Arizona Hotels United States

Arizona Arizona is the sixth largest of the states of the United States of America in the western part of the US and the largest of the landlocked states by population (295K sq km). Arizona is one of the Four Corners states: it borders New Mexico, Utah, Nevada and California, and just touches Colorado In addition to this it has a 626km international border with the states of Sonora and Baja California in Mexico. The capital and largest city is Phoenix, the second largest is Tucson, and then, among others, Glendale, Chandler and Scottsdale. Only 15% of the state’s land is privately owned, the remaining area is public forest and park land, whilst more than a quarter of the land is Federal Trust Land which is the home of the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe and several other Native American peoples. Arizona is noted for its desert climate, hot summers and mild winter, though it also has pine forests and mountains in the northern high country, with cooler weather than lower parts of the state.

Arizona is known for its desert landscape and its xerophyte (drought-loving) plants such as the huge saguaro cactus of the Sonora Desert. Less well known is the pine-covered high country of the Colorado Plateau in the north, that contrasts with the Basin and Range region of the south of the state. The amazing Grand Canyon, is a colourful massive steep sided gorge, carved by the Colorado River, as the Colorado plateau uplifted over time.

Arizona is also home to one of the best preserved meteorite impact craters in the world, the Meteor Crater is a massive hole (2km wide and 170m deep) in the middle of the high plains of the Colorado Plateau 40km west of Winslow. These two places are favourite for visitors as well as the wild west town of Tombstone (with the OK Corral), the Pima Air and space Museum or even the remotly located but interesting Amerind Foundation Museum at Dragoon, Arizona.