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An Arizona state park is an area of land in the U.S. state of Arizona preserved by the state for its natural, cultural, or recreational resources. The state park system in Arizona includes both state parks and state historic parks, as well as other designations such as natural areas and recreation areas. Arizona currently has 31 state park units, which are managed wholly or partly by the Arizona State Parks government agency. [1] In 2010 several Arizona state parks were closed due to budget cuts. Some have since reopened thanks to support in the form of donations and partnerships with local agencies. [2]
Park name | County | Size [lower-alpha 1] | Elevation [lower-alpha 1] | Established [lower-alpha 1] | Remarks [lower-alpha 1] | Photography | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
acres | ha | ft | m | |||||
Alamo Lake State Park | La Paz & Mohave | 4,900 | 2,000 | 1,300 | 400 | 1969 | Features a remote reservoir on the Bill Williams River with premiere bass fishing and stargazing | |
Buckskin Mountain State Park | La Paz | 1,677 | 679 | 420 | 130 | 1967 | Provides water recreation on the Colorado River in the Parker Valley | |
Catalina State Park | Pima | 5,493 | 2,223 | 2,650 | 810 | 1974 | Preserves a diverse desert landscape at the foot of the Santa Catalina Mountains | |
Cattail Cove State Park | Mohave | 2,000 | 810 | 450 | 140 | 1970 | Provides water recreation on Lake Havasu | |
Dead Horse Ranch State Park | Yavapai | 423 | 171 | 3,300 | 1,000 | 1972 | Provides outdoor recreation along the Verde River | |
Fool Hollow Lake Recreation Area | Navajo | 800 | 320 | 6,300 | 1,900 | 1994 | Surrounds a 150-acre (61 ha) mountain reservoir | |
Fort Verde State Historic Park | Yavapai | 11 | 4.5 | 3,260 | 990 | 1970 | Interprets the best-preserved Indian Wars-era fort in Arizona, active from 1871–1891 | |
Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial State Park | Yavapai | 320 | 130 | 4,318–5,460 | 1,316–1,664 | 2016 | Memorial to the nineteen members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots who died there on June 30, 2013 while fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire | |
Homolovi State Park | Navajo | 4,500 | 1,800 | 4,900 | 1,500 | 1986 | Preserves several pueblo ruins and other Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites | |
Jerome State Historic Park | Yavapai | | | 5,000 | 1,500 | 1957 | Honors the Douglas family of mining entrepreneurs in their 1916 adobe mansion | ||
Kartchner Caverns State Park | Cochise | | | 4,700 | 1,400 | 1988 | Preserves a limestone cave kept in near-pristine condition since its discovery in 1974 | ||
Lake Havasu State Park | Mohave | 928 | 376 | 480 | 150 | 1965 | Provides water recreation on Lake Havasu | |
Lost Dutchman State Park | Pinal | 320 | 130 | 2,000 | 610 | 1977 | Faces the Superstition Mountains, where the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine is said to be hidden | |
Lyman Lake State Park | Apache | 1,200 | 490 | 6,000 | 1,800 | 1960 | Features Lyman Reservoir and a 14th Century pueblo ruin | |
McFarland State Historic Park | Pinal | | | 1,500 | 460 | 1974 | Preserves a courthouse and jail from the Arizona Territory era | ||
Oracle State Park | Pinal | 3,948 | 1,598 | 3,700 | 1,100 | 1986 | Features an environmental learning center, a historic ranchhouse, and wildlife habitat in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains | |
Patagonia Lake State Park | Santa Cruz | 2,658 | 1,076 | 3,750 | 1,140 | 1974 | Provides recreational opportunities on 265-acre (107 ha) Patagonia Lake | |
Picacho Peak State Park | Pinal | 3,747 | 1,516 | 2,000 | 610 | 1965 | Features a distinctive 3,374-foot (1,028 m) peak and spring wildflowers | |
Red Rock State Park | Yavapai | 286 | 116 | 3,900 | 1,200 | 1986 | Preserves a section of scenic red rock canyon | |
Riordan Mansion State Historic Park | Coconino | 5 | 2.0 | 6,900 | 2,100 | 1978 | Interprets the 1904 adjoined homes of influential lumber-baron brothers Timothy and Michael Riordan | |
Roper Lake State Park | Graham | 338 | 137 | 3,130 | 950 | 1972 | Features a 32-acre (13 ha) fishing reservoir and a pond fed by a natural hot spring | |
San Rafael State Natural Area | Santa Cruz | 3,557 | 1,439 | 4,750 | 1,450 | 1999 | Preserves a native grassland largely free of invasive plants. A former ranch complex is now a district on the National Register of Historic Places Not open to the public | |
Slide Rock State Park | Coconino | 43 | 17 | 4,930 | 1,500 | 1985 | Features a natural waterslide and a historic apple orchard in Oak Creek Canyon | |
Sonoita Creek State Natural Area | Santa Cruz | 9,584 | 3,879 | 3,750 | 1,140 | 1994 | Preserves a diverse transition zone around Sonoita Creek adjacent to Patagonia Lake State Park | |
Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park | Cochise | | | 4,539 | 1,383 | 1959 | Preserves the historic 1882 courthouse, sheriff's office, and jail | ||
Tonto Natural Bridge State Park | Gila | 161 | 65 | 4,530 | 1,380 | 1969 | Features the world's largest natural arch made of travertine | |
Tubac Presidio State Historic Park | Santa Cruz | | | 3,500 | 1,100 | 1958 | Preserves the ruins of the 1753 Presidio San Ignacio de Tubac, an 1885 schoolhouse, and other structures plus a museum | ||
Verde River Greenway State Natural Area | Yavapai | 480 | 190 | 3,300 | 1,000 | 1986 | Preserves a 6-mile (9.7 km) section of the Verde River adjacent to Dead Horse Ranch State Park | |
Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park | Yuma | | | 120 | 37 | 1997 | Interprets an 1864 U.S. Army facility that supplied 14 military posts around the Southwest | ||
Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park | Yuma | | | 120 | 37 | 1960 | Interprets the famous Arizona Territory prison that operated from 1876 to 1909 | ||
Imperial County is a county located on the southeast border of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 179,702, making it the least populous county in Southern California. The county seat is El Centro. Imperial is the most recent California county to be established, as it was created in 1907 out of portions of San Diego County.
