WHILE standing on a steep bank of sand, I sensed a disturbance in the Force. It might have been some lingering tremors from the escape pod which crash landed here with C3PO and R2D2 in the first Star Wars film. Or it could be that I was nearing the spot where in Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia rescued Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt’s sand barge. But it was more likely to be the vibration of the passing juggernaut on the busy interstate at the bottom of the Imperial Sands, just outside Yuma in southern Arizona.

With its high undulating hills of shingle – and easy access to a four lane motorway leading to Los Angeles – no wonder these dunes were George Lucas’ choice for the desert world of Tatooine. Even when I was there, recreating my own droid moment, a filmmaker had pitched up a few dunes away amongst the dune buggies, trying to evoke the majestic sweep of Laurence of Arabia, much as Lucas and his crew did 30-odd years ago. A visit to southern Arizona is full of these unexpected delights, a place where a rough-hewn rural frontier past rubs up against a sleek urbanised present.

Minutes from the Mexican border and within touching distance of California, Yuma itself is a hidden gem. Once it was best known as the territorial prison that was final stop for Glenn Ford’s outlaw in the 1957 western 3:10 to Yuma. Now the town is becoming a destination for tourists looking for a fresh entry point into Arizona.

Yuma prison perches on a rocky outcrop, overlooking the town. When it was built in 1875, it was hemmed in by the Colorado river, but irrigation and agriculture have reduced the crashing waters of Red River to a mellow stream about a quarter of a mile away.

Since doing time as a penitentiary, then a high school, hospital, homeless shelter and a film set, the gaol has become a museum, and you can investigate its cells, spend time in the dank punishment hole, and browse exhibits that bring some of its most memorable inmates to life, including a serial killer who became noted in jail for his delicate needlepoint lacework.

Yuma is a sturdy base to investigate south Arizona. Agriculture is the backbone of the town, the self-anointed winter vegetable capital of the world, where fields of kale and lettuce stretch out like flat green lawns towards the brusque desert. The town is equally keen to reach out to new visitors. At the Lutes Casino eaterie and the Prison Hill Brewing Co pub, locals want to hear your stories, provide insider tips on their bustling theatre and arts scene, and suggest an early start if you plan a visit to nearby Castle Dome City.

Not so much a city as a ghost town, Castle Dome sprang up in the 1860s during a silver mining boom, then fell away during the bust. Since the mid-1990s, it has been lovingly restored by one man, Allen Armstrong. The result is a remarkable ghost town with real insight into frontier life – the properties are stuffed with discoveries from the mines that pepper the land around, including a pair of Levis jeans, preserved by the dry climate at the bottom of a mineshaft. Last worn in the 1890s, they are one of the oldest surviving examples of the workwear.

To walk among the abandoned buildings is an eerie experience, like a beautifully crafted film-set waiting the arrival of the cast and crew – except, unlike the wide, straight streets that people have come to associate with westerns, Castle Dome presents you with chaotic knots of wooden buildings linked by haphazard wooden pathways from the real west.

If Yuma presents a modern face of the frontier, and Castle Dome City a glimpse into the Old West, then a little further on the town of Tombstone is somewhere in between; a playground perhaps, for those nostalgic for frontier lifestyles.

Despite being barely 140 years old, Tombstone looms large in America’s psyche as the setting for the infamous outlaw showdown at its OK Corral. Along the town’s carefully preserved main drag, residents dressed in period costume recreate life as it was back in the heyday of Tombstone – stetsons, Derbies and bonnets abound – and work in the restored and original buildings from saloons to post offices.

Just behind the main street is the iconic Corral, with regular recreations of the face-off between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and the Clanton-McLaury gang in 1881. It’s good-natured panto stuff, full of boos, cheers and gunfire, but beyond the shootouts, Tombstone’s reputation as ‘the town too tough to die’ is equally fascinating, especially if you visit the town’s curious Historama.

It’s well worth seeing the curtains pull back to reveal a series of ornate mechanical paper mache dioramas depicting the colourful history of the town, including two fires, a gold strike and of course gunfights – up to recent times, narrated by the golden larynx of horror icon Vincent Price. Unchanged since 1964, the whole thing is an essential, if eccentric delight

Modern civilisation reasserts itself three hours drive west in Tucson, a melting pot of cultures and styles. We arrived in time for the All Souls Procession, Tucson’s take on the Mexican Day of the Dead. Taking place in November, almost 100,000 people dress up and paint their faces into skulls for a parade to remember lost loved ones in a way that is both respectful but celebratory.

Towards the edge of the city is a must for propellerheads but also the uninitiated: the Pima Air and Space Museum. One of the largest collections of military aircrafts in the world, with 300 jets, propellor planes, helicopters, and space race artefacts spread over 80 acres, it sits beside the famous Bone Yard, a massive graveyard of decommissioned Army aircraft.

Especially touching is a self-contained museum within Pima, dedicated to the 390th Bomb Group, which flew 300 missions over Europe during the Second World War. A gleaming silver B-17 bomber takes pride of place in the main hall – we were shocked at how small the interior was – surrounded by the possessions of the pilots. Enthusiastic guides are keen to engage you with tales of heroism, fooddrops, and even the hand-drawn designs on the flying jackets.

An hour north, Phoenix offers immersive arts and culture. The city’s Art Museum is an oasis of calm, airy spaces. You will probably recognise the portrait of Benjamin Franklin and enjoy the French impressionist collection, but the art of Arizona is thoughtfully curated and offers an intriguing introduction to the brooding, unsettling surrealist landscapes of Philip C Curtis.

For fans of the modernist architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Phoenix has a special meaning. Cut into the brow of the McDowell Mountains is Taliesin West, his winter residence in later years.

Taliesin is a treat by any measure: a bold architectural design: low-profiled from the outside, spacious, and cool on the inside. Guided tours allow access to areas otherwise closed to the public, including the architect's living room, where we sat in the surprisingly comfortable "Origami" chairs he designed and had built for himself out of scraps of wood, with Mrs Lloyd Wright making the cushions.

Another Wright-inspired creation, the sumptuous Arizona Biltmore Hotel, sits 20 minutes away from Taliesin. It was Marilyn Monroe’s favourite retreat. Presidents golf here and Irving Berlin penned White Christmas while summering by its swimming pool. During Prohibition, Hollywood rascal Errol Flynn used the hotel’s smoking room for illicit drinks parties.

As well as cocktail opulence, there are more unpretentious hangouts, such as the down-home barbecue at Rustler’s Rooste. Greeted by a giant steer outside, everything here is outsize, from steaks the size of frisbees, logs of baked potatoes and giant stringbeans, all griddled to perfection.

It’s this something-for-everyone easiness that makes Arizona such an attractive destination – a widescreen landscape and frontier history that is still tangible, wrapped in a modern, inclusive attitude. Suffice to say that Han Solo would not have a bad feeling here.

America As You Like It offers an eight night fly-drive to Arizona from £1225 per person (based on two sharing), including return flights on British Airways from Glasgow or Edinburgh (via Heathrow) to Phoenix, eight days fully inclusive economy car hire, three nights room only at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort, JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort and two nights at the Hilton Garden Inn Yuma at Pivot Point.

www.americaasyoulikeit.com

Tel: 020 8742 8299

www.visitarizona.com