Which state has the most national monuments? Where in America can you find one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World? Where is the largest contiguous forest of ponderosa pine? In Awesome Arizona, Roger Naylor, “the Dean of Arizona Travel Writers,” has amassed 200 amazing facts and fascinating commentary about his beloved state. This is the fast-paced, funny encyclopedia that lovers of Arizona have been craving. Awesome Arizona captures the essence of the sixth-largest state, from its rowdy past to its epic landscape bulging with mountains, slashed by canyons, and blown apart by volcanoes. Learn about trees that once shaded dinosaurs, the West’s most legendary gunfight, the world’s largest antique, the best-preserved meteor crater on earth, where the post office still delivers mail by mule, the longest poker game in history, how Arizona saved the unicorn, and so much more.

In Awesome Arizona Places for Curious Kids, authors Diane T. Liggett and James A. Mack reveal the most interesting and unusual kid-friendly destinations in the Grand Canyon State. This guide features 20 destinations for family fun, adventure, and learning. Visit the still-active 1990s Hubbell Trading Post, watch condors ride warm thermals at the rim of the Grand Canyon, or walk among more than 250 of history's most important aircraft at the Pima Air & Space Museum. Colorful photographs illustrate what awaits at your destination. With spectacular scenery, including the largest American Indian reservation, and a history that goes back thousands of years, Arizona is filled with awesome places to visit. User-friendly symbols introduce you to facts about geology, ancient history, wildlife, and more, making your vacation a fun learning experience. As you travel Arizona's unforgettable roads of exploration, Awesome Arizona Places for Curious Kids is your ultimate family adventure-planning guide. Book jacket.

Each fun and intriguing volume offers more than 250 illustrated pages of places where tourists usually don't venture, including oddball curiosities, local legends, crazy characters, and peculiar roadside attractions.

Arizona is unique among American states, not only in its geography and geology but also in the diversity of its climate, in its indigenous animal and plant life, and in the history of its first inhabitants-communities of Indians whose ancestors arrived on the scene more than 20,000 years ago. Arizona is also the youngest of the contiguous mainland states of America...precisely because of these very same factors. Its climate, geography and Indian tribes were major barriers that prevented the territory from becoming widely populated by the Spanish, Mexicans and early European-Americans, and from being used as a cross-roads by American fur/pelt trappers, gold prospectors and settlers who began pushing west in the mid-1800s. Now, it is exactly these same factors that make Arizona a great place to live as well as a world-famous travel destination. The stories of how Arizona finally became what it is today are as amazing as the lay and the beauty of the land. Great background reading for residents and visitors alike, and an ideal gift.

The reproducible coloring book includes pictures of characters, places, facts, and fun. The kids can color their way around your state while learning new facts. Great for school, home or on the road.

CLICK HERE to download a free hike along "Little Spring" from Best Hikes with Dogs Arizona * Guidebook to 75 dog-suitable trails throughout the Arizona -- many accessible from urban areas * How to keep your dog safe, healthy, and hydrated in Arizona's arid climate * What to pack for your dog: the Ten Canine Essentials and the doggy first aid kit Renée Guillory and her canine companion, Artemis, have hiked more than 700 miles together in Arizona. Now they share their favorite trails, presented through dog-centric eyes. On most trails, you'll encounter few people to dodge. Most hikes offer shade, if not water, to help keep your dog cool in extreme Arizona conditions. The trails in Best Hiikes with Dogs Arizona emphasize terrain that's easy on the paws and give advance warning, trail by trail, on canine hazards to watch for. There are also tips on dealing with dog emergencies and for hiking with minimum dog-impact on the environment. Ranging from short day hikes to extended backpacking trips, many trails included are clustered around urban areas including Phoenix, Tucson, Flagstaff, Sedona/Prescott, and other communities in Mogollon Rim country. There are hikes as far-flung as the Mexican border and in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona.

In 1904, New York nuns brought forty Irish orphans to a remote Arizona mining camp, to be placed with Catholic families. The Catholic families were Mexican, as was the majority of the population. Soon the town's Anglos, furious at this "interracial" transgression, formed a vigilante squad that kidnapped the children and nearly lynched the nuns and the local priest. The Catholic Church sued to get its wards back, but all the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled in favor of the vigilantes. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction tells this disturbing and dramatic tale to illuminate the creation of racial boundaries along the Mexican border. Clifton/Morenci, Arizona, was a "wild West" boomtown, where the mines and smelters pulled in thousands of Mexican immigrant workers. Racial walls hardened as the mines became big business and whiteness became a marker of superiority. These already volatile race and class relations produced passions that erupted in the "orphan incident." To the Anglos of Clifton/Morenci, placing a white child with a Mexican family was tantamount to child abuse, and they saw their kidnapping as a rescue. Women initiated both sides of this confrontation. Mexican women agreed to take in these orphans, both serving their church and asserting a maternal prerogative; Anglo women believed they had to "save" the orphans, and they organized a vigilante squad to do it. In retelling this nearly forgotten piece of American history, Linda Gordon brilliantly recreates and dissects the tangled intersection of family and racial values, in a gripping story that resonates with today's conflicts over the "best interests of the child."