Sights in Southwest
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Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
The state's best introduction to the wonder of the desert is here, at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. A cross between a zoo and an interpretive park, Tucson's must-see attraction deserves a full day of exploration and has a nice café. Javelinas (wild boars), coyotes, bobcats, snakes and just about every other local desert animal are displayed in a natural-looking outdoor setting. During summer there's a Saturday-night program where you can see the creepy crawlies who live on the night shift.
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A
Loretto Chapel
The gothic chapel is modeled on St Chapelle in Paris, and was built between 1873 and 1878 for the Sisters of Loretto, the first nuns to come to New Mexico. St Chapelle has a circular stone staircase, but when the Loretto Chapel was being constructed, no local stonemasons were skilled enough to build one and the young architect didn’t know how to build one of wood. The nuns prayed for help and a mysterious traveling carpenter, whom the nuns believed afterward to be St Joseph, arrived. He built what is known as the Miraculous Staircase, a wooden spiral staircase with two complete 360-degree turns and no central or visible support. He left without charging for his labors and…
reviewed
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Arcosanti
The brainchild of groundbreaking architect and urban planner Paolo Soleri, Arcosanti is a desert outpost based on 'acrology': architecture meets ecology. This cross between a kibbutz and design school 65 miles north of Phoenix looks like a village on Luke Skywalker's home planet. Radical when conceived in the 1960s, Soleri's ideas now seem cutting-edge in this age of urban sprawl and global warming. Arcosanti is good for a day trip or a long stay - there are week- and month-long seminars, a café, one-hour tours, concerts and other events. Basic accommodation is available, and the Sky Suite is designed for great views of a dark desert night.
reviewed
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Carlsbad Caverns National Park
- New Mexico, USA
- Sights › Other
Scores of wondrous caves hide under the hills at this unique national park, which covers 73 sq miles. The cavern formations are an ethereal wonderland of stalactites and fantastical geological features. You can ride an elevator from the visitor center or take a 2-mile subterranean walk from the cave mouth to the Big Room, an underground chamber 1800ft long, 255ft high and over 800ft below the surface. For claustrophobics and those prone to panic attacks, the chamber and the elevator ride down to it (which descends the length of the Empire State Building in under a minute) may be a less than enjoyable experience.
reviewed
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Meteor Crater
Nearly a mile across and 600ft deep, the second most impressive hole in Arizona was formed by a fiery meteor that screamed into the atmosphere about 50,000 years ago, when giant sloths lived in these parts. Meteor Crater, 40 miles east of Flagstaff, is an out-of-this-world site for those with a thimbleful of imagination. There are lookout points around the crater's edge but no hiking to the bottom. Check out the fun, informative visitor center.
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Contemporary Arts Collective
One of the most established art galleries at the Arts Factory is the nonprofit Contemporary Arts Collective, which boasts high-quality, engagingly curated exhibits of works by emerging city artists. Trifecta Gallery hosts a variety of national and international artists. S₂ Art Center & Atelier produces limited-edition, fine-art lithographs using antique presses.
reviewed
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Valley of Fire State Park
The Valley of Fire State Park; is a masterpiece of Southwest desert scenery with psychedelic sandstone carved by wind and water (Atlatl Rock has Native American petroglyphs, too). Detour to White Domes, passing Rainbow Vista and the side road to Fire Canyon and Silica Dome (where Star Trek’s Captain Kirk perished).
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B
MGM Grand Lion Habitat
Inside the casino, this glass-walled habitat showcases up to six magnificent felines daily, all descendants of the movie company’s original mascot. The big cats live on a ranch outside town, and only two are allowed in the enclosure simultaneously. Big cats often sprawl above onlookers’ heads inside the see-through walkway tunnel. The kid-friendly, tropical-themed Rainforest Café is nearby.
