Arizona
From the 50 State Visitors Guide :
A.R.S. 2025 §§ 13-3821 through 13-3829, 13-3727
Registration Triggers and Deadlines:
Visitors must register if staying for more than 72 hours excluding weekends & holidays. §13-3821(A). SOR office refused to answer whether return visits allowed per month or year. “That’s determined by local sheriff.” Updated Aug 2022.
Initial reg. required “within 72 hours excluding weekends & holidays of entering and remaining in any county.” §13-3821. Updated 8/2022. Registrants working in state must report in any county where present for 14 consecutive days or an aggregate of 30 days/yr. Address change etc. required w/in 72 hours (business days only). §13-3822.
Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:
Residence restriction: 1,000 ft. restriction applies to Level 3 offenders. §13-3727. Local governments are pre-empted from adopting more restrictive requirements. §13-3727.
Duration & updates:
10 years to life. Transients report every 90 days. All others annually.
Most recent visit: October 2026
Grand Canyon visitors beware – Arizona has recently revised its statutes to be much tougher on visiting registrants. Visitors now must register “within seventy-two hours, excluding weekends and legal holidays, after entering and remaining for at least seventy-two hours in any county of this state.” A.R.S.§13-3821(A). Not only do I not know what that means, but I’m afraid to ask Arizona’s SOR office. They are such a bunch of weenies that the last time I called them, they even refused to answer whether return visits are allowed per month or year, saying, “That’s determined by local sheriffs.”
One silver lining is that not only does Arizona’s 1000 foot residency restriction apply only to Level 3 offenders, it is also one of seven states that statutorily pre-empt local governments from adopting any ordinance or regulation more restrictive than state law. So like California which I had just left on my trip to attend the October 2026 ACSOL Conference, and New Mexico where I would be going next, you can travel in Arizona without fear of unknowingly tripping over some local land mine.
On this visit I entered Arizona at about 1:00 PM on a Sunday, exploring Central AZ on Monday, followed by two days on a long-delayed visit to the Navajo and Zuni Nations, leaving AZ at about 4:30 pm Wednesday. And yes, no matter how jealously the Navajo Nation guards its sovereignty, Arizona’s registry laws still apply there AND the Navajo are statutorily pre-empted from adopting local restrictions.
Gee whiz, that sure sounds like more than 72 hours – so how did I compliantly do that?
As I said above, I entered Arizona early Sunday afternoon – not deliberately but because I left the ACSOL conference that morning. Still, that meant my first 11 hours in AZ didn’t count. On the other end, if you look at a map you’ll see that the best way to make the most of the Navajo Nation in two days is to enter at Tuba City and do the US 160 & 163 corridor, which I guarantee will take all of Day 1.
As soon as I left the must-see Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park I left Arizona (but not the Navajo Nation) and my AZ clock stopped – at about 53 hours. I stayed overnight at an RV Park in Bluff, UT, thus adding two partial days to my annual Utah clock, for a total of seven days on this road trip.
Navajo Nation Day 2 I followed the US 191 corridor southbound, with emphasis on Canyon de Chelly National Monument. That also took all day, but I was still leaving AZ at Window Rock by evening, which means only about nine hours total.
Central Arizona Red Rock Country
Day 2 (Hours 12-35) – I visited
the following:
Aqua Fria National Monument – Undeveloped and no major attractions.
Montezuma’s Castle Nat. Mon. – Well-preserved
and partially reconstructed cliff dwellings that date from at least 500 years
before Montezuma and have nothing to do with him.
Tuzigoot Nat. Mon. – Ancient Hopi-style pueblo ruins.
Yavapai-Apache Nation Cultural
Resource Center – closed for no apparent
reason.
Oak Creek Canyon – “The living heart of Red Rock Country.” Impressive.
Sliding Rock State Park – Major attraction and a really cool place to visit. However, very “family friendly” with a lot of
kids in swimsuits. This shouldn’t be a
real concern, but I recommend against stripping yourself down and joining the
fun … ya know, just in case.
Walnut Canyon Nat. Mon. – It was the end of the day and I didn’t get to see much, but it looks like a really interesting place.
That evening I camped at Kaibab National Forest.
Navajo Nation
See my separate Navajo Nation blog entry, coming soon.
Grand Canyon
See my separate Grand Canyon blog entry.
Petrified Forest and Meteor
Crater
On a previous visit in 2023 I was able to squeeze in both Petrified Forest, which is a national park with its own exit on I-40, and Meteor Crater which is a private attraction, in one day. With the Petrified Forest you also get the Painted Desert all on the same auto tour. Meteor Crater also has its own I-40 exit so it’s easy to get to.
In October 2021 I entered Arizona on I-10 in early afternoon, which left plenty of time that day to see Saguaro National Park, which is quite literally in Tucson. One minute you’re driving through the city’s eastern suburbs, the next minute you’re entering a national park – so in that way it’s a bit like entering Great Smokey Mountains National Park from Gatlinburg, TN. Saguaro has an auto loop road, so it’s pretty easy to go tour the whole park, enjoy all the saguaro cactus trees, and be on your way.
Saguaro National Park, Tucson
But Saguaro has no campgrounds. I thought I would overnight at a state park, but even though it was midweek and slightly off-season I was met with a “campground full” sign. So I found an inexpensive motel in town.
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