Arizona is home to spectacular geological formations like Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon, as well as historic sites like Canyon de Chelly and the Mission San Xavier del Bac. Nearly 7.3 million people currently live in the state’s small towns and sprawling cities. Here are a few glimpses of the terrain of Arizona and some of the wildlife and people calling it home.
This photo story is part of Fifty, a collection of images from each of the United States.
Monument Valley, as viewed from Hunts Mesa, near the Utah-Arizona border #
A mother curve-billed thrasher (left) stands with her young on saguaro cactus flowers in Saguaro National Park. #
A view of some of the homes of West Sedona, Arizona, surrounded by red sandstone formations, photographed on March 28, 2015 #
A view of the downtown area of Jerome, Arizona, a former mining town located in the Black Hills in Yavapai County, photographed on April 27, 2017 #
Located on the Colorado Plateau in northern Arizona, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument includes the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area. The northwest section of the wilderness includes Coyote Buttes and many colorful sandstone formations, like this one, called The Wave. #
London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. In 1967, an entrepreneur and developer named Robert P. McCulloch purchased this bridge from the city of London, England, where it had stood over the River Thames since 1831. The masonry was dismantled, numbered, and shipped to Arizona, where it was reassembled as a functional bridge in the community that McCulloch was developing. #
The Mission San Xavier del Bac, south of Tucson, is a Spanish Catholic mission that was originally founded in 1692. Today it sits on the San Xavier Indian Reservation, part of the of the Tohono O’odham Nation. #
Fall colors on Inner Basin Trail in Coconino National Forest, along the Waterline Road section, seen on October 5, 2016. The trail ascends from Lockett Meadow into the caldera of the San Francisco Peaks, an extinct volcano and home of the tallest peaks in Arizona. #
Courthouse Butte, as seen from the Chapel Area of Sedona #
Tall buildings stand in downtown Phoenix, photographed near the intersection of Washington Street and Central Avenue, on February 4, 2014. #
A view of some of the neighborhoods of Glendale, Arizona, seen from a trail in Thunderbird Conservation Park #
A “turkey stampede” takes place in Phoenix at the annual Arizona State Fair, which has been held since 1884. The birds run madly after a small, battered truck, which is carrying treats. #
This natural waterfall on Fossil Creek in the Coconino National Forest is the destination of an easy, one-mile hike on Waterfall Trail. A large, deep pool at the base of the falls is a popular swimming hole. The creek produces 20,000 gallons of water a minute from a series of springs at the bottom of a 1,600-foot-deep canyon. This permanent water source has created a beautiful green zone rich with flora and fauna at the bottom of this arid canyon in Arizona’s high desert. #
Smoothly eroded walls in Antelope Canyon. Both Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon are slot canyons located on land belonging to the Navajo Nation, near Page, Arizona. #
Aerial view of the giant airplane boneyard of nearly 4,400 aircraft—the world’s largest such aircraft graveyard—situated on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. #
A view of the city of Flagstaff, seen below Mount Elden, on July 16, 2011 #
Dinosaurs stand outside the Rainbow Rock Shop in Holbrook, Arizona, a small town along historic Route 66, on December 19, 2018. #
The sun sets on Oatman, Arizona, on December 28, 2017. Oatman is a former mining town in western Arizona, along historic Route 66. #
A scene on the street of Winslow, Arizona, near the Standin’ on the Corner Park, on Old Highway 66, on June 1, 2019. The park features a statue of the performer Glenn Frey, and commemorates the 1972 hit song “Take It Easy” by the Eagles, which has a verse describing a scene in Winslow. #
Lightning strikes during a monsoon storm over the San Tan Mountains. #
In the late summer of 2016, a large herd of elk took up residence in Arizona’s Mormon Lake. The lake’s water levels were very low, creating a vast grassy area for the elk to graze. #
A razor-wire-covered border wall separates Nogales, Mexico, at right, from Nogales, Arizona, at dusk, photographed on March 2, 2019. #
A U.S. Border Patrol agent prepares to ride near the Mexico border on December 9, 2014, near Nogales, Arizona. #
A group of javelinas roams the grounds of Fort Bowie National Historic Site. #
The Grand Canyon is viewed at sunrise from the South Rim on February 8, 2019. #
Boating down the Colorado River below Havasu Creek in Grand Canyon National Park #
An aerial view of the Tucson area in February of 2019, with a focus on a tangle of housing subdivisions east of town #
The Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona, photographed on April 13, 2018. The Roman Catholic chapel was built in 1957. #
A view seen from the Munds Wagon Trail, a historic trail that follows one of the oldest cattle roads in Sedona #
A cotton harvester at work outside Safford, in eastern Arizona, on November 2, 2018 #
Remains of the homes of ancient cliff dwellers in Canyon de Chelly National Monument, a huge park on Navajo tribal lands near the town of Chinle, photographed on April 15, 2018 #
Biosphere 2, a research facility located north of Tucson, photographed in October 2017. The facility, now operated by the University of Arizona, was originally built to study closed ecological systems and how they might be maintained to support human life during explorations of outer space. #
An aerial view of the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods of Tucson #
A hot-air balloon descends to land as the sun sets north of Phoenix on March 1, 2013. #
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