Arizona Dream

Just above 300 meters above the sea level, the Valley of the Sun (as Phoenix is locally known) offers a sharp and hot contrast to the neighboring high desert of New Mexico. Moreover, with more than four million denizens in its metropolitan area, it is one of the major cities in the continent.

Phoenix features several museums and cultural sights worth a visit; among them are the Historical Society Museum, the Arizona State Capitol, the Science Center, the Fleischer Museum, the Heard Museum, the Art Museum, the Arizona State University, the Museum of History, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the St. Mary's Basilica, the Tovrea Castle, and the Wrigley Mansion. Moreover, the city features an incredibly high number of sport groups playing football, basketball, lacrosse, hockey, baseball, and – incredibly – ice hockey. Apparently neither the high temperatures nor the lack of ice can stop the Phoenicians of practicing their favorite sports.

If that wasn’t enough, the city offers several parks within its limit and in the nearby surroundings. Among them are: the Hole-in-the-Rock, a natural geological formation within Papago Park, the Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park, the Camelback Mountain, the Castles N' Coasters amusement park, the amazing Desert Botanical Garden, the enchanted Encanto Park, the Phoenix Mountains Park and Recreation Area the Sunnyslope Mountain and the South Mountain Park, which is the largest municipal park in the world.

The city is in a small, yellowish plain surrounded by mountains. To the west are White Tank Mountains; to the northeast are the McDowell Mountains; the Superstition Mountains are to the east, and the Sierra Estrella are to the southwest. If arriving by plane, it is worth looking for the Phoenix Mountains and South Mountains within the city limits. The dry Salt River runs westward through the city. The nearby city of Tempe has two inflatable dams in the Salt River, which are used to create a recreational lake, called Tempe Town Lake.

Quick Tips:

The streets are laid out in a grid system, with most roads oriented as per the main compass directions; the city center is at the junction of Washington Street and Central Avenue. Numbered avenues run north to south, west of Central and numbered Streets run north to south, east of Central. Major streets are spaced one mile apart.

Phoenix average annual maximum temperature is the highest of any major US city and it offers an arid climate. On an average year, the temperature exceeds the 100 °F (38 °C) on an average of three months during the year, mainly from early June until early September. On June 26, 1990, 122 °F (50 °C) had been measured.

The dry desert air makes tolerating the high temperatures relatively easy, but staying outside during the hot hours is almost impossible; any sightseeing walks through the city should be planned for the early or late hours of the day. Rain is not of concern for travelers; the wettest month of March, offers an average of just about 25mm rain. Frost and snow are an oddity, but they do exist there.

Phoenix does not observe daylight saving time, and that can cause some confusion, since at times it features the same time as Santa Fe, while at others the same as Los Angeles.

Watching Arizona Dream – a charming movie filmed in the early 1990s and touching the issue of the price each decision we take carries – is recommended before a visit to the area – despite that downtown Phoenix does not appear in it.

Best Way To Get Around:

The Sky Harbor International Airport is readily accessible and close to downtown; with more than forty million passengers per year is one of the busiest in the world. The US Airways Group headquarters are located in Phoenix; usually it offers flights to neighboring cities at prices able to compete with Greyhound buses – needless to say, the flights are much faster.

Amtrak stopped serving the Phoenix Union Station; thus the city is the largest city in the country without a train service. However, at Maricopa, thirty miles south of downtown, the Sunset Limited and the Texas Eagle stop three times a week. Amtrak Thruway buses connect Sky Harbor to Flagstaff for connection with the daily Southwest Chief service to Chicago and Los Angeles.

Public transportation throughout the metropolitan area is provided by the Valley Metro, which offers public buses and is building the light rail Valley Metro Rail project. Greyhound bus service has a small terminus at the 24th Street, near the airport, but flights between the southwest cities are generally cheaper than the bus rides.

Phoenix has a good network of highways. I-17 connects downtown Phoenix with Flagstaff in northern Arizona. I-10 from Los Angeles travels from the west through downtown and exits the metropolitan area towards Tucson. US-60 travels through the heart of the city and connects it to the suburbs of Glendale, Peoria, and Surprise; eastwards it connects it with Tempe, Mesa, and Gilbert. Loop 101 is a major highway drawing a semicircle around Phoenix northern suburbs. Traveling around by car is easy enough.

