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PHOENIX TOURISM GUIDE

Native Trails in Scottsdale

The sound of drumming coming from the Scottsdale Mall is insistent and irresistible, and if you happen to be shopping in Old Town Scottsdale and hear that drumming, be sure to follow the sound to its source. On a stage in front of the Scottsdale Center for the Arts, you'll find members of several Native American tribes performing traditional songs and dances. The show is a cross-cultural journey and is a great way to learn a bit about a few native cultures. The free programs, called Native Trails, are held January through March on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 1:30pm and are part of the Culture Quest Scottsdale (tel. 480/421-1004; www.culturequestscottsdale.com) program, which includes a variety of seasonal programming geared toward tourists.

Deer Valley Rock Art Center
Located in the Hedgepeth Hills in the northwest corner of the Valley of the Sun, the Deer Valley Rock Art Center preserves an amazing concentration of Native American petroglyphs, some of which date back 5,000 years. Although these petroglyphs may not at first seem as impressive as those at more famous sites, the sheer numbers make this a fascinating spot. The drawings, which range from simple spirals to much more complex renderings of herds of deer, are on volcanic boulders along a quarter-mile trail. An interpretive center provides background information on this site and on rock art in general. From October through April, there are guided tours Saturdays at 10am. From May through September, there are tours on Saturdays at 7:30am.

Desert Botanical Garden
Located in Papago Park adjacent to the Phoenix Zoo, this botanic garden displays more than 20,000 desert plants from around world, and its Plants and People of the Sonoran Desert Trail is the state's best introduction to Southwestern ethnobotany (human use of plants). Along this trail you can make your own yucca-fiber brush and practice grinding corn as Native Americans once did. On the Desert Wildflower Trail, you'll find colourful wildflowers throughout much of the year. Each year in the spring, there is also usually a butterfly pavilion filled with live butterflies. If you come late in the day, you can stay until after dark and see night-blooming flowers and dramatically lit cacti. A cafe on the grounds makes a great lunch spot. In spring and fall, there are also concerts in the garden. In early December, during Las Noches de las Luminarias, the gardens are lit at night by luminarias (candles inside small bags).

Huhugam Heritage Center
This architectural gem adjacent to the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort is operated by the Pima and Maricopa tribes and offers a glimpse into the cultural heritage of the two tribes. Although the centre has only a few small exhibits, it is well worth a visit for its architecture and ethnobotanical garden. The centre complex is built within a huge berm that was designed to resemble a giant pot buried in the ground. Exhibits include a display on ancient Native American trading trails through the desert and an outstanding collection of old baskets.

Museums

Arizona State University's Center for Meteorite Studies
On October 9, 1992, a meteorite slammed into a car in Peekskill, New York. It was a nightmare for the car's owner, but a dream come true for the tabloids. Here was a reminder of just how dangerous out-of-this-world rocks can be. You can see a piece of the Peekskill meteorite, and dozens of other otherworldly rocks at Arizona State University's Center for Meteorite Studies, Bateman Physical Sciences Center, Palm Walk and University Drive (tel. 480/965-6511; http://meteorites.asu.edu), on the ASU campus. The center, which is just a single small room, is open Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm, and admission is free.

Arizona Capitol Museum
In the years before Arizona became a state, the territorial capital moved from Prescott to Tucson, then back to Prescott, before finally settling in Phoenix. In 1898, a stately territorial capitol building was erected (with a copper roof to remind the local citizenry of the importance of that metal in the Arizona economy). Atop this copper roof was placed the statue Winged Victory, which still graces the old capitol building today. This building no longer serves as the actual state capitol, but has been restored to the way it appeared in 1912, the year Arizona became a state. Among the rooms on view are the senate and house chambers, as well as the governor's office. Excellent exhibits provide interesting perspectives on early Arizona events and lifestyles. There are free guided tours at 10am and 2pm.

Arizona Historical Society Museum in Papago Park
This museum, at the headquarters of the Arizona Historical Society, focuses its well-designed exhibits on the history of central Arizona. Temporary exhibits on the lives and works of the people who helped shape this region are always the highlights of a visit. An interesting permanent exhibit features life-size statues of everyday people from Arizona's past (a Mexican miner, a Chinese laborer, and so on). Quotes relate their individual stories, while props reveal what items they might have traveled with during their days in the desert.

Arizona Mining & Mineral Museum
Arizonans have been romancing the stones for more than a century at colourfully named mines like the Copper Queen, Sleeping Beauty, and Lucky Boy. Out of such mines have come countless tons of copper, silver, and gold, as well as beautiful minerals with tongue-twisting names. Chalcanthite, chalcoaluminate, and chrysocolla are just some of the richly coloured minerals on display at this small downtown museum. Rather than playing up the historical or profit-making side of the industry, exhibits focus on the amazing variety of Arizona minerals. Displays have a dated feel, but the beauty of the minerals themselves makes this an interesting stop.

