The Apache Trail

A view of Apache Lake from the Apache Trail

Forget the Grand Canyon.

Some of Arizona's most amazing scenery can be found along an approximately 45-mile long stretch of roadway called the Apache Trail.

The Apache Trail (or AZ-88) begins in Apache Junction, at the extreme eastern edge of the Phoenix Metropolitan area. The trail is characterized by hairpin turns, steep inclines and declines, and breath-taking vistas of the sapphire man-made lakes that are part of the Salt River system.


Canyon Lake

You'll find the Roosevelt Dam and Roosevelt Lake just before AZ-88 hits AZ-188. The dam was constructed between 1905 and 1911, and was expanded in 1996.


The Roosevelt Dam

The Red Rocks of Sedona

Sedona in Technicolor

It's about a two-hour drive from a Phoenix to the small Arizona city that has become a Mecca for artists and tourists alike.

I'm talking about Sedona, of course, a city that is renowned for both the spectacular red sandstone formations that surround it and for the spiritual energy that is reputed to encompass it. The area surrounding Sedona is supposedly home to a number of vortices - or centers of spiritual energy.

I'ts easy to see why some believe this to be a sacred place. The vivid red rock outcroppings - which have been given names such as Coffee Pot Rock, Bell Rock, and Cathedral Rock - make for some spectacular scenery.

With it's abundance of hiking trails, the area is a great place to explore the outdoors. Sedona also has plenty to offer those who are more inclined to explore the inside of a shop. The streets are lined with specialty stores, tourist shops, and small art studios that sell paintings, ceramics, blown glass, and much more.

Grand Canyon

South Rim View

It's a sight that has inspired awe for thousands of years.

The canyon is both a lesson in time and scale. The chasm is 277 long, up to 18 miles wide in some places, and up to a mile deep. It has taken the Colorado River over six million years to cleave through the Colorado Plateau, revealing a geology that tells a story two billion years old.

Canyon layers include the Vishnu Basement Rocks, formed by the collision of two tectonic plates approximately two billion years ago; the red shale, limestone, and dark lava of the Grand Canyon Supergroup; and the Paleozoic Sedimentary Rocks, which are all that remains of the marine life, swamps and deltas, and dunes of a vanished ocean.


Visitors Marvel at the Canyon's Vastness


A Tree With a View

State Highway 64

State Highway 64 serves as the eastern gateway to the Grand Canyon's south rim. When approaching the Grand Canyon from the east, motorists will enjoy breath-taking glimpses of the Little Colorado River Gorge to the North. To the South, they will see cozy dwellings dwarfed by red hills.


View from State Highway 64

Papago Park

Hole-In-The-Rock

The improbable red buttes of Phoenix's Papago Park are some of the area's most recognizable geological formations. The buttes, which are easily visible from the freeway, lend the city a certain dream-like quality.

Before the land that now comprises the 1,200 acre park was purchased by the city of Phoenix in 1959, it served as a reservation for the Maricopa and Pima tribes and as a German prisoner of war camp during World War II. It was also declared the Papago Saguaro National Monument by President Woodrow Wilson. The area's national monument status was later revoked.

Over time, erosion has chiseled a hole through one of the park's red buttes. Called Hole-In-The-Rock, this formation was used by the Hohokam people to mark equinoxes and solstices.

Climbing Hole-In-The-Rock via the footpath toward the back of the formation affords park visitors a spectacular view of both South Mountain and downtown Phoenix.


View of South Mountain from Phoenix's Papago Park