Guests tend to go quiet shortly after we lift off from Scottsdale Airpark. The rotors settle into a rhythm, the McDowell Mountains slide underneath, and the Sonoran Desert opens up in a way no photograph has managed to convey. Arizona is a state built for the aerial view. Its landmarks are enormous, remote, and carved into shapes that only make sense from above. You can spend a week driving to them and never actually see them.
Here are the Arizona landmarks worth seeing from the air, and how they connect on one flight out of the Phoenix Valley.
The Grand Canyon Through the Zuni Point Corridor
Most people meet the Grand Canyon at a railing on the South Rim, shoulder to shoulder with a few hundred strangers, after a four and a half hour drive from Phoenix. It is beautiful. It is also one fixed angle on something enormous. Flying it is a different experience entirely. Entering through the Zuni Point Corridor, the rim falls away beneath you and the canyon reveals its depth all at once, layer after layer of red and ochre rock dropping toward the Colorado River. You see side canyons, buttes, and temples that no road reaches. On our Grand Canyon Experience, that stretch runs roughly 25 to 30 minutes of canyon flying, followed by a layover at Grand Canyon Airport so you can get out, stretch, and let it sink in before flying home over Marble Canyon, the Little Colorado River Canyon, the Painted Desert, Meteor Crater, and the ponderosa pine of the Mogollon Rim.
That single day covers more of Arizona than most visitors see in a week of driving, and you sleep in your own Scottsdale hotel bed that night.
Sedona’s Red Rocks and Oak Creek Canyon
Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte, and the walls of Oak Creek Canyon are the most photographed formations in Arizona, and almost always shot from below. From the air you finally understand the geology: not isolated rocks but the eroded edge of a vast plateau, red sandstone standing where the rest of the shelf washed away.
The flight north is its own reward. Bloody Basin, the Bradshaw Mountains, Black Canyon City, and the Camp Verde Valley pass underneath before the red rock country announces itself. Our Sedona Experience includes a layover at Sedona Airport, which sits on a mesa above town, so you can have lunch, walk the overlook, or ride in for the galleries. The drive from Scottsdale takes two hours each way. The flight takes about 25 minutes and shows you country the highway never touches.
The Superstition Mountains, Apache Trail Lakes, and Four Peaks
Some of Arizona’s best landmarks sit less than 40 miles from downtown Phoenix and almost nobody sees them properly. The Superstition Mountains, tied up in the legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine, look like a wall from Apache Junction. From above they are a maze of canyons, spires, and hidden basins. Beyond them the Salt River chain unfolds: Saguaro Lake, Canyon Lake, Apache Lake, and Roosevelt Lake with its dam, blue water pinned between sheer desert rock. Four Peaks rises to the north, the landmark every Phoenix resident knows on the horizon without ever having stood on it.
Our 1 Hour Adventure covers this whole eastern circuit. For guests who want to stand in it, the Mountain Top Landing sets down on a remote summit above Apache Lake with a view across to Roosevelt and gives you roughly 30 private minutes up there. No trail reaches that spot and no crowd shares it. It is one of the few ways left in Arizona to have a world-class view entirely to yourself, which is why it has become our go to flight for proposals, anniversaries, and milestone birthdays.
Horseshoe Bend, Lake Powell, and Northern Arizona’s Water Country
Horseshoe Bend is one of the most recognizable images in the American Southwest, a 270 degree loop of the Colorado River wrapped around a sandstone butte near Page. On the ground it means a hike, a crowded overlook, and a photo everyone else already has. From the air you see the full geometry of the bend and the canyon country feeding into it. Push farther and you reach Lake Powell, Navajo Canyon, and Rainbow Bridge, one of the largest natural bridges on earth, in country so remote most Arizonans never see it. Our Ultimate Arizona Experience links the Grand Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and Lake Powell into one day.
The Valley Landmarks You Drive Past Without Ever Seeing
You do not have to leave the Phoenix Valley to be surprised. Camelback Mountain and Papago Buttes read completely differently from 1,000 feet. Pinnacle Peak, the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, and the golf corridors of North Scottsdale become a green and granite mosaic. The Fountain Hills fountain, one of the tallest in the world, is a wonderful thing to watch from above when it fires. Our 35 Minute Adventure covers this stretch, and it is why so many guests who booked something short call back for something longer.
Questions People Ask Before They Fly
What is the best way to see the Grand Canyon from Phoenix or Scottsdale? By helicopter. A private helicopter flight from Scottsdale Airpark reaches the canyon in a fraction of the driving time, flies you through the Zuni Point Corridor rather than viewing from a single rim overlook, and includes a layover at Grand Canyon Airport. H5 Helicopters flies this as the Grand Canyon Experience, roughly a four hour round trip.
Can you land at Arizona landmarks on a helicopter tour? Yes, on specific flights. The Mountain Top Landing includes a private landing and about 30 minutes on a remote summit above Apache Lake. The Sedona and Grand Canyon Experiences include airport layovers so you can get out, eat, and explore on the ground.
How many people can fly at once? Up to five passengers, subject to an 850 pound total passenger weight limit that may be lower on longer flights. Every H5 flight is private. You will never share the aircraft with strangers.
Is it too hot to fly in an Arizona summer? The cabin of our Airbus AS350-B2 A-Star is fully air conditioned, which makes flying one of the most comfortable ways to see the state when it is 110 degrees on the ground.
See Arizona the Way It Was Meant to Be Seen
H5 Helicopters is veteran owned and family run, flying from our private hangar at Scottsdale Airpark since 2008. Mitch and Steve bring more than 55 years of combined flying experience and a perfect safety record, and they narrate the history and geology as you go, which is much of why guests call it an experience rather than a ride. The same aircraft and pilots have flown aerial work for Apple TV, Netflix, National Geographic, IMAX, Discovery, Travel Channel, and Red Bull.
If the Grand Canyon is the landmark you have always meant to see, ask us about the Grand Canyon Experience. If you want the private summit and the view nobody else has, ask about the Mountain Top Landing. Call (480) 272-1100 or email info@h5helicopters.com and we will build the right flight around your dates, your group, and the landmarks that matter most to you. Availability on the longer flights fills quickly once Arizona’s cooler travel season begins, so reach out early.