Arizona State University Art Museum at Nelson Fine Arts Center
Although it isn't very large, this museum is memorable for its innovative architecture and excellent temporary exhibitions. With its purplish-gray stucco facade and pyramidal shape, the stark, angular building conjures up images of sunsets on desert mountains. The entrance is down a flight of stairs that leads to a cool underground garden area. Inside are galleries for crafts, prints, contemporary art, and Latin American art, along with outdoor sculpture courts and a gift shop. The collection of American art includes works by Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Hopper, and John James Audubon. Definitely a must for both art and architecture fans. Across the street is the Ceramics Research Center, 10th Street and Mill Avenue (tel. 480/965-2782), and Gallery, which showcases the university's extensive collection of fine art ceramics and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm. This latter centre is another place not to miss. You just won't believe the amazing creativity on display.

The Bead Museum
You'll see beads and body adornments from around the world at this interesting little museum in the Glendale antiques district. Beads both ancient and modern are on display, and exhibits often focus on such subjects as beaded bags, prayer beads, or natural beads.

Hall of Flame Firefighting Museum
The world's largest firefighting museum houses a fascinating collection of vintage firetrucks. The displays date from a 1725 English hand pumper to several classic engines from the 20th century. All are beautifully restored and, mostly, fire-engine red. In all, there are more than 90 vehicles on display.

Heard Museum
The Heard Museum is one of the nation's finest museums dealing exclusively with Native American cultures and is an ideal introduction to the indigenous peoples of Arizona. From pre-Columbian to contemporary, if it's art created by Native Americans, you'll find it here. If you're interested in the native cultures of Arizona, this should be your very first stop in the state. The museum is an invaluable introduction to the state's many tribes. The newly redesigned and expanded Home: Native Peoples of the Southwest exhibit examines the culture of each of the major tribes of the region and is the heart and soul of the museum. In the Lincoln Gallery, you'll get an idea of the number of different kachina spirits that populate the Hopi and Zuni religions, while the Crossroads Gallery offers a fascinating look at contemporary Native American art. Guided tours are offered daily. The annual Indian Fair and Market, held on the first weekend in March, includes traditional dances along with arts and crafts. The museum's cafe is a good place for lunch.

The museum also operates Heard Museum North, at El Pedregal Festival Marketplace, 34505 N. Scottsdale Rd. (tel. 480/488-9817), in Carefree. This gallery features changing exhibits and is open Monday through Saturday from 10am to 5:30pm and Sunday from noon to 5pm. Admission is $3 for adults and is free for children 12 and under.

Historic Heritage Square
The city of Phoenix was founded in 1870, but today few of the city's early homes remain. However, if you have an appreciation for old houses and want a glimpse of how Phoenix once looked, stroll around this collection of historic homes, which stand on the original town site. All of the buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and although most are modest buildings from the early 20th century, there is one impressive Victorian home from the late 19th century. Today, the buildings house museums, restaurants, and gift shops. The Eastlake Victorian Rosson House, furnished with period antiques, is open for tours. The Stevens House features the Arizona Doll & Toy Museum . The Teeter House (tel. 602/252-4682; www.theteeterhouse.com) now serves as a Victorian tearoom (with cocktails and live jazz in the evening); the old Baird Machine Shop contains Pizzeria Bianco; the Thomas House is home to Bar Bianco; and the Silva House is the Ruby Beet Gourmet restaurant.

Historic Sahuaro Ranch
Phoenix and its neighbouring cities started out as farming communities, but today there's little sign of this early agricultural heritage. This historic ranch in Glendale is one noteworthy exception. With its tall date palms, resident peacocks, and restored farmhouse, Sahuaro Ranch is a great introduction to what life was like here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The old fruit-packing shed now serves as a gallery hosting temporary exhibits; tours of the main house are offered.

Mesa Southwest Museum
This is one of the best museums in the Valley, and its wide variety of exhibits appeals to people with a range of interests. For the kids, there are animated dinosaurs on an indoor "cliff" with a roaring waterfall. Of course, there are also plenty of dinosaur skeletons. Also of interest are an exhibit on movies that have been filmed in the state, a display on Arizona mammoth kill sites, some old jail cells, and a walk-through mine mock-up with exhibits on the Lost Dutchman Mine. There's also a mock-up of a Hohokam village and an artificial cave filled with beautiful mineral specimens. This museum also operates the historic Sirrine House, 160 N. Center St. (tel. 480/644-2760), which is open October through March on Saturdays from 10am to 5pm and on Sundays from 1 to 5pm. Admission is free.

