Catherine Hollis

Most gemstones end up behind glass, with a price tag and a clerk watching your hands. Out in far eastern Arizona, near the small town of Duncan, there is a stretch of public land where the rules flip. Here, you are the one doing the finding, and the prize is fire agate, a stone that […]

Utah gets a lot of credit for red rock, but some of the wildest sandstone in the Southwest sits right here in northern Arizona. Cliffs climb as much as 3,000 feet above their bases, slot canyons twist through the rock, and swirling formations look like frozen waves. Many travelers drive past without knowing how much

Southern Arizona hides a mountaintop where the Milky Way stretches overhead in plain view, no fancy gear required. Scientists have been learning about the universe from this peak for decades, and regular folks can join them after sunset. The drive from Tucson climbs past desert views and ends among domes packed with research telescopes. Stick

Easter Island is a long, pricey trip from Arizona, and most of us will never make it there. The good news is that our own desert has its own collection of giant stone faces, some built by hand and many carved by wind and time. You can find a Route 66 tiki head in Kingman,

Some bookstores are quick stops, and some swallow your whole afternoon before you notice the parking meter. Arizona has a surprising number of that second kind, from Tucson to Flagstaff, and a few of them stock far more than paperbacks. Think vinyl, retro video games, instruments, puzzles, comics, fancy pens, and shelves stacked with thousands

Walk into the right European deli in Arizona and your quick errand turns into a full basket before you reach the second aisle. From Sierra Vista to Lake Havasu City, our state has family-run shops stocking German cold cuts, Ukrainian pickles, Italian cheeses, cannoli shells, and fresh pasta you simply will not see at the

On the west side of Phoenix, there is a fabric store where smart shoppers plan their route before they ever grab a bolt. The aisles keep going, the choices keep coming, and first-timers often need a minute just to figure out where to start. For Arizona quilters, crafters, and anyone rescuing a tired old couch,

A bison parks itself in the middle of the road, and nobody honks. Wolves circle the cars, black bears nap in the pines, and somewhere up ahead a grizzly is waiting for its lunch. None of it is happening in Montana or Alaska. It is happening a short drive off Route 66 in Williams, right

Somewhere past the Mogollon Rim, a turn in a quiet high desert road reveals rows of purple set against red dirt. It does not look like the Arizona most of us see from the freeway. Out here in Apache County, a small farm grows lavender at altitude, lets guests cut their own bundles, and pours

Somewhere in north Phoenix, a small storefront holds more childhood memories than most attics in Arizona combined. Shelves climb from the floor to the ceiling, stacked with action figures, vintage toys, and collectibles from nearly every era a grown-up might miss. Parents walk in to shop for their kids and end up pointing at the

About an hour west of Phoenix, past the freeway exits most people never take, sits a desert hideaway where the loudest thing around might be a peacock. Mineral water flows nonstop into old tubs and stock tanks, strangers soak side by side without saying a word, and a parrot named Buddy greets people near the

Plenty of Arizonans save for years to sip their way through the hills of Italy. Few realize that some of the most talked-about pours in the state come from grapes grown right here, in the high desert of southeastern Arizona. Better still, you do not even need to leave the Valley to taste them. Tucked

Some Arizona trips need a plane ticket, a hotel, and a packed itinerary. This one needs a full tank of gas, an early alarm, and a little patience on a twisting mountain road. Just outside Apache Junction, a blue ribbon of water sits tucked between tall desert cliffs, and plenty of locals still drive right

Most Arizonans drive past rows of tall palms near Yuma without a second thought. Those palms are not just scenery, though. Some of them are working date trees, and one family farm tucked into the desert outside town grows, packs, and sells its own fruit right where it is picked. Out here, a snack you

Puerto Rico sits more than 3,000 miles from the Valley, yet some Arizona families get there for the price of a lunch plate. A small counter-service kitchen in Mesa has quietly become the place where island natives come to feel at home and where first-timers learn what mofongo actually is. People make the trip from

A copper company once dug a shaft 1,200 feet into an Arizona hillside, hoping for copper, and found gold instead. The gold ran out long ago, but the town that grew around it never really left. Today, the old buildings, rusty trucks, and mining gear are still standing just outside Jerome, and families come to

Arizona has a lot of shiny new dessert spots, but some of the best shakes in the state still come from places that look like they never left the Eisenhower years. This list covers old-fashioned soda fountains, Route 66 drive-ins, and retro diners where malts, floats, and banana splits are still the main event. A

Some of the most aviation-obsessed ground in the entire country sits in the pine-dotted high country of Northern Arizona, and plenty of longtime locals have never set foot on it. A headline about the world’s largest collection of miniature airplanes points straight to Prescott, a town better known for its courthouse square than for jet