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Lowell Observatory
The Lowell Observatory witnessed the first sighting of Pluto in 1920; before this many scientists thought the existence of 'Planet X' was a crackpot theory. Weather permitting, there's nightly stargazing, helped by the fact that Flagstaff is the first International Dark Sky city in the world. During the day 30-minute tours are offered hourly between 1:15pm and 4:15pm.
reviewed
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C
Riordan Mansion State Historic Park
The Riordan Mansion is a great example of what happens when two Chicago boys head West and strike it rich as lumber barons. In 1904, brothers Tim and Mike Riordan commissioned Charles Whittlesey of Grand Canyon’s El Tovar Hotel fame to build a Craftsman-inspired duplex to house their families.
reviewed
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Clark County Museum
On the valley outskirts, this humble but jam-packed museum merits a stop en route to Hoover Dam. Inside you’ll find exhibits on the history of Las Vegas as an ancient sea, Native American camp and Western frontier town. Step outside the museum onto Heritage St and walk through beautifully restored historic houses.
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Antelope Canyon
To visit photogenic Antelope Canyon, a stunning sandstone slot canyon with two main parts, you must join a tour. Upper Antelope Canyon is easier to navigate and more touristed. Antelope Canyon Slot Tours is recommended, and runs star-gazing outings as well.
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San Francisco de Asís Church
Four miles south of Taos in Ranchos de Taos, the oft-photographed San Francisco de Asís Church was built in the mid-18th century but didn't open until 1815. It's been memorialized in Georgia O'Keeffe paintings and Edward Weston photographs.
reviewed
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Reid Park Zoo
A global menagerie including giant anteaters and pygmy hippos delights young and old at the small and compact Reid Park Zoo. Cap a visit with a picnic in the surrounding park, which also has playgrounds and a pond with paddleboat rentals.
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Saguaro National Park
Saguaro National Park is cut in half by 30 miles of freeway and farms. It's at the edges of Tucson but still officially in the city - though you'll never believe it once you're in the middle of this prickly ocean of green cacti.
reviewed
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E
Georgia O'keeffe Museum
Possessing the world's largest collection of her work, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum features the artist's paintings of flowers, bleached skulls and adobe architecture. Tours of O'Keeffe's house require advance reservations.
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Tucson Museum of Art & Historic Block
Don’t let all that messy construction stop you from exploring historic downtown. A good place to start is the Tucson Museum of Art & Historic Block, which complements its respectable collection of pre-Columbian, Western and contemporary art with often excellent traveling exhibits and a superb gift shop. Works are displayed in the modern main building and five historic ones, including the 1854 Casa Cordova, one of Tucson’s oldest buildings. The museum complex is part of the Presidio Historic District, which embraces the site of the original Spanish fort and a ritzy residential area once nicknamed ‘Snob Hollow.’ It teems with restored 19th-century mansions, but the ori…
reviewed
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Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Sign
Straddling Las Vegas Blvd, south of the Strip proper, is the city’s most iconic sign, which announces in vintage style, ‘Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada.’ Of course, when Betty Willis designed it in the late 1950s, it wasn’t retro – it was cutting-edge Googie style, with an atomic-modern starburst at the top and, on the back, a friendly reminder to ‘Drive Carefully’ and ‘Come Back Soon.’ The sign was placed on the highway to LA. The Strip still hasn’t managed to spread its fingers quite this far south yet. Now a tourist attraction in its own right, the famous sign had fallen into disrepair by the ’70s. The city’s centennial in 2005 was a rare chance for Las Vegans to…
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Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Drive for hours across the desert just to see a cave? But it’s not just any cave; it’s a truly astonishing and immense system of caves, one of the world’s greatest. Once visitors get a glimpse, even the most skeptical are impressed. A visit is, without a doubt, a highlight of any Southwestern journey. But wait, there’s more. The cave’s other claim to fame is the 250,000-plus Mexican free-tail bat colony that roosts here from April through to October. Visitors flock here at sunset to watch them fly out to feast on a smorgasbord of bugs. The park covers 73 sq miles and includes almost 100 caves. Visitors can take a 2-mile subterranean walk from the cave mouth to an under…
