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| Travel Destination Guide - Arizona |
ARIZONA (USA)
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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.
Arizona has 27 State Parks and numerous natural wonders that provide access to a wide variety of activities, fauna and flora, and landscapes. The Sonoran Desert and Sagauro National Park feature typical desert scenery, with canyons, red cliffs and sandstone pinnacles, coyotes and rattlesnakes, and the giant multi-armed cacti that epitomise the Arizonian landscape. The Painted Desert and the magnificent sandstone spires of Monument Valley in the northeast, the spectacular Red Rock Country of Sedona, and the mountains and forests of Flagstaff are just some of Arizona's other natural attractions.
The desert is also home of the Wild West, the land of cowboys and Indians, prospectors, gamblers and dusty towns. The character of the Old West is epitomised in the old mining town of Tombstone, the site of the famous shootout at the OK Corral where staged gunfights, swinging saloon doors and old wooden buildings are reminders of the harsh past that respected the 'law of the gun'.
But Arizona is not only about deserts, history and natural wonders. Two of the state's biggest metropolises are in the desert, the cities of Phoenix and Tucson, offering 21st-century comforts such as luxurious resorts, shopping plazas and golf courses. The region's continuous sunshine and dry desert air have attracted thousands of people to its restorative properties and expensive health spas.
Outside the cities, the Native Americans who have lived in Arizona for centuries make up the majority of the population, and more than a third of the land is encompassed within Indian Reservations. Northeast Arizona is known as Indian country, where the Navajo and the traditional Hopi tribal groups reside, and is where the beautiful Canyon de Chelly, and numerous Ancestral Puebloan sites are to be found in the cliff walls and valleys. The Apache live in the southeastern mountains and were the last tribal group to concede to the white American aggressors.
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.
Arizona is better served by public transportation than much of the Southwest, but it's still an effort to get around without a car. Greyhound buses stop at all the major cities and at most towns along the interstates, while Amtrak trains cross the state on two of their transcontinental routes (via Tucson in the south, or Flagstaff further north). Seeing the backcountry, however - and especially the reservations - is all but impossible without a car. The largest airport is at Phoenix, and assorted good-value, short-hop flights cover the principal destinations. The only worthwhile bus tours visit the area around Flagstaff.
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