Roger Naylor presents “Awesome Arizona: 200 Amazing Facts.” Arizona is rugged and gorgeous and historic and weird and funny and utterly magnificent. It’s full of surprises, not what most people expect at all. Naylor will pile up the evidence of this during his lecture at the Museum, drawing from his new book Awesome Arizona: 200 Amazing Facts About the Grand Canyon State. He will relay the essence of Arizona from its wild and wooly past to its breathtaking scenery to its startling geology to its incredible diversity of cultures and terrain. Arizona is the sunniest state, the state with the most national monuments, and the only state that contains one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Arizona has every life zone found between Mexico and Canada. The world’s largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest spreads across the north and the south bristles with an arsenal of the country’s largest cactus. Trees that once shaded dinosaurs are still here. This is where you can slither through the most famous slot canyon in the Southwest and visit the best-preserved meteor crater on earth. Arizona saved Route 66. The chimichanga was invented here.
Roger Naylor is an award-winning travel writer, an avid hiker, and a road-trip junkie. He is a member of the Arizona Tourism Hall of Fame and the author of several Arizona books, including Arizona State Parks: A Guide to Amazing Places in the Grand Canyon State and Arizona’s Scenic Roads and Hikes: Unforgettable Journeys in the Grand Canyon State (both from UNM Press).
This is a free, outdoor event. More information here.