15 Most Beautiful Places in Arizona You Have to See to Believe

Welcome back everybody. Today we're going to show you the 15 most beautiful places to visit in Arizona. This is a video you're definitely going to want to stick around until the end for because we've got some beautiful gems here in the great state of Arizona. First up we're headed to north central Arizona here at the Petrified Forest National Park. They say the trees that are petrified up here that have turned to stone are around 225 million years old, dating all the way back to the late Triassic period before the dinosaurs even dominated earth. They say that this particular piece of land here where Arizona is now used to be at the same latitude and longitude of where Costa Rica is so it was more like a lush tropical swamp here. Nowadays you come out here it's a barren wasteland with different colored mountains. Now we're here at Saguaro National Park down here just outside of Tucson. This amazing park protects the saguaro cactus which only grows in the Sonoran desert of Arizona and Mexico. Some saguaros can actually grow to be 50 feet tall and live over 150 to 200 years old. Saguaros actually grow incredibly slow. After 10 years the saguaro may only be two inches tall so when you see a tall one you know it's old. There's said to be around 2 million saguaros in this park making it one of the largest concentrations on earth of cactus. Best time to visit Saguaro National Park is anytime although if you plan to do some hiking I would suggest coming out here around the months of October, November or March, April so it's not so hot when you're out here. Now we're headed out to western Arizona here along the Colorado River. This is Lake Havasu right on the border of California. It's not just a city it's actually a beautiful lake that's serving as a reservoir for the water that you drink down in Phoenix and other places around the state. There's 450 miles of shoreline. You got coves, beaches and boating areas. It's a beautiful place to go in the spring and the fall but I wouldn't even dare go out here in the summertime but a beautiful place nonetheless. With more than 300 days of sunshine per year temperatures in the summertime typically exceed 110 degrees all summer long sometimes reaching 115 to 120 degrees. In case you're watching from out of the country that's almost 50 degrees celsius. That's absolutely scorching hot. Not too many places on planet earth get this hot as it does in Lake Havasu during the summer months but don't worry it's not all doom and gloom out here in the apocalyptic hot summers because the rest of the year is beautiful. Now we're here at Watson Lake nowhere near as hot. This one's just located outside of Prescott Arizona. It's known for its beautiful rock formations that pop up just outside of the lake. Those granite boulders are known as the granite dells which are said to have formed 1.4 billion years ago. Wow that's a long time ago. I don't know where they come up with that information but hey we'll take it. Watson Lake actually sits at 5,100 feet elevation. Around here you might see bald eagles, great blue herons, mule deer, coyotes and many different migratory birds. Arizona's got a lot of birds believe it or not considering that it's a desert you probably wouldn't have thought that. Turns out the original snowbirds aren't from Calgary trying to escape those Canadian winters. Now we're headed out towards Pace in Arizona just south of the Mogollon Rim. This is Tonto Natural Bridge. This place is absolutely spectacular. It is the largest natural travertine bridge in the world. It stands at 183 feet high. You actually have to walk through this creek area in this ravine through Pine Creek and then you get close to it and you can see this big hole in the travertine with a little bit of waterfall dribbling down and this place is spectacular. It's got a small pool and lush vegetation underneath the formation. I would say it's definitely worth coming out here because it's a sight to behold once you're down there. The bridge was largely undiscovered up until the 1870s when David Gowan found it. He supposedly hid here from the Apache warriors for several days. Later he claimed the land and built a small lodge nearby that actually exists still inside the park. The cave-like tunnel under the bridge can be cool, damp, slippery, so do watch your footing when walking through there. By the way, when I say it was largely undiscovered, I mean by Europeans. The natives of course would have known about a beautiful place like this. The area around Tonto Natural Bridge is beautiful if you ever get a chance to hike there. Now we're actually headed over towards Sedona just north a bit. This is Oak Creek Canyon. Some people joke around and call it the smaller cousin of the Grand Canyon but really it's not even close. If