My first impressions of Arizona were forged eons ago by a movie called Arizona Dream. Since then I always thought of it as "Arid Zone" and never even considered visiting it. Timed passed by and I found myself traveling frequently between California and New Mexico. Even by plane that meant stopping at Arizona and the spell was broken.

Over time I visited several of the towns and cities scattered in this vast desert, but nothing compared to my first sight of Flagstaff, the first town of any size I saw in Arizona. Would I have arrived without early ideas about the place, then the effect of the sight would have been weaker. However, a very dense forest covering an area of high hills surrounded the way before reaching the small town and shattered the "Arid Zone" concept I had. I could discern Ponderosa pines and aspen trees among a plethora of trees. I had learned to love the elegant, bluish aspens in New Mexico and was happy to find them here.

At five thousand feet, the town is substantially lower than Santa Fe, but still higher than the country westwards. The town itself is located on a small plateau and thus is rather flat and pleasant to walk. Surprisingly green, it featured plenty of grown up trees. Midway between New Mexico’s high desert and Phoenix low and hot desert, Flagstaff offers a pleasant weather that ensures a pleasant stay.

I immediately flagged Flagstaff for a future and more detailed trip once I found the many attractions it features. Placed about eighty miles away from the Grand Canyon, it is an ideal headquarter in the area. Other attractions are Navajo and Hopi communities, the Arizona Snowbowl, Coconino National Forest (the biggest ponderosa forest in the world), the Wupatki National Monument, the Sunset Crater, The Arboretum, the red rocks of Sedona, the Meteor Crater, the San Francisco Peaks and a wild nature which is hard to find elsewhere.

However, the city itself is interesting enough to justify a visit. The arts and crafts scene in the town reminds Taos in New Mexico and it is spiced up with shops, hotels and all other necessities visitors have. Within the city limits there are a few cultural attractions as well. The Arizona Historical Society-Pioneer Museum, at 2340 N. Fort Valley Rd. shows artifacts, documents, and photographs of the history of northern Arizona and is certainly worth a visit. A visit to the Museum of Northern Arizona, at 3101 N. Fort Valley Road, is a recommended addition to the first museum. One of the most interesting spots in the town is the Heritage Square, at Aspen Avenue between Leroux St. and San Francisco St., which appears to be the social centre of town. Unusually for an American Town, Flagstaff features an enchanted house, usually known as the Museum Club, at 3404 E. Route 66. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is rich in ghost stories; it features a collection of taxidermed unique animals.

Most airports tend to be a sterile environment, similar to each other and unable to irradiate a feeling of the local culture. In sharp contrast, but terminals allow a close inspection of the local climate – the weather and human ones alike.

On my first visit to Phoenix, I just passed through the Greyhound terminal, located on the 24th Street, near the airport. Regardless of the flights from Santa Fe, New Mexico, being cheaper and faster than the bus, I had preferred to take a close look at the – for me – unexplored area. Despite the discomfort of the trip, it was worth every minute; after leaving the cool, high desert of New Mexico, Arizona resembled an open furnace.

Aware the weather problems, I was expecting Arizona to be emptier than New Mexico, but here the first surprise awaited me. Phoenix had an extensive network of suburbs that took more than twenty minutes to cross until we arrived to the terminus.

The next oddity was the tiny water sprinklers on the ceiling above the bus bays, just outside the main structure. They were sprinkling water despite the obvious fact that there was no open fire in the area. However, as soon as I left the bus and breathed the local air, it became clear that the air was burning. The city was an open and smartly disguised furnace. Apparently, the strange sprinklers were just a very effective and inexpensive air-conditioner aimed to prevent the spontaneous ignition of papers, backpacks, clothes or any other dry, unprotected objects carried on by the passengers.

The terminus turned out to be rather small and – at least at the day of my visit – chaotic. There wasn’t a service of luggage automatic transfer between buses and the three or four ticket counters were collapsing under the crowds’ pressure. The buses seemed to be purposely avoiding their schedule and the luggage loading process was sporadically chaotic. Unable to change that, I tried to make the best of my stay there.

My first action while arriving at a place for the first time is to check out the local coffee. It gives a few extra minutes to absorb the new place, to settle down after a sometimes long and tiring trip, and to decide what’s next. However, Phoenix terminus did not have proper accommodations for that and it seemed to be in an area void of coffee shops, despite its blessed closeness to the airport.

