Northern Arizona

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Summer monsoon clouds over the San Francisco Peaks, viewed from Mormon Lake Peaks and monsoon clouds from Mormon Lake.jpg
Summer monsoon clouds over the San Francisco Peaks, viewed from Mormon Lake

Northern Arizona is an unofficial, colloquially defined region of the U.S. state of Arizona. Generally consisting of Apache, Coconino, Mohave, Navajo, and Yavapai counties, the region is geographically dominated by the Colorado Plateau, the southern border of which in Arizona is called the Mogollon Rim.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Demographics

Flagstaff is the largest city in northern Arizona. Other cities include Sedona, Page, and Williams.

Much of the territory is National Forest Service land, parkland, or other BLM-administered lands. In the north-east are large Hopi and Navajo reservations, parts of which overlap, leading to occasional territorial disputes.[ citation needed ] Native Americans make up 48% of the population in Coconino County, Navajo County, and Apache County. Ruins of the ancient Anasazi, Sinagua, and other Puebloan people can be found in northern Arizona.

Most Northern Arizona University students are Arizonans, with 66% being Arizona residents. [1]

Geography

The region features several mountain ranges, including the state's highest, the San Francisco Peaks. It also contains most of the state's natural lakes. In the east lies the White Mountain range. The Grand Canyon is in the west. The central portion of northern Arizona has the Painted Desert.

The area is known for its rugged landscape and variety of environment. Northern Arizona is home to millions of acres of ponderosa pine, aspen, and mixed-conifer forests, including the largest ponderosa pine forest in North America. Attractions in addition to the Grand Canyon include Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, the Painted Desert, and Meteor Crater. The major highway is Interstate 40 (roughly following the historic Route 66) which connects the larger cities of this region. Northern Arizona also goes by the name Alta Arizona, which means "Upper Arizona" in Spanish. Northern Arizona has a large Mormon population, with a temple in Snowflake.[ citation needed ]

Northern Arizona consists of five different counties:

Northern Arizona has various points of interest. The area is known for its variety of outdoor recreation opportunities, hiking trails and forest service roads, extreme topographical and environmental variability, and its geologic and human history. The following is a list of popular attractions in northern Arizona. [2]

National Parks and Monuments
Natural attractions
Other attractions

Subregions

Northeast Arizona

Northeast Arizona commonly includes Apache County and Navajo County. Some notable towns there are St. Johns, Eagar, Holbrook, Show Low, Winslow, Window Rock, Fort Defiance, Ganado, Chinle, and Kayenta.

It is the location of several Indian reservations including all of the Zuni Indian Reservation and most parts of the Hopi Reservation, the Navajo Nation, and the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. The rugged desert landscape of Northeast Arizona has been inhabited by indigenous peoples since at least the construction of what are now the ruins at Monument Valley, Navajo National Monument, and Canyon de Chelly National Monument.

Northeast Arizona is arid, largely free of greenery, and characterized by hills, mesas, buttes, cliffs, and canyons. The windy stony plains of the Petrified Forest National Park exhibits parts of the barren colorful Painted Desert as well as preserved Native American petroglyphs. Northeast Arizona is also home to the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest and Four Corners Monument.

North central Arizona

Arizona Strip

The Arizona Strip is the segment of Arizona to the north of the Colorado River. Geographically isolated from the rest of the state, it has fewer than 10,000 people.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flagstaff, Arizona</span> City in Arizona

Flagstaff is the county seat of Coconino County, Arizona, in the southwestern United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 76,831.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apache County, Arizona</span> County in Arizona, United States

Apache County is in the northeast corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. Shaped in a long rectangle running north to south, as of the 2020 census, its population was 66,021. The county seat is St. Johns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coconino County, Arizona</span> County in Arizona, United States

Coconino County is a county in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. Its population was 145,101 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Flagstaff. The county takes its name from Cohonino, a name applied to the Havasupai people. It is the second-largest county by area in the contiguous United States, behind San Bernardino County, California. It has 18,661 sq mi (48,300 km2), or 16.4% of Arizona's total area, and is larger than the nine smallest states in the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohave County, Arizona</span> County in Arizona, United States

Mohave County is in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 213,267. The county seat is Kingman, and the largest city is Lake Havasu City. It is the fifth largest county in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navajo County, Arizona</span> County in Arizona, United States

Navajo County is in the northern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 106,717. The county seat is Holbrook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yavapai County, Arizona</span> County in Arizona, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Painted Desert (Arizona)</span> Desert in Arizona

The Painted Desert is a United States desert of badlands in the Four Corners area, running from near the east end of Grand Canyon National Park and southeast into Petrified Forest National Park. It is most easily accessed from the north portion of Petrified Forest National Park. The Painted Desert is known for its brilliant and varied colors: these include the more common red rock, but also shades of lavender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canyon de Chelly National Monument</span> National Park Service unit in Apache County, Arizona, US

