The Most Remote State Park In Arizona Is The Perfect Place To Escape
By Tori Jane|Updated on April 19, 2024(Originally published August 04, 2023)
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Tori Jane
Author
Tori Jane is a storm chaser, writer, photographer, and the village idiot - in that order. When she's not out and about dancing with the meanest storms on planet Earth for funsies she can be found wandering, shooting landscapes, writing, editing photos, and otherwise up to no good. Legend has it that she can also be occasionally spotted typing up short bios in the third person, but those rumors are unsubstantiated.
Arizona is one of the most-visited states in the U.S. It’s outrageously beautiful and contrary to popular belief, it’s so much more than just a desert. With 29 state parks, it’s tough to know where to start, and it can be very tempting to simply pick the most popular and go from there. But some of us prefer to challenge ourselves to find something a little less busy. We seek remote adventures – so what better place to check out than what’s probably the single most remote state park in Arizona? Come out and explore Homolovi State Park, an underrated delight in northern AZ.
Homolovi State Park is easily Arizona's single most underrated state park.
Even folks born and raised here have no idea it exists, making it one of the most underappreciated parks in Arizona to visit. You might even get it all to yourself.
Although this amazing place has been called "the middle of nowhere" by many, you'll discover plenty: there are more than 300 Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in this park.
The park is named after its Hopi name - Homol'ovi - a word that means "place of the little hills". This moniker is certainly appropriate - as far as the eye can see, there are small hills in an otherwise flat landscape.
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There are a few critters that call this remote region home, like the occasional wild burro.
Once upon a time, this region was bustling with life as the site of a large Native American community. The area is still considered spiritually alive by local tribes, and they had the "ruins" part of the park's original name (Homolovi Ruins State Park) removed successfully in 2011.
Native peoples grew corn, beans, squash, and cotton in the floodplain present here. The people who called it home are often referred to as "Anasazi", but this word is now considered outdated and in bad taste at best.
Present-day Hopi folks greatly prefer the term Hisat'sinom, which means "long-ago people" in their language.
Of the sites present here, two are open to visitors. Homolovi II is the larger one and has been outfitted with informative signs and a sidewalk for easy access.
It has about 1200 rooms - something like an ancient apartment building - and was occupied between 1330 and 1400.
It is believed that the people who called this awesome structure home traded cotton for pottery with inhabitants of the nearby Hopi Mesas. There are also three large, rectangular plazas, and about 40 kivas - underground ceremonial chambers last used thousands of years ago. You'll be able to spot petroglyphs in numerous areas like the one pictured above.
The closest town to the park is Winslow, which is definitely worth checking out all on its own.
It's one of the coolest small towns in Arizona famous for all sorts of fun stuff... does "standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona" mean anything to you? It will once you've been here!
For more information about Homolovi State Park, visit the official Arizona State Parks website. What’s your favorite lesser-known state park in Arizona? Let us know in the comments. And don’t forget to take a look at our ultimate hiking essentials before your outdoor adventure!
