Home to Sedona's red rocks, Flagstaff's forested mountains, Lake Powell's blue waters and Monument Valley's sandstone spires - Northern Arizona's natural wonders offer enigmatic landscapes that captivate the imagination and capture the soul. Here, the mile-deep Grand Canyon slashes its colorful course across 277 miles, the cobalt-blue waters of Lake Powell mark a stunning contrast against the sandstone shoreline, and the flourishing forests of the San Francisco Peaks seem to reach to the sky.

Dubbed 'The Most Beautiful Place in America', Sedona has inspired artists, photographers, and authors; and the film and television industries have embraced it as their Technicolor backdrop.  Uptown Sedona offers fabulous shopping, galleries, fine dining and casual eateries. Furthering its reputation as an arts destination, Sedona hosts the annual Jazz on the Rocks Festival, and the Sedona International Film Festival. From leisurely jaunts to long, challenging backpacking treks, the area boasts a wealth of trails to explore.  New Age spiritualists come to the area for its celebrated vortexes, mystical sources of energy. Adding even more color to the landscape are the area's golf courses, all of which are open to the public, including the renowned 18-hole Sedona Golf Resort, heralded by Golf Digest as one of the! top five courses in the state.

Nestled in the shadow of the towering San Francisco Peaks, Northern Arizona's largest city, Flagstaff, is also home of Northern Arizona University, enabling easy access to canyons, lakes, forests and other popular attractions. The city's 7,000-foot elevation offers cool summer days and white winters. Snowbowl Ski Resort, atop Mt. Humphreys, Arizona's highest peak, is a year-round attraction. Hikers and mountain bikers take advantage of the mountainous terrain during summer months when the Snowbowl chair lift sweeps visitors up 11,500-foot Agassiz Peak, Arizona's second-highest point. When the snow falls, the resort's 2,300-foot vertical drop and 32 trails of varied difficulty provide a powdery playground for skiers and snowboarders.

Buffalo Park and Mount Elden provide miles of challenging hiking and mountain biking trails. Daring rock climbers choose from several locations that have world-class basalt and limestone cliffs. Golfers will even find a good course among the pines. Marvel at the night sky at Lowell Observatory, where the planet Pluto was discovered. Surrounded by the San Francisco Peaks volcanic field and home to more than 400 cinder cones, Flagstaff offers easy access to several of the area's unusual national monuments, including Sunset Crater, a volcano that erupted more than 900 years ago. Prehistoric Sinaguan Indians once populated the area, and evidence of their lifestyle is displayed at Wupatki National Monument, which preserves one of the only excavated prehistoric ball courts found in the Southwest. Historically a popular stop along the storied Route 66, modern Flagstaff welcomes visitors with lodging choices that range from motels built during that era to modern hotels and award-winning bed-and-breakfast inns. The revitalized downtown area, features many indoor and outdoor cafés, restaurants and unique shops.  

East from Flagstaff, The Meteor Crater - the site where an immense meteor, traveling at 40,000 miles per hour, slammed into Earth 50,000 years ago with the force of 20 million tons of TNT. There is a new museum and theatre to educate visitors. Nearby, is the town of Winslow which was made famous in the 1970s Eagles song "Take it Easy." There is a small monument at Standin' on the Corner Park, where visitors stop to have their photos taken "standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona."  

Historic Holbrook was once a wild frontier town full of cowboys, outlaws and saloons. The 1898 Navajo County Courthouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the town's centerpiece and houses a museum. A famous shootout with cattle rustlers took place in 1887 at the Blevins House, which still stands, as does the Bucket of Blood Saloon. Just 18 miles east of Holbrook, Petrified Forest National Park preserves one of the world's largest and most colorful collections of petrified wood strewn over multi-hued hills. Also included in the park's nearly 100,000 acres are the Painted Desert and a visitor center that displays skeletons of dinosaurs that used to roam the area and fossils dating back 225 million years.

One of the world's vast and beautiful wonders and one of the country's top 10 most visited national parks, the Grand Canyon is a must-see. The walls descend over a mile to the canyon floor and run 277 miles from end to end. Access to the park is available from entrances on the South Rim, the North Rim and the eastern edge. Close to Flagstaff and Williams, most visitors travel to the canyon's South Rim, which is open year-round. Here, the Grand Canyon Village offers lodging, dining and shopping. At designated areas in the park, rangers educate visitors about the canyon's geology and natural environment with lectures and guided walks scheduled throughout the day. Hiking, backpacking and river rafting are among the adventures that await those who want a close encounter with the canyon's rugged expanse. Visitors sometimes opt to hire a helicopter or airplane for a narrated journey from the sky. Some of the most exhilarating in the country, the Colorado River rapids can be traversed through tours given by outfitters who use rubber inflatable rafts or wooden dories. Boating on the Colorado is the only access to some of the canyon's most remote and pristine hiking trails. At the more remote North Rim, visitors access the canyon via the town of Jacob Lake.

Schedule a train ride on the vintage Grand Canyon Railway starting from Williams, "The Gateway to the Grand Canyon." Passengers enjoy strolling musicians and a mock train robbery on the ride and then arrive at the canyon for a sightseeing and shopping at the South Rim. Fishing and camping are also plentiful among the pines in the surrounding area. Route 66 continues west of Williams through Ash Fork and Seligman. Restaurants and shops still showcase 1950s-style memorabilia, when the highway was in its glory. Twenty-five miles west of Seligman, you can tour the Grand Canyon Caverns, a living limestone cave 210 feet down.

In the northwest corner of the state is Kingman, the "Heart of Historic Route 66." Over  60 of Kingman's buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and walking tours feature 27 sites. Famous cowboy actor Andy Devine was born in Kingman, and the town has preserved his memory with a road named for him and displays in the Mohave Museum of History and Arts. Just southwest of Kingman is the rocky Hualapai Peak, often snow-capped in winter. It's a delightful drive to the top with outstanding views of cool pine forests, and lodging facilities. Chloride, just northeast of Kingman, is a former mining town that is now known as an artists' haven. With its boomtown days as a silver mining hub gone, Chloride was transformed during the 1960s counterculture era. Shops line its streets, and 100-foot-high murals grace the cliffs just outside of town. On the Arizona/Nevada border is Lake Mead, a man-made water playground offering boating, water-skiing, jet skiing, camping, fishing, scuba diving, snorkeling, swimming and wildlife watching amidst incomparable scenery.