Mount Graham International Observatory - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

Dankworth Pond is 150 acres of land surrounding a 15-acre pond. The park was once a fish hatchery for raising catfish. It has picnic ramadas, trails, and so more.

Roper Lake State Park is located 6 miles south of Safford in Graham County in southeast Arizona and sits at the base of Mt. Graham. It surrounds around 32-acre Roper Lake and it includes a boat ramp, a beach for swimming, a picnic area, a campground, cabins, and a hot spring. The lake is stocked with bass and trout, and boats are limited to small electric motors. This beautiful park is in a beautiful location surrounded by the sky island Pinaleño Mountains range, including Mount Graham.

Frye Mesa Reservoir is an excellent place to camp out for a night or spend a day escaping the southern Arizona heat. This Reservoir contains both Apache and Gila trout, making it one of the only places to legally catch Gila trout in Arizona. Frye Mesa offers spectacular views of the Gila River Valley below and the rocky peak above.

The San Simon Valley is a broad valley east of the Chiricahua Mountains, in the northeast corner of Cochise County, Arizona and southeastern Graham County, with a small portion near Antelope Pass in Hidalgo County of southwestern New Mexico. The valley trends generally north–south but in its northern portion trends northwest–southeast.

Mount Graham is the highest of the peaks that breach the 10,000-foot barrier, while nearby Hawk Peak is home to the Mount Graham Observatory, its buildings visible from below and even from vantage points on distant peaks. It is the highest elevation in Graham County, Coronado National Forest and the Pinaleño Mountains. It is also the southernmost peak and land area in the continental United States above 10,000 feet. A good trekking destination and also there are so many things to do.

Heliograph Peak is a subsidiary summit of Mount Graham in the Pinaleño Mountains. There is a good forest road to the top, and the peak is probably the best in the range for summit views, given that Mount Graham itself is off-limits and wooded, and the other high peaks are usually wooded too.