The Pinal Mountains rise to 7,848 feet just south of Globe, Arizona — a sky island of ponderosa pine and white fir tucked inside the Tonto National Forest, offering cool summer camping, eight hiking trails, sweeping views from the lookout tower and some of the most surprising wildlife encounters in central Arizona.

Pinery Creek dispersed camping on FR 42C near Onion Saddle in the Chiricahua Mountains offers one of the most rewarding off-the-beaten-path camp experiences in southeastern Arizona — cliff views at 6,160 feet, a cold clear creek for swimming, an Acorn Woodpecker granary tree right in camp, and the kind of solitude that only comes from finding a place most people drive past.

Red Cliffs Recreation Area near Leeds, Utah is a BLM gem tucked against dramatic red sandstone cliffs just off I-15 — featuring Early Jurassic dinosaur tracks in the sandstone, Ancestral Puebloan ruins, 14 hiking trails through Quail Creek Canyon, and one of the most visually striking campgrounds in southern Utah.

Red Rock State Park is Sedona's most serene and family-friendly outdoor destination — a 286-acre nature preserve along Oak Creek where five miles of interconnected trails wind through manzanita and juniper to the creek's lush riparian corridor, framed by the iconic red rock formations that make Sedona famous worldwide.

Riggs Flat Lake is an 11-acre alpine lake at 9,000 feet near the summit of Mount Graham in the Coronado National Forest — stocked with rainbow, brown, and brook trout, surrounded by pine forest and meadow, and sitting at the end of the Swift Trail as a reward for the drive up.

Robbers Roost Trail near Sedona leads to a historic outlaw hideout cave in the red rock country of the Coconino National Forest — a rocky trail through classic Arizona high desert to a cave with framed views of Sedona's red rock cliffs, a dozen or more deer grazing in the canyon below, and dispersed camping available along the adjacent FR 258 Buckboard Road for those looking to stay.

Roosevelt Lake is Arizona's largest lake entirely within state borders — a 21,000-acre desert reservoir formed by the historic Theodore Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River, offering world-class bass fishing, kayaking, lakeside camping, and sweeping Sonoran Desert views just 90 miles from Phoenix.

Just a day trip away from Tucson & 4 miles shy of the border of Mexico is a rare opportunity to look back at over a century of Arizona's mining history. From a once-thriving community of 1,200 people to a modern-day ghost town. Ruby has access to over 350 acres of trails, two lakes, and incredible biodiversity.

Saddle Mountain near Tonopah, Arizona is one of the Phoenix area's most rewarding BLM dispersed camping destinations — a volcanic mountain range at 2,600 feet in the western Sonoran Desert where rockhounds find chalcedony, fire agate, and quartz crystals on the desert floor, ancient petroglyphs mark the volcanic slopes, spectacular sunsets paint the sky, and javelina, jackrabbit, and ocotillo in bloom complete a classic desert spring experience within an hour of the Valley.

Saguaro National Park East — the Rincon Mountain District — protects one of the densest saguaro forests on earth alongside the 8-mile Cactus Forest Drive, 128 miles of hiking trails, and a wilderness backcountry that climbs from Sonoran Desert to pine forest at 8,666 feet in the Mica Mountains.

Sand Island Petroglyphs near Bluff, Utah preserves over 100 yards of continuous rock art panel on the banks of the San Juan River — spanning 2,500 to 8,000 years of human history from Archaic hunters to Ancestral Puebloans, Ute, and Navajo peoples, including five Kokopelli figures, San Juan Anthropomorphs, and some of the most accessible ancient rock art in the Bears Ears National Monument region.

Sasco Ghost Town near Red Rock, Arizona is the crumbling remains of a Southern Arizona copper smelting operation from the early 1900s — featuring the ruins of the Rockland Hotel, smelter foundations, and a fascinating piece of Arizona mining history off the beaten path.