Maricopa County is in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census the population was 4,420,568, or about 62% of the state's total, making it the fourth-most populous county in the United States, the most populous county in Arizona, and making Arizona one of the nation's most centralized states. The county seat is Phoenix, the state capital and fifth-most populous city in the United States.
Yavapai County is near the center of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 236,209, making it the fourth-most populous county in Arizona. The county seat is Prescott.
Yuma County is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 203,881. The county seat is Yuma.
The Colorado River is one of the principal rivers in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The 1,450-mile-long (2,330 km) river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states. The name Colorado derives from the Spanish language for "colored reddish" due to its heavy silt load. Starting in the central Rocky Mountains of Colorado, it flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada border, where it turns south toward the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora.
The Gila River is a 649-mile-long (1,044 km) tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of nearly 60,000 square miles (160,000 km2) that lies mainly within the U.S., but also extends into northern Sonora, Mexico.
The Colorado Plateau, also known as the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This province covers an area of 336,700 km2 (130,000 mi2) within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico, southern and eastern Utah, northern Arizona, and a tiny fraction in the extreme southeast of Nevada. About 90% of the area is drained by the Colorado River and its main tributaries: the Green, San Juan, and Little Colorado. Most of the remainder of the plateau is drained by the Rio Grande and its tributaries.
The Verde River is a major tributary of the Salt River in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is about 170 miles (270 km) long and carries a mean flow of 602 cubic feet per second (17.0 m3/s) at its mouth. It is one of the largest perennial streams in Arizona.
North Central Arizona is a geographical region of Arizona. It is in the Transition Zone between the Basin and Range Province and the Colorado Plateau, and has some of the most rugged and scenic landscapes in Arizona.
The following is an alphabetical list of articles related to the U.S. state of Arizona.
Yuma Crossing is a site in Arizona and California that is significant for its association with transportation and communication across the Colorado River. It connected New Spain and Las Californias in the Spanish Colonial period in and also during the Western expansion of the United States. Features of the Arizona side include the Yuma Quartermaster Depot and Yuma Territorial Prison. Features on the California Side include Fort Yuma, which protected the area from 1850 to 1885.
The Bill Williams River is a 46.3-mile-long (74.5 km) river in west-central Arizona where it, along with one of its tributaries, the Santa Maria River, form the boundary between Mohave County to the north and La Paz County to the south. It is a major drainage westwards into the Colorado River of the Lower Colorado River Valley south of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, and the drainage basin covers portions of northwest, and west-central Arizona. The equivalent drainage system paralleling the east–west lower reaches of the Bill Williams is the Gila River, which flows east-to-west across central Arizona, joining the Colorado River in the southwest at Yuma. The confluence of the Bill Williams River with the Colorado is north of Parker, and south of Lake Havasu City.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) is the law enforcement agency that serves Maricopa County, Arizona, and is the largest sheriff's office in Arizona. The MCSO provides patrol services and criminal investigation to unincorporated areas of the county and operates the county jail system. It also serves as the primary law enforcement agency for any incorporated cities within the county that have contracted with the agency for law-enforcement services. The county sheriff is elected by the citizens and serves as the highest law enforcement official in Maricopa County. The current Sheriff of Maricopa County is Paul Penzone, elected in 2016. As a result of policies and practices under former sheriff Joe Arpaio the MCSO has received significant critical media coverage, federal investigation, and judicial oversight.
Arizona is a landlocked state situated in the southwestern region of the United States of America. It has a vast and diverse geography famous for its deep canyons, high- and low-elevation deserts, numerous natural rock formations, and volcanic mountain ranges. Arizona shares land borders with Utah to the north, the Mexican state of Sonora to the south, New Mexico to the east, and Nevada to the northwest, as well as water borders with California and the Mexican state of Baja California to the southwest along the Colorado River. Arizona is also one of the Four Corners states and is diagonally adjacent to Colorado.
The Parker Valley is located along the Lower Colorado River within the Lower Colorado River Valley region, in southwestern Arizona and southeastern California.
The Trail of the Ancients is a collection of National Scenic Byways located in the U.S. Four Corners states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. These byways comprise:
The Great Western Trail is a north-south long distance multiple use route which runs from Canada to Mexico through five western states in the United States. The trail has access for both motorized and non-motorized users and traverses 4,455 miles (7,170 km) through Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. It was designated a National Millennium Trail in 1999.
The Colorado River is a major river of the western United States and northwest Mexico in North America. Its headwaters are in the Rocky Mountains where La Poudre Pass Lake is its source. Located in north central Colorado it flows southwest through the Colorado Plateau country of western Colorado, southeastern Utah and northwestern Arizona where it flows through the Grand Canyon. It turns south near Las Vegas, Nevada, forming the Arizona–Nevada border in Lake Mead and the Arizona–California border a few miles below Davis Dam between Laughlin, Nevada and Needles, California before entering Mexico in the Colorado Desert. Most of its waters are diverted into the Imperial Valley of Southern California. In Mexico its course forms the boundary between Sonora and Baja California before entering the Gulf of California. This article describes most of the major features along the river.