Plenty of Arizonans book flights to California for a vineyard weekend, but some of the best tasting rooms in the West are only a few hours down the highway from Phoenix or Tucson. From the grasslands around Sonoita and Elgin to the creekside farms of the Verde Valley and the rail-town streets of Willcox, our

High in the ponderosa pines of Pinetop, a small cabin fills its parking lot before many people finish their first cup of coffee. Families plan whole weekends around breakfast there, and plenty of them say the wait at the door was the smartest part of the trip. The plates are big enough to make hungry

Phoenix has no shortage of dessert counters, yet one tiny shop in a north Phoenix strip mall keeps pulling pie lovers back week after week. The main draw is a key lime pie built on a crust most bakers would never think to try. Travelers from other states have tracked it down and then left

Most go-kart tracks feel like a slow lap around a parking lot. This one does not. Tucked into Scottsdale, it runs electric karts so quick that people with sim racing experience call the layout technical, and first-timers climb out grinning. The track even winds both inside and outside the building, which is not something you

Southeast of Tucson, past rolling hills dotted with saguaros, a quiet hillside hides a secret that outlaws once counted on to stay hidden. Beneath it runs a cave so big that its name was never going to be modest, with winding passages, rock formations built over ages, and guides who treat every tour like a

Seashells usually mean a long drive to the coast, but some Arizonans find them on a hillside near Payson. The shells here are fossils, left behind by sea creatures that lived when this part of our state sat under water. Families pull off the highway, walk a short path, and start searching the rocks for

Out past the last busy highway in northwest Arizona, there is a cattle ranch where the night sky does most of the decorating. A gunfighter from the 1800s once owned the land, and today the evenings end with a campfire, a guitar, and a cowboy who might make up a song about you on the

Some of the best Mexican food in Arizona comes from places with plastic chairs, small dining rooms, and signs you could drive past without a second look. From a Tucson neighborhood classic to a border-town taco stop in Nogales and a busy counter in Prescott Valley, this list covers seven spots that care more about

Some Arizona retirees are packing up their Phoenix routines and driving northwest until the traffic thins out. What they find is a small town with a big Old West story and a population that still fits in a few thousand homes. The desert stretches out in every direction, and the pace of life slows right

Most Arizona evenings end the same way, with the sun sliding behind a skyline and everyone racing indoors to escape the heat. In the middle of Tempe, a stretch of water flips that routine. Locals head outside at golden hour, grab a burger at a spot a few blocks away, and settle in for a

Every winter, thousands of sandhill cranes settle into a shallow wetland in far southeastern Arizona, and plenty of people who live an hour away have never made the drive. On a good morning, these big gray birds arrive by the hundreds every minute, landing in family groups on the same stretch of shoreline. The site

Sedona gets most of its fame from red rock trails and vortex hunts, yet one of its best surprises requires no hiking boots at all. Just off a busy highway sits a cluster of stucco walls, cobblestone lanes, tiled staircases, and archways designed to look like a traditional Mexican village, complete with fountains, courtyards, and

Tubac has a reputation as an artists’ village, a small southern Arizona town where local art shops seem to fill every corner. That reputation raises a fun question about whether this little place might out-gallery the big city up north. At the end of those art-filled streets sits something even more surprising: the spot where

Arizona has plenty of old buildings, but very few have stayed untouched since 1881 with the proof still in the walls. In Tombstone, one wooden landmark kept its furniture, its card tables, and its bullet holes right where the Old West left them. Locals who think they have already seen everything in this famous little

Phoenix summers push everyone indoors, but some indoor spots are more fun than others. One of the newest places in the Valley to get lost on purpose is a massive shopping hall packed with vintage clothing, old records, Barbie collections and handmade Southwestern furniture. It only opened in 2026, yet it already has longtime antique

Some Arizona kids have never held a gold pan, and that is a problem worth fixing on a Saturday. East of Mesa, where the Superstition Mountains rise over the desert, sits a rebuilt 1890s mining town with a narrow gauge train, a guided mine tour, and a trough where young prospectors can try their luck.

Some Arizona mornings start with an alarm clock, and some start with a line outside a bakery door. Across the state, from Glendale to Flagstaff to Tucson, there are bakeries where regulars show up early because the best trays sell out fast. This list covers eight of them, and each one has its own reason

Safford does not usually top the list when Arizonans plan a weekend escape, and that might be the best-kept secret in the Gila Valley. Tucked into this quiet corner of southeastern Arizona is a family-run spot where mineral water, private tubs, and an artesian pond have been drawing people for decades. Some folks drive an