Last Updated: May 2, 2026
New River, Arizona sits about 36 miles north of downtown Phoenix in the terminus of the Black Canyon — an unincorporated community of fewer than 20,000 people that most travelers pass without noticing on I-17. We came here from Canyon de Chelly via Holbrook — about a three-hour drive — using it as a comfortable base camp between the Colorado Plateau and the Tucson desert. Founded in 1868 as a stagecoach stop, New River is the kind of place that still feels like the real Arizona rather than the sprawling Phoenix metro that’s steadily encroaching from the south. Master planned communities like Anthem have already pushed this far north — but for now, New River retains its high desert character. From here we continued on to Fort McDowell.
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