Arizona is in the southwestern part of the United States. It is one of the Four Corners states. When it comes to landmass, Arizona is the sixth-largest state, following New Mexico and ahead of Nevada. About 15% of the state's total area, or 114,098 square miles (295,000 square kilometers), is privately held. The rest is made up of state trust land, Native American reservations, and national forests and parks. The Grand Canyon National Park, Saguaro National Park, and Petrified Forest National Park are only three of the twenty-four locations in Arizona that are cared for by the National Park Service.
Arizona is known for its desert Basin and Range region in the southern part of the state, which has a lot of xerophyte species like cacti. Prehistoric volcanism, followed by cooling and subsidence, formed the landscape here. The winters are moderate, and the summers are scorching. Pine trees can be found in the state's north central region, in the high mountains of the Colorado Plateau, but this area is less well known (see Arizona Mountains forests).
The Southwest United States, which includes Arizona, is known for its tall mountains, mesas, and the Colorado Plateau. Arizona is a dry state, but 27% of it is forested, which is about the same as the forested area of modern-day Romania or Greece. Arizona is home to the largest grove of ponderosa pines in the world.
At an elevation of 1,998 feet (609 meters), the Mogollon Rim (/ mo gyon /) runs through the middle of the state, delineating the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau. The Rodeo-Chediski Fire, the worst in state history until 2011, burned through this area in 2002.
Northern Arizona is home to the Grand Canyon, a deep, colorful valley created by the Colorado River. Most of the canyon is in Grand Canyon National Park, which was one of the first national parks in the United States. It is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World because of this. Theodore Roosevelt, who frequently visited the Grand Canyon region to hunt mountain lion and take in the grandeur, was a staunch supporter of establishing the region as a National Park. The Colorado River carved a channel through the rock for millions of years, resulting in a canyon that is 277 miles (446 km) long, 4 to 18 miles (6 to 29 km) wide, and more than 1 mile (1.6 km) deep. By cutting through the sedimentary layers left behind when the Colorado Plateau was raised, the Colorado River and its tributaries have found out about almost two billion years of Earth's history.
One of the best-preserved meteorite impact sites on Earth can be found in Arizona. The Barringer Meteorite Crater, which is sometimes called "Meteor Crater," is a huge crater in the high plains of the Colorado Plateau, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Winslow. It is sometimes called "Meteor Crater" because of its shape. It was formed around 50,000 years ago. [60] Over 150 feet (46 meters) above the plain below is a rim of broken and jumbled stones, some the size of small houses. The diameter of the crater is about a mile (1.6 km), and its depth is around 570 feet (170 m).
Arizona is one of two U.S. states, along with Hawaii, that do not observe daylight saving time; however, the sizable Navajo Nation in the state's northeastern part does.
