Don't just sit around or spend all your time on the golf course during your winter vacation in sunny Arizona. Take advantage of your surroundings and get out to see a little Southwest history up close, personal and dusty.
Do what? Go where? March is Archaeology & Heritage Awareness Month -- http://tinyurl.com/d4uwpg -- at Arizona State Parks, where you can check for events by region or city to match your travel plans. Spending most of your time in Tucson? Look in the Southern region for the Hands-On Archaeology Program for children at the Old Pueblo Archaeology Center, or the March 9-13 walking tours at the Western Archaeological and Conservation Center. For vacationers spending time at Yuma or Lake Havasu City, check out some colorful Western history at the Yuma Territorial Prison. And if you plan to be in the Phoenix metro area, take in the events sponsored by the Cave Creek Museum -- http://cavecreekmuseum.com -- or head to the Casa Grande Ruins National -- www.nps.gov/cagr -- for special guided tours of normally closed archaeological sites.
It is colder at this time of year in the high country of northern Arizona, but you can check the calendar there for events in the Flagstaff area, including lectures on petroglyphs, and hikes at the Wupatki National Monument --www.nps.gov/wupa -- a well-preserved pueblo.
East of Phoenix, the Besh-Ba-Gowah Archaeological Park -- http://tinyurl.com/dxpujd -- at Globe displays a 700-year-old pueblo from the Salado culture.
You don't even have to leave Phoenix. The Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park -- http://phoenix.gov/parks/pueblo.html -- is a site from the Hohokam culture. It's easy to find, just north of the airport's east entrance.
If any of these sites have piqued your interest, go the Arizona Archaeological Society -- http://tinyurl.com/cxpwkb -- and look under "Links" for "Southwest Archaeology" for parks and monuments. Many are outside Arizona, but you can easily find plenty of interesting places to fill out your vacation stay. And they include links to the major sites you probably thought of yourself, such as Canyon de Chelly National Monument -- www.nps.gov/cach -- in northeast Arizona and the Montezuma Castle National Monument -- www.nps.gov/moca -- between Phoenix and Flagstaff.
The Arizona Office of Tourism even promotes Learning Vacations -- http://tinyurl.com/d8rvba -- describing the state as "a big archaeological classroom." Follow their links to the Elden Pueblo -- http://tinyurl.com/bjpmwn -- and Walnut Canyon National Monument -- www.nps.gov/waca -- and to Archaeological Adventures -- www.archaeologicadventurescom -- a private group that organizes tours to sites on federal Bureau of Land Management land.
You could also investigate sites of more recent history.
Much of Arizona was explored by miners looking for gold and silver, and remnants of their mining towns dot the state.
Visit Ghost Town of the Month -- www.azghosttowns.com -- and try "Browse by Map" to find ghost towns such as Courtland, near the Wild West town of Tombstone, or Cleator, in the Bradshaw Mountains north of Phoenix. Then are also a few almost-ghost towns that have been revived, such as Jerome -- www.azjerome.com -- a former copper-mining town clinging to a mountainside.
Along with ghost towns, there are a few remnants of the mining operations themselves, such as the Vulture Mine -- http://tinyurl.com/ajtl7e -- in the desert outside Wickenburg, an easy drive northwest of Phoenix.
■ Comments and tips can be sent by e-mail to cybertrip@ap.org.
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