Two Guns is one of Arizona's most haunted and storied Route 66 ghost towns — a cursed stretch of Canyon Diablo where a Navajo massacre, a Wild West showman, a mountain lion zoo, a murder, and a devastating fire all converged on the same dusty patch of high desert east of Flagstaff.

Valley of the Gods near Mexican Hat, Utah is the lesser-known cousin of Monument Valley — a 17-mile BLM loop road through isolated sandstone buttes, mesas, and spires carved from 250-million-year-old Cedar Mesa sandstone, with free dispersed camping on the valley floor, no fees, and formations named Seven Sailors, Castle Butte, Rooster Butte, Setting Hen, and more.

Verde Hot Springs is one of Arizona's most storied remote soaking destinations — the ruins of a 1920s resort along the Verde River in the Tonto National Forest, where two natural hot spring pools survive among graffiti-covered walls and concrete foundations, reached by a rough 19-mile dirt road and a river crossing.

Walnut Canyon National Monument just east of Flagstaff preserves 25 remarkably intact Sinagua cliff dwelling rooms tucked into the limestone ledges of a 350-foot deep canyon — occupied from approximately 1100 to 1250 CE, explored on two short trails through a canyon ecosystem of remarkable botanical diversity where desert and mountain plant communities converge in a single narrow gorge.

West Fork Oak Creek Trail in Oak Creek Canyon is consistently ranked among the finest hikes in Arizona — a 6.6-mile round trip through a narrowing red rock canyon alongside the West Fork of Oak Creek, past the ruins of the historic Mayhew Lodge, beneath towering cliffs hundreds of feet tall, with thirteen creek crossings and a canyon that gets more dramatic the further you go.

Willow Springs Lake is the second most visited lake on the Mogollon Rim — a beautiful 158-acre reservoir set in the ponderosa pine forest at 7,500 feet, offering excellent trout and bass fishing, kayaking, and one of the most scenic shoreline views on the rim.

Woods Canyon Lake is the most popular and accessible lake on the Mogollon Rim — a beautiful 158-acre reservoir surrounded by ponderosa pine, stocked weekly with rainbow trout, and equipped with a general store and boat rentals for a full day on the water.

Wupatki National Monument north of Flagstaff preserves over 2,700 ancient sites across 55 square miles of painted desert — centered on the 104-room Wupatki Pueblo, the northernmost ball court ever discovered, a geological blowhole that breathes with the earth's pressure, and five accessible pueblos built from the distinctive red Moenkopi sandstone of the Colorado Plateau.

Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park preserves Arizona's first prison — a bluff-top fortress on the Colorado River where over 3,000 inmates were confined between 1876 and 1909, including stagecoach robber Pearl Hart. Walk through original strap iron cells, explore the dark cell, and learn the colorful and often brutal history of the Wild West's most notorious lockup.