Mesa, AZ
Built in 1941 as Williams Air Force Base, named for First Lieutenant Charles Linton Williams, killed flying with the 19th Pursuit Squadron at Wheeler Field, Oahu in 1927. The base ran continuously from 1942 to 1993 and produced over 26,000 military pilots — first jet training base in the US (1948), first site of the Undergraduate Pilot Training program (1966). BRAC closed the base in 1993; the runway was extended for airliners and the field reopened as Williams Gateway in 1994. Renamed Phoenix-Mesa Gateway in 2008 and just Mesa Gateway in December 2024 after Phoenix withdrew from the authority. Today Class D under PHX Class B, three parallel runways (10,201ft primary), and one of the densest collections of flight schools in the country — ATP, AeroGuard, UND Aerospace, and forty-plus other aviation tenants share the field. IATA code AZA, FAA code IWA.
A jagged volcanic range rising 4,000 feet straight off the Phoenix valley floor, immediately east of Mesa. The Superstitions are one of the most distinctive sky-island mountain blocks in the Sonoran Desert — Weavers Needle, the famous 4,553-foot rock spire at the heart of the range, is supposedly the landmark in the lost-mine map left behind by Jacob Waltz, the "Lost Dutchman" who allegedly found a fabulously rich gold vein here before dying in 1891. Treasure hunters have been searching for the Lost Dutchman's Mine ever since; several have died trying. The Apache call the range Wikchawa, "the rough ones." Lost Dutchman State Park sits at the western base of the range, on the Apache Trail. The Superstition Wilderness covers most of the range — 160,000 acres, no roads, no permits beyond a self-issued day pass.
Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and architectural school, built from 1937 onward using desert masonry — rocks from the surrounding desert set in concrete. The campus is a masterpiece of organic architecture, designed to merge with the Sonoran Desert landscape. From the air, the angular buildings with their signature red canvas roof panels are visible against the desert terrain northeast of Scottsdale. Wright lived and worked here until his death in 1959.
The largest natural travertine bridge in the world — 183 feet high, 400 feet long, spanning a creek tucked into a pine-forested canyon north of Phoenix. Discovered by Scottish prospector David Gowan in 1877 while hiding from Apaches; his family homesteaded the canyon and built a lodge that still stands. The bridge formed over thousands of years as mineral-rich water from a hot spring deposited calcium carbonate layer by layer until it bridged the entire creek. The Tonto National Forest surrounds the site; Mogollon Rim country sits just to the north.
The only place in the United States where the saguaro cactus grows naturally — a Sonoran Desert reserve split into two districts flanking Tucson. From the air the cacti look like a green army marching across the desert floor, each one a 40-foot column, some pushing 200 years old and weighing two tons fully hydrated. The Tucson Mountain District (west) has the densest cactus stands; the Rincon Mountains (east) climb into pine forest sky islands. President Hoover protected the area as a national monument in 1933; Kennedy added the western district in 1961; Congress made it a national park in 1994.