Arizona State Map

Regions of Arizona

Arizona divides into three broad zones: high plateau country in the north, a band of mountains through the middle, and low desert basins in the south and west.

Colorado Plateau

The northern part of the state is a high, dry tableland cut by canyons. The Grand Canyon, carved by the Colorado River, is protected in Grand Canyon National Park; its South Rim is reached from Flagstaff and Williams. Farther east are Petrified Forest National Park, Canyon de Chelly and the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the US, which extends into Utah and New Mexico and includes Monument Valley. Lake Powell, behind Glen Canyon Dam near Page, crosses into Utah.

Mogollon Rim and the Central Highlands

The Mogollon Rim, a long escarpment, marks the southern edge of the plateau. Below it lie pine-covered mountains and mile-high towns such as Prescott and Payson. Sedona’s red-rock canyons sit between the rim and the Verde Valley. Flagstaff, at about 7,000 ft, is at the foot of the San Francisco Peaks, where Humphreys Peak is the state’s high point.

Sonoran Desert and the Valley of the Sun

Phoenix and its suburbs fill the Salt River Valley, called the Valley of the Sun. Maricopa County alone has about 62% of the state’s population. Tucson, about 115 miles southeast, is surrounded by mountains and by the two districts of Saguaro National Park.

Western deserts and the Colorado River

The Colorado River forms most of the border with Nevada and California. Hoover Dam and Lake Mead are on the Nevada line; downstream are Bullhead City, Lake Havasu City, with its relocated London Bridge, and Yuma near the Mexican border. Kingman sits in the Mojave Desert along historic Route 66.

Southeastern sky islands

Isolated ranges such as the Chiricahua, Huachuca and Santa Rita mountains rise above desert grassland near Sierra Vista, Tombstone and Bisbee. Nogales is the main border crossing to Sonora.

The Gila River crosses the south of the state from New Mexico to the Colorado River at Yuma; its tributary, the Salt River, flows through Phoenix.

Major highways

• I-10: from the California line through Phoenix and Tucson to New Mexico, the main east–west route in the south.
• I-17: Phoenix north to Flagstaff, climbing from the desert to the plateau.
• I-40: across the north through Kingman, Flagstaff and Holbrook, roughly following old Route 66.
• I-8: from Yuma and the California line east to I-10 near Casa Grande.
• I-19: Tucson to Nogales at the Mexican border; its distances are posted in kilometers.
• I-15: clips the northwest corner through the Virgin River Gorge between Nevada and Utah.
• US 93 and US 89: Wickenburg, northwest of Phoenix, to Kingman and across the Colorado River near Hoover Dam toward Las Vegas; and Flagstaff north to Page and Utah.
• Loop 101, Loop 202 and Loop 303: freeways ringing the Phoenix metro area.