads. By the 1850s, the Old Spanish Trail was obsolete.
The trail runs through six states (New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California), and there are plenty of places to learn about its history. Here are some popular places to get your passport stamped along the trail:
- Navajo National Monument, Shonto, AZ
- Pipe Spring National Monument, Fredonia, AZ
- Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Page, AZ (also home to Horseshoe Bend)
- El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, Los Angeles, CA
- Mojave National Preserve headquarters, Barstow, CA
- Colorado National Monument, Fruita, CO
- Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Mosca, CO
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Montrose, CO
- Aztec Ruins National Monument, Aztec, NM
- Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Boulder City, NV
- Arches National Park, Moab, UT
- Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Kanab, UT
Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument
Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument sits between Grand Canyon National Park and Lake Mead National Recreation Area and is full of canyons, buttes, bluffs, cliffs, and plateaus. Its geology and ecosystems come from the Colorado Plateau meeting the Mojave Desert. Parashant is mostly undeveloped wilderness, so four-door sedans need not apply. You’ll need a 4×4 to get around, even on the most basic scenic drives.
What the park lacks in development it makes up for in beauty. You can enjoy camping and hiking in solitude, world-class stargazing, and adventurous off-roading. The park is open every day all year, but there are no visitor centers or facilities inside its boundaries. Nearby Pipe Spring National Monument in Fredonia has information about exploring the park.
Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area
Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area was designated in 2019 and covers 3,300 square miles of the Santa Cruz River Valley in southern Arizona. It protects and shares the stories and history of the region.
Highlights include the town of Marana and the Tucson area, which UNESCO named a City of Gastronomy for its 4,000-year food heritage, Tumamoc Hill (a National Historic Landmark), Saguaro National Park West, and Tumacácori National Historical Park, along with many others. Together they preserve important archaeological, historic, and cultural places in the area.
Vermilion Cliffs National Monument
Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and protects 280,000 acres of remote, pristine wilderness in northern Arizona. It sits near Grand Canyon National Park and borders Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.
Besides the Vermilion Cliffs themselves, you can explore the Paria Plateau, Coyote Buttes, and Paria Canyon. The monument is also home to a growing population of endangered California condors. Backpacking and primitive camping are popular, but there are no paved roads, and you’ll need a 4×4 because of deep sand in places.
President Bill Clinton established Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in 2000.
Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area
Yuma has always been a crossroads for explorers and traders crossing the Colorado River. Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area works to restore the area’s wetlands and to reconnect Yuma’s historic downtown with today’s commerce and tourism. Places to visit include Colorado River State Historic Park, Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park, the East and West Wetlands, and Pivot Point Plaza. The heritage area’s website has more.
Good to know
Arizona national parks questions
Arizona has four national parks: Chiricahua National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Petrified Forest National Park, and Saguaro National Park. Chiricahua became a national park on October 20, 2026. Arizona also has 18 other National Park Service sites.
There are 22 NPS sites in Arizona: 12 national monuments, four national parks, two national historic sites, two national recreation areas, a national memorial, and a national historical park. Eight more NPS-affiliated sites, like Arizona National Scenic Trail, round out the list.
So far we’ve visited 14 of the 22 NPS sites in Arizona, including Grand Canyon National Park, Petrified Forest National Park, and Saguaro National Park. We’ve also visited two of the affiliated sites.
Keep exploring
National parks in nearby states
There’s more to explore in these nearby states.