Canyon de Chelly National Monument was established on April 1, 1931, as a unit of the National Park Service. Located in northeastern Arizona, it is within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation and lies in the Four Corners region. Reflecting one of the longest continuously inhabited landscapes of North America, it preserves ruins of the indigenous tribes that lived in the area, from the Ancestral Puebloans to the Navajo. The monument covers 83,840 acres and encompasses the floors and rims of the three major canyons: de Chelly, del Muerto, and Monument. These canyons were cut by streams with headwaters in the Chuska Mountains just to the east of the monument. None of the land is federally owned. Canyon de Chelly is one of the most visited national monuments in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Francisco Peaks</span> Mountain range in Arizona, United States

The San Francisco Peaks are a volcanic mountain range in the San Francisco volcanic field in north central Arizona, just north of Flagstaff and a remnant of the former San Francisco Mountain. The highest summit in the range, Humphreys Peak, is the highest point in the state of Arizona at 12,637 feet (3,852 m) in elevation. The San Francisco Peaks are the remains of an eroded stratovolcano. An aquifer within the caldera supplies much of Flagstaff's water while the mountain itself is in the Coconino National Forest, a popular recreation site. The Arizona Snowbowl ski area is on the western slopes of Humphreys Peak, and has been the subject of major controversy involving several tribes and environmental groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tonto Apache</span> Western Apache Indigenous people

The Tonto Apache is one of the groups of Western Apache people and a federally recognized tribe, the Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona. The term is also used for their dialect, one of the three dialects of the Western Apache language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hualapai</span> Native American tribe

The Hualapai is a federally recognized Native American tribe in Arizona with about 2300 enrolled members. Approximately 1353 enrolled members reside on the Hualapai Reservation, which spans over three counties in Northern Arizona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coconino National Forest</span> United States protected area in Arizona

The Coconino National Forest is a 1.856-million acre United States National Forest located in northern Arizona in the vicinity of Flagstaff, with elevations ranging from 2,600 feet to the highest point in Arizona at 12,633 feet. Originally established in 1898 as the "San Francisco Mountains National Forest Reserve", the area was designated a U.S. National Forest by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt on July 2, 1908, when the San Francisco Mountains National Forest Reserve was merged with lands from other surrounding forest reserves to create the Coconino National Forest. Today, the Coconino National Forest contains diverse landscapes, including deserts, ponderosa pine forests, flatlands, mesas, alpine tundra, and ancient volcanic peaks. The forest surrounds the towns of Sedona and Flagstaff and borders four other national forests; the Kaibab National Forest to the west and northwest, the Prescott National Forest to the southwest, the Tonto National Forest to the south, and the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest to the southeast. The forest contains all or parts of nine designated wilderness areas, including the Kachina Peaks Wilderness, which includes the summit of the San Francisco Peaks. The headquarters are in Flagstaff. The Coconino National Forest consists of three districts: Flagstaff Ranger District, Mogollon Rim Ranger District, and Red Rock Ranger District, which have local ranger district offices in Flagstaff, Happy Jack, and Sedona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arizona Strip</span> Part of Arizona north of the Colorado River

The Arizona Strip is the part of Arizona lying north of the Colorado River. Despite being larger in area than several U.S. states, the entire region has a population of fewer than 10,000 people. Consisting of northeastern Mohave County and northwestern Coconino County, the largest settlements in the Strip are Colorado City, Fredonia, and Beaver Dam, with smaller communities of Scenic, Littlefield and Desert Springs. The Kaibab Indian Reservation lies within the region. Lying along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon creates physical barriers to the rest of Arizona. Only three major roads traverse the region: I-15 crosses the northwestern corner, while Arizona State Route 389 and U.S. Route 89A cross the northeastern part of the strip, and US 89A crosses the Colorado River via the Navajo Bridge, providing the only direct road connection between the strip and the rest of the state. The nearest metropolitan area is the St. George, Utah metro area, to which the region is more connected than to the rest of Arizona.

Arizona's 2nd congressional district is a congressional district located in the U.S. state of Arizona. The district is in the north eastern part of the state and includes Apache, Coconino, Gila, Navajo, and Yavapai counties in their entirety and portions of Graham, Maricopa, Mohave, and Pinal counties. The largest city in the district is Flagstaff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Painted Desert Inn</span> United States historic place

Painted Desert Inn is a historic complex in Petrified Forest National Park, in Apache County, eastern Arizona. It is located off Interstate 40 and near the original alignment of historic U.S. Route 66, overlooking the Painted Desert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography of Arizona</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Flagstaff, Arizona</span> Review of the topic

Flagstaff is a city in, and the county seat of, Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. Established as a modern settlement in 1876 and incorporated as a city in 1928, the land had previously been lived on by native peoples of the southwest, primarily the Sinagua. Mountaineer Antoine Leroux then traveled the area, with Edward Fitzgerald Beale following in his footsteps and establishing a trail through the city in the mid-1800s. With a local spring, a small settlement grew by the wagon road, and the town was dominated by the McMillan, Riordan, and Babbitt families. Focused on agricultural pursuits, these families constructed some historic red stone buildings that still stand today.

References

  1. "Facts and stats". Northern Arizona University. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  2. "Northern Arizona Attractions Near Flagstaff, AZ".

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