One of the most amazing museum/parks I have even seen, the Desert Botanical Garden is within the Papago Park and not far from Phoenix and near the cities of Scottsdale and Tempe. It hosts what possibly is the world’s finest collection of desert plants. Founded in 1939, it displays fifty acres of exhibits, from 139 rare plant species to a complete desert house and offers several research and educational programs.

The Desert Botanical Garden is open every day. From October to April it is open from 8am to 8pm and during the rest of the year from 7am to 8pm. A ticket for an adult costs ten dollars. Extra features are the pleasant Patio Café (which closes soon after midday), a library (which offers just a reading room service) and umbrellas, strollers, scooters, and wheelchairs available for renting.

The Garden can be reached practically from everywhere in Phoenix through the Valley Metro Buses (see detailed information at www.valleymetro.org).

The park is arranged in a series of trails along which the visitors can walk freely. Each trail is dedicated to a different theme.

The Desert Discovery Trail
This third of a mile trail shows the unique characteristics of desert plants from around the world. It features the Garden’s oldest plantings and leads to all trailheads and facilities.

The Plants and People of the Sonoran Desert Trail
This third of a mile trail the interaction between Humans and plants in the Sonoran Desert. It explores the uses desert plants for food, construction, tools, basket-making, and another surprising variety of uses.

The Harriet K. Maxwell Desert Wildflower Trail
This trail is a variation of the former one. It shows the interactions between desert plants and desert animals. The ecosystems are clearly and attractively exposed.

The Sonoran Desert Nature Trail
This quarter of a mile trail is the most scenic one in the garden and features sights of the surrounding plains and mountains, which probably form one of the most dramatic desert scenes in the whole world.

The Center for Desert Living Trail
This quarter of a mile trail explains how to live in harmony with the desert, touching issues like desert landscaping, gardening and conservation. It includes the vegetable and herb demonstration garden and Desert House, which seems to belong more to Santa Fe, New Mexico than to Phoenix. The house provides information on how to live in an energy-efficient arid environment, while enjoying a modern life and without wasting resources.

In its ability to show all the different aspects related to the desert environment surrounding it, this garden provides a unique and profound experience, which should be scheduled first while planning a visit to the area.

Before landing, I watched from above at Phoenix and the curious rock formations in its vicinity and got for the second time the impression that Phoenix was a big city. That impression was reinforced by the huge airport terminal. It wasn’t due to the number of departures and arrivals – after all you always need just one plane – but the extensive commercial activities taking place on every available spot of the terminal.

On my second visit to Phoenix, I was practically trapped inside the airport for a few hours. I needed to wait for my next flight and leaving the terminal – though possible – would have meant to pass the security checks all over again. In a sudden attack of laziness, I postponed exploring the city for my next visit – I knew it would happen in about a month – and decided to take a look at the terminal. As in most other airports I visited, the Sky Harbor offered few entertainment options. Looking at a screen showing a news network constantly displaying a tiny clock reminding there were still two hours and thirteen minutes until my next flight was not a good way to pass the time.

Despite being one of the busiest airports in the world with more than forty million passengers per year, the Phoenix Sky Harbor had been designed spaciously and the crowds weren’t oppressive. In my visits, there was always enough space to look at the shops across the corridor. The airport featured many services aimed at international passengers, including a surprising amount of money exchangers. In that aspect it was better even than the more important San Francisco International Airport; I visited both airports in tandem several times and had a good opportunity to compare between them.

An inherent advantage to its generous design was that exploring the place and trying to decide in which coffee shop to sit down (it was the first and only time I had troubles deciding where and what to eat while in an American airport) occupied most of the waiting time to the flight; there wasn’t even a well defined restaurants’ area, and exploring them through the dilapidated terminal required the determination of a mountains’ climber. Moreover, the only place where the substantial activity of the airport was evident was at the lines to the food shops; sitting inside them was impossible. I opted for taking the food out to one of the many coaches available for the passengers and for once I appreciated the paper cups (instead of the more solid versions given abroad) used by Starbucks. My second choice for a snack was at Quizno’s, which offered excellent sandwiches at reasonable prices and a free refill for a coffee. The last turned out to be a life-saving feature when my next flight was delayed.