Museum of Northern Arizona: Don’t miss the Colorado Plateau’s premier museum, where you’ll learn about the plants, animals, geology and people that make the northlands such a fascinating landscape.

Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monuments: Explore the foothills of a silent black-rock crater and the architectural wonders of the Northern Sinagua golden age — 800 year-old red-rock apartment buildings rising from the dry scrublands.

Walnut Canyon National Monument: Hike above a diversely vegetated canyon, moving from desert to forest in one short walk, past high-wall ruins built of stacked and mortared stone, while far below petrified sand dunes swirl and a ribbon of water flows through lush bottomlands.

Jerome: Discover a haunted old mining town clinging to the side of a mineral-laden hill, now home to bed-and-breakfasts, hotels, eclectic restaurants, and one-of-a-kind boutiques.

Montezuma Castle National Monument: See the mysterious ruins of the Southern Sinagua culture’s highpoint — a cliffwall castle molded out of limestone and cozy apartments clinging to the walls above a rare sinkhole.

Oak Creek Canyon: Drive along a shady creekside with red-and- white-rock walls towering on each side, where birds, butterflies, and people flock to the babbling water sliding over pink slickrock.

The Mogollon Rim: Sit on the very edge of the Colorado Plateau overlooking a deepgreen sea of pine-tree tops, your legs dangling over the high cliff and all of lowland Arizona spread out before you.