The tourism industry in ARIZONA
has, literally, one colossal advantage - the Grand Canyon
of the Colorado River. It's the single most awe-inspiring spectacle
in a land of unforgettable geology, and one of the few places
in the world that you absolutely have to see at least once in
your life. However, the Grand Canyon is by no means the most interesting
or memorable destination in the state. Indeed, in comparison to
its inhuman scale, other parts of Arizona have a more abiding
emotional impact, precisely because of the sheer drama of human
involvement in this forbidding but deeply resonant desert landscape.
Over a third of the state still belongs to the Native
Americans who have lived here for centuries, and who
outside the cities form the majority of the population. In the
so-called Indian Country of northeastern Arizona,
the reservation lands of the Navajo Nation hold
the stupendous Canyon de Chelly and dozens of
other marvellously sited Ancestral Puebloan ruins
, as well as the stark rocks of Monument Valley
. The Navajo surround the homeland of one of the most stoutly
traditional of all Native American peoples, the Hopi
, who live in remote mesa-top villages . The
third main tribal group are the Apache , in the
harshly beautiful southeastern mountains - the last Native Americans
to give in to the overwhelming power of the white American invaders.
Away from the reservations, Wild West
towns like Tombstone , site of the famed gunfight
at the OK Corral, give a clear sense of Arizona's characteristically
rough-and-ready, pioneer mentality; this was the last of the lower
48 states to join the Union, in 1912. The cities , however, are
not much fun. In Phoenix , the capital, well
over a million souls are scattered over a 500-square-mile morass
of shopping malls and tract-house suburbs; Tucson
is a bit more civil, but still wears thin after a day or so.
Though the open spaces of southern Arizona can be
harsh and violent - most of the southwestern quarter, along the
parallel I-8 and I-10 highways, is used as a bombing range - the
bleakness is balanced somewhat by the many nature reserves which
protect its amazing flora and fauna, such as Saguaro National
Park , just outside Tucson, with its giant cactuses,
real-life roadrunners and rare Gila monsters.
