US Map / Cities / Glendale

Glendale Map

Glendale is the West Valley counterpart to the Phoenix suburbs east of the city — a farming town turned into a metro of stadiums, an air base and arterial grid.

Where is Glendale?

Glendale lies immediately northwest of Phoenix in south-central Arizona, roughly 9 miles from the state capitol. The East Valley cities — Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and Scottsdale — are on the far side of Phoenix, 25 to 35 miles across the metro. Tucson is about 130 miles southeast, and Las Vegas some 290 miles northwest. Grand Avenue cuts diagonally through the city on the old railroad alignment, breaking the otherwise square street grid.

Glendale at a glance

Glendale in Arizona

Maricopa County carries more than half of everyone in Arizona and six of the country's hundred largest cities, Glendale among them; the Arizona county map shows what that does to the shape of the state. Note the name: this is the Arizona Glendale, not the California city of the same name near Los Angeles — the two are frequently confused. Arizona skips daylight saving, so the city stays on Mountain Time year-round. The Arizona state page covers the state around the metro.

The Agua Fria, Luke Air Force Base and Westgate

The Agua Fria River runs along the western side of the city — dry most of the year, like nearly every watercourse in the Salt River Valley, and controlled upstream by Waddell Dam at Lake Pleasant. West of the river the desert opens out toward the White Tank Mountains, and it was that open, empty ground that made the area suitable for Luke Air Force Base, the fighter pilot training base on Glendale's western edge; keeping its flight paths clear has shaped where the city was allowed to build. On the other side of that argument sits Westgate, the entertainment district built around State Farm Stadium and Desert Diamond Arena, which put a Super Bowl venue on former farmland at the intersection of Loop 101 and Glendale Avenue.

Cities near Glendale

Across the metro are Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and Scottsdale; the wider Southwest is on the West region page.