there was a smaller cousin, that would be the Salt River Canyon, most famous for a slide rock recreation area. But this one stretches about 12 miles between Sedona and Flagstaff along 89A, which is one of the most scenic routes you can take in the whole state. And what you're going to have is 800 to 2,000 foot deep canyon walls on both sides, very lush along here. Beautiful place to see. You've got the creek. It's also near the West Fork Trail, which is one of the best hiking areas with creek crossing, canyon walls, vibrant colors. Who knows what kind of wildlife you may see up here. But hopefully by the time you get up here, you get a beautiful drive through the canyon. Highly recommend this place. Now we're actually headed down south. This is Chiricahua National Park, often called the Wonderland of Rocks because of its towering stone spires, hoodoos, balanced rocks, narrow rock canyons. Never know what you're going to find up here. They say volcanic eruption 27 million years ago created this place. Turkey Creek Caldera is one of the most famous places you'll find out here. Lots of deer. That's what you'll see out here. But with deer comes black bears, mountain lions, codamondes. Lots of bird species are out here. They say this is some of the best stargazing you'll find anywhere in the country. Now we're headed up towards the Four Corners area. This here is Canyon de Shea in the Navajo Nation. The monument actually is protected. Not too many people go down there. You'll find ancient Indian ruins with houses that people used to live in. These ancient cliff dwellings, towering sandstone cliffs. Just a beautiful place. It is not your average U.S. National Park and They say people have lived in the canyon continuously for around 5,000 years. Think about that. Put that into perspective. Ancient Pueblan people built incredible cliff dwellings here and you'll find the White House ruin, Mummy Cave, Antelope House, and much more. Then down the road a bit is Monument Valley. This place is world famous. You've probably seen it in some John Wayne western or in the movies back in the old days. But Monument Valley, you can drive right through this barren wasteland and see all these towering stones coming out of the desert floor. They say this used to be an ancient sea multiple times over hundreds of millions of years. They say they found some artifacts that give that some credibility. But think about all of the erosion that had to have created this ancient desert that exists today. So much erosion had to have happened to carve out all of this. Now we're actually here at the Mogollon Rim. So we're up top above where you saw the Tonto Natural Bridge. This here is a big forest area. Lots of lakes up here. You get great views. Tons of wildlife. I come up here. I see plenty of elk. You'll see the elk rutting. They also say there's a Mogollon monster out here. At least that's what folklore says. See some black bears. Lots of eagles and big birds. Just a beautiful place. I feel like you could get lost in this forest and not really find your way out. It's one of those kind of forests. The Mogollon Rim is just a great place to do some camping and exploring. Especially on the weekends. If you're looking for a two-hour getaway from Phoenix, just come on up here to Payson and go north up into the Mogollon Rim and have yourself a good old relaxing weekend. And now we're going to actually head over towards eastern Arizona. A bit more from the area around the Mogollon Rim. This here is the White Mountains. About two hours away. Highest elevation out here is 11,400 feet. That's Mount Baldy. But this place is amazing. They've got aspens, ponderosa pine forest, amazing alpine lakes and rivers that happen especially right after snow melt in the winter. Because the elevation is so high, the temperatures are much cooler than Phoenix. I mean we're talking over two miles high in some areas. You can also go to places like Greer, Pinetop, Lakeside, Show Low, just outside of the White Mountains. Nice place to get a weekend getaway from that heat. They say it's one of the coolest places in Arizona in terms of temperature. Many people from Phoenix actually come up here and buy a cabin for a summer getaway and they kind of live up here on the weekends or maybe even just during the summer. It's kind of like Arizona's own snowbird escape. What do you guys think about that? Now we're actually headed up to the far northern part of Arizona. This here is Lake Powell which is along the Colorado River. It's been dammed up by the Glen Canyon Dam. To the north is Utah. Most of Lake Powell is actually in Utah. Now Lake Powell is the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States by capacity. There's been some conversation about breaking the dam and letting the river flow through. I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon but who knows. They say Lake Powell actually contains 2,000 miles of shoreline. Lots of people come up here to explore the coves going up into the sandstone inlets, islands, cliffs, caves. Never know what you're going to find in here. It's actually named after John Wesley Powell who famously led an expedition through the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon in the 1800s. People like to come up here from April to October and enjoy the warm weather. In the summer it exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That's quite hot for being up here in northern Arizona. And people like to do the boating, kayaking, fishing, cliff jumping, camping, photography. It's a very beautiful place up here in Lake Powell. And then just down the river a bit is Horseshoe Bend. This is actually the Colorado River where it hits a bend in the river and heads towards the Grand Canyon from Lake Powell. So what a beautiful place up here. You know people like to come up here get right up next to the edge there. I don't like doing that and I don't recommend it but you know it's a heck of a view and a heck of a feeling because the cliffs all the way down are just so dramatic. I mean these are one of those places where you walk up there and you're just like wow your jaw literally opens in awe because not too many places can do that right. Well out here around Horseshoe Bend and the Grand Canyon Lake Powell you're going to be left kind of in a jaw-dropping moment. As the list continues to go on you'll notice we've got some more northern Arizona places to explore but first we're going to go south a bit. This is Sedona known as the Red Rock Country. Out here you've got some beautiful hikes, views all around and it's a great place to get in some outdoor activities no matter what you like doing. Riding bikes or hiking, going to the creek, going to the rivers that are nearby here. It sits at about 4,300 feet elevation. They say it was also an ancient ocean sea. Some people even say around those rocks it was a birthing area for dolphins. I don't know how people realize that considering no one was there back in the old days but hey these sandstone structures are beautiful. Lots of artists and shops are up here. People gravitate here for creativity and you know when you come up here you're just gonna say oh my goodness. A lot of people come up here they say hey how can I buy some property but then they realize it's not as easy as it looks. Some of the new age people who gravitate towards here they say there's vortexes in the place like Airport Mesa, Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock, Boynton Canyon. That's why they have a lot of wellness retreats, meditation, yoga, spiritual tourism is popular up here. Also the Native Americans actually used to nomadically roam between here in Santa Fe, New Mexico as well as the Four Corners region. You guys can research that if you want to learn more about the natives who are up here, Sonagua people, as well as the Yavapai, Hopi and Zuni. Now we're actually here at the number one place in Arizona, you guessed it, it's the Grand Canyon. 277 miles long, 18 miles wide, one mile deep in some places. Mainly carved out by the Colorado River over millions of years. We don't know where all that water came that carved out the erosion but they say it was the snow caps on the Rockies but it had to have been a lot of snow caps right in order to carve out such a massive canyon. The north rim sits a thousand feet higher than the south rim so that gives you some perspective about the topography out here. There's basically two rims, the north rim and the south rim depending on which way you're coming in from. I like them both and I would say if you get a chance explore both sides. The only way to get across the canyon area is actually over there by the Grand Canyon Dam so you got to go all the way up to Lake Powell just to get over towards the north or go through Vegas and around. I mean it's a lot of terrain here, like I said it's 277 miles, it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You'll see everything from California condors to elk, bighorn sheep, mountain lions, mule deer, rattlesnakes, who knows. Down there at the you can also do whitewater rafting and even some people with a permit go visit the beautiful Havasu Creek and Havasupai Falls. Arizona is an absolutely beautiful place. We could actually make a whole part two talking about 15 more places that would be almost equally as impressive. Places like the Wave at Coyote Bluffs, Antelope Canyon, going down there to Humphreys Peak, Tuzigoot, some of the most beautiful places in Arizona. If you guys want a part two to this, let us know in the comments and we'll see you on the next one from the top 88 things to do in the great state of Arizona. Click right here.