Americans think of two things when they think of Arizona: U.S. Sen. John McCain and the Grand Canyon, said Gov. Doug Ducey at a memorial service for the late senator Wednesday.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by the National Mining Association and allied groups that it was illegal for Kenneth Salazar, the Interior Secretary in the Obama administration, to withdraw about 1 million acres around the park to new mining claims for 20 years.

Arizona lawmakers and advocates are condemning proposed fee increases at the Grand Canyon and 16 other parks, a move the National Park Service said is badly needed to fund billions of dollars in backlogged maintenance projects.

Democratic senators criticized a National Park Service plan to impose steep increases in entrance fees at 17 of its most popular parks, including the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone and Zion, calling the proposed rates “arbitrary and unjustifiable.”

Everyone who has experienced the Grand Canyon knows of its power to profoundly change a person, and if we allow IT to be permanently changed by the further degradation that expanded mining would inevitably bring, we simply don’t deserve the endless fruits it bears.

President Barack Obama has decided against creating a national monument covering areas of public land around Grand Canyon National Park, an Arizona congressman said Friday.

Six hunting and fishing groups are pushing for a compromise in the event the Obama administration designates a national monument around Grand Canyon National Park, a heated issue in the Southwest.

Coconino County officials have sent somebody down to the Havasupai Indian Reservation – a tribe of about 450 people living on the southwest region of the Grand Canyon for every major election since 1968.

Scottsdale-based Confluence Partners, LLC wants to build a restaurant, hotels and an RV park on the rim of the canyon, along with a tram that could carry 10,000 passengers per day.

Tourist Overlook, Grand Canyon