reviewed
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Antelope Island State Park
White-sand beaches, birds and buffalo are what attract people to the pretty, 15-mile-long Antelope Island State Park. That’s right, the largest island in the Great Salt Lake is home to a 600-strong herd of American bison, or buffalo. The November roundup, for veterinary examination, is a thrilling wildlife spectacle. And then there are the hundreds of thousands of migratory birds that descend on the park to feast on tiny brine shrimp along the Great Salt Lake’s shore en route to distant lands during fall (September to November) and spring (March to May) migrations. The island is a year-round home to burrowing owls and raptors as well as namesake antelope, bighorn sheep …
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Very Large Array Radio Telescope
In some remote regions of New Mexico, TV reception is little more than a starry-eyed fantasy. About 40 miles west of Socorro, though, 27 huge antenna dishes sprout from the high plains like a couch potato’s dream come true. Actually, the 240-ton dishes comprise the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array Radio Telescope. Together, they combine to form a very large eyeball peeking into the outer edges of the universe. It would take a 422ft-wide satellite dish to provide the same resolution that this Y-shaped configuration of 82ft-wide antennas offers the observatory. Sure, the giant ‘scope may reveal the relativistic electron movement in the heavens …
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Lake Las Vegas
A lake in the middle of the southern Nevada desert? Hard to believe, but yes, it’s true. After the damning of the Las Vegas Wash in 1991, this small artificial lake near Lake Mead was created. Nowadays it’s a hoity-toity resort with a country-club atmosphere, and it feels a world away from the Strip. A refreshing oasis in summer, the focus of the resort, to which public access is unrestricted, is its palatial residential homes and grand hotels like the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas and Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort, complete with championship golf courses including Reflection Bay. Kayaks, jet skis and sailboats can be rented from MonteLago Village Marina, where one-hour y…
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Arizona Vineyards
Nogales is the gateway to Hwy 82, aka the Patagonia Hwy, which rumbles through rolling hills, open range, wine country and bird refuges to link up 70 miles later with Hwy 80 near Tombstone. Tall grass sways in the breeze and lazy cattle graze in fields dotted with the occasional windmill. If the land looks familiar it’s because you’ve probably seen it on film. More than 50 movies were filmed in this area, including Red River and Oklahoma. It’s truly a road less traveled and a great way to get away from it all and perhaps taste a bit of Arizona wine. Didn’t know they grew grapes down here? OK, so it’s not the Napa Valley and there are only seven wineries thus far, but than…
reviewed
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Albuquerque Biopark
- Albuquerque, USA
- Sights › Zoo
Adults will get as much out of the Albuquerque BioPark as children. When the weather is nice, and you’re traveling with family, the place is especially appealing for the combo ticket to three kid-friendly attractions: a zoo, an aquarium and a botanic gardens. It’s a good-value way to stay entertained all day. Set on 60 shady acres along the Rio Grande, the park’s Rio Grande Zoo is home to more than 250 species. There’s a lot going on here: sea-lion feedings take place daily at 10:30am and 3:30pm, camel rides are offered in the spring and summer, and an entertaining summertime bird show happens at 11:30am and 2pm Wednesday through Sunday. Meanwhile the Albuquerque …
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Guardian Angel Cathedral
If you get the urge to save your soul Sunday morning after letting it all go to hell Saturday night, you won’t have to venture far off the Strip. Adorned with stained glass murals and mosaics, this small Catholic church, which resembles a ski chalet, looks rather alien on the Strip. Even more strangely, it was built with mob money from Moe Dalitz, who donated funds expressly so that graveyard shift workers at casino hotels would have someplace to worship. The iconic 1960s structure was designed by SoCal modernist Paul Revere Williams, the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects, who also collaborated on the landmark Googie-style Theme Buildin…
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