5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Visiting Arizona

Watch this video to find out the five things you NEED to know before heading out to Arizona, the Grand Canyon state.

Arizona is an absolutely beautiful state. It is a perfect combination of desert landscape with plenty of recreational opportunities. I thoroughly enjoyed the one week I spent in the state. However, there are a few things that caught me off guard. Things that I had either not been aware of or just completely caught me off guard. Here are five things you need to know before visiting the Grand Canyon state.

You Are in the Arizona Time Zone...Sometimes

Going in to this trip, I was well aware about “Arizona Time”. For those who do not know, Arizona technically falls within the Mountain Standard Time zone but does not observe daylight savings time. Basically for most of the year, Arizona is two hours behind the East Coast of the United States.

However, when the rest of the country is observing daylight savings, Arizona abstains from participation. So in the middle of May, when we decided to visit, the time was actually 3 hours behind the East Coast. Easy enough, right?

Wrong!

While the majority of the state does go by Arizona Time, certain parts of the state do not. More on that in the next section but what you need to know for now is that you need to be very aware of what time places you are visiting or have reservations are going by. In our case, the AirBnB owners had to specify which time zone they were in and following.

Pro-Tip: “Hey Siri (Or Google). What time is it in Phoenix?” should get you the answer. With one exception — The Navajo Nation.

You Are in Navajo Nation

The time zone thing can be confusing enough when you are in a single state or crossing state lines but further confusion ensued when we crossed in to the sovereign territory of the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Nation is a sovereign territory owned by the Navajo tribe. The Nation actually spans three states — Arizona, New Mexico and Utah (Listed by size of territory). When crossing in to Navajo Nation territory, the time zone will revert back to Mountain Standard Time and they do observe daylight savings time. This caused quite a bit of confusion as we headed to the town of Page because of the lack of designation and our phones constantly changing the time based on location.

Another important thing to note, of which we were unaware, is that the Nation is sovereign territory. In short, you are technically no longer in the United States when entering the Navajo Nation. You are in a sovereign territory ruled by the laws and practices of the Navajo Tribe. In our case, this meant having to wear masks in any area which was owned by the Navajo due to their COVID restrictions. At the time of our visit, COVID restrictions in the US had been lifted and we had to find masks to observe their rules while visiting Antelope Canyon.

In fact, there are a number of amazing places which fall under the purview of the Navajo Nation such as Monument Valley. If you are on their land, follow their laws including their ban of drone usage within their parks. Other Native American tribes also have territory within the state, such as the Hopi tribe, but the largest is the Navajo Nation. The chances of coming in to their territory if you are in Northeast Arizona is high.

There is More Than Just Desert

I am actually a little embarrassed by this one because of my past travel experiences. When most people think about Arizona, they think it is all desert and while it mostly is, a good portion of the state is mountain and forested area. Particularly at higher elevations.

As you drive through the state, you will cross through some National Forest areas such as Coconino and Prescott. These areas are at higher elevation which causes a scenic change from the deserts of cities like Phoenix, Sedona and towns surrounding the Grand Canyon. These areas are a nice change from the mostly desert landscape which the state is commonly known for and they can be a good escape from the 100 degree weather. In fact, National Forest areas tend to have a lot of benefits, both recreationally and from a preservation standpoint. Dispersed camping outside of the Grand Canyon proved to be a bit colder in the evening than I expected.

So if you plan to make a drive through the state and do any camping, make sure you prepare yourself for varying climates.

Plan Your Park Visits Ahead of Time

Like nearly every state, Arizona has a great collection of state parks. We decided to visit Red Rock and Slide Rock during the trip. Unlike most other states I have been to, or at least the ones in the Southeast, many of Arizona’s state parks close their parks at the end of the day. And not just closing the facilities staffed by rangers, but the trails too. The fees for entering the parks also appeared to vary depending on what services they offered. Originally, we planned to hike Red Rock later in the evening to avoid peak heat. Red Rock had other plans as they closed at 5PM.

Unfortunately, this meant there was limited time to explore the trails. Another park in the state which had limited hours was a national park — Petrified Forest.

For the most part, national parks are open 24/7 even though they are not staffed the entire time. However, there are a few exceptions (White Sands, New Mexico for example) and Petrified Forest was one of them. Luckily I was aware of this but it still left us with limited time as the gates to the park close. There were a few other oddities about this park but that is for another posting.

Visit the Arizona Crater

The final thing I wish I knew before visiting Arizona was to leave time to visit the Arizona Crater. Unfortunately, we did not.

The Arizona meteor crater AKA Barringer Crater, is a natural landmark on the west side of the state. We ran across it heading from Sedona over to Petrified Forest and had not idea about it. The drive along I-40 was quite windy causing the dust to constantly kick up and nearly blow us off the road. There were also a ton of awesome geologic structures which I assume were placed there as a result of the crater impact 50,000 years ago. The more we looked in to it, the more intrigued we became by the landmark.

Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit but have bookmarked it for a future visit. The crater houses a museum and is frequently visited by scientists for study.

There you have it. Those are the five things I wish I would have known prior to my visit. Arizona is a wonderful state with tons to offer. From the many national forests, to cities such as Phoenix and three National Parks. Had I done a little more research, I would not have been caught off guard by these five things but it all make for a wonderful trip with a few surprises anyway. The biggest gripe I had is a common one — not enough time to explore.

Until next time…Keep Exploring, my friends.