Penske Racing Museum
Tucked inside the car dealerships here is the coolest little museum in Scottsdale. Inside this museum, you'll find more than a dozen totally cherry race cars, many of them Indianapolis 500 winners. The cars are the personal collection of Roger Penske. If you follow Indy car racing, you know that the Penske team is the winningest team in the business and the cars in here are why.

Phoenix Art Museum
This is one of the largest art museums in the Southwest, and within its labyrinth of halls and galleries is a respectable collection that spans the major artistic movements from the Renaissance to the present. Exhibits cover decorative arts, historic fashions, Spanish-colonial furnishings and religious art, and, of course, works by members of the Cowboy Artists of America. The collection of modern and contemporary art is particularly good, with works by Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, Georgia O'Keeffe, Henri Rousseau, and Auguste Rodin. The popular Thorne Miniature Collection consists of tiny rooms on a scale of 1 inch to 1 foot. Because this museum is so large, it frequently mounts traveling blockbuster exhibits. The cafe here is a good spot for lunch.

Phoenix Museum of History
Located in the Heritage and Science Park in downtown Phoenix, this modern museum presents an interesting look at the history of a city that, to the casual visitor, might not seem to have any history. Interactive exhibits make this place much more interesting than your average local history museum. One unusual exhibit explores how "lungers" (tuberculosis sufferers) inadvertently helped originate the tourism industry in Arizona, while another exhibit looks at the once-popular occupation of ostrich farming.

Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeologicial Park
Located near Sky Harbor Airport and downtown Phoenix, the Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park houses the ruins of an ancient Hohokam village that was one of several villages along the Salt River between A.D. 300 and 1400. Sometime around 1450, this and other villages were mysteriously abandoned. Some speculate that drought and a buildup of salts from irrigation water reduced the fertility of the soil and forced the people to seek more fertile lands. The small museum displays many of the artifacts that have been dug up on the site. Although these exhibits are actually more interesting than the ruins themselves, there are also some reconstructed and furnished Hohokam-style houses that give a good idea of how the Hohokam lived. The museum sponsors interesting workshops (some just for kids), demonstrations, and tours (including petroglyph hikes). The Pueblo Grande Museum Indian Market, held in mid-December at Steele Indian School Park, which is on the northeast corner of Indian School Road and Central Avenue, is the largest of its kind in the state and features more than 450 Native American artisans.

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Scottsdale may be obsessed with art featuring lonesome cowboys and solemn Indians, but this boldly designed museum makes it clear that patrons of contemporary art are also welcome here. Cutting-edge art, from the abstract to the absurd, fills the galleries, with exhibits rotating every few months. In addition to the main building, there are several galleries in the adjacent Scottsdale Center for the Arts, which also has a pair of Dale Chihuly art-glass installations. Don't miss James Turrell's skyspace Knight Rise, which is accessed from a patio off the museum shop. By the way, the museum shop is full of beautiful items that will fit in your suitcase.

Shemer Art Center
This art centre may be small, but it mounts some of the more interesting little shows in the Valley. Exhibits change monthly and showcase Arizona artists. You might catch an exhibit of ceramic art, jewelry, or photography. The art centre, which is housed in a 1920s Santa Fe mission-style home in the Arcadia neighbourhood, also offers a variety of art classes. It's easy to miss as you're speeding along Camelback Road, so keep your eyes peeled. On Monday evenings, there are sometimes classical music concerts.

Wells Fargo History Museum
Yes, this museum is small, and yes, it's run by the Wells Fargo Bank, but the collection of artifacts here goes a long way toward conjuring up the Wild West so familiar from Hollywood movies. Not only is there an original Wells Fargo stagecoach on display, but there are also gold nuggets to ogle, old photos from the real Wild West, and plenty of artifacts and memorabilia from the days of stagecoach travel. There are also original paintings by N. C. Wyeth and bronze sculptures by Frederic Remington and Charles Russell.

Zoos & Parks

Perhaps the most unusual park in the Phoenix metro area centres on Tempe Town Lake, 620 N. Mill Ave., Tempe (tel. 480/350-8625; www.tempe.gov/rio), which was created in 1999 by damming the Salt River with inflatable dams. Tempe's 2-mile-long lake offers boat rentals and tours, and lining the north and south shores are bike paths and parks. The best lake access is at Tempe Town Beach, at the foot of the Mill Avenue Bridge. Here you can rent kayaks and other small boats, and even take a brief boat tour with Rio Lago Cruise (tel. 480/517-4050; www.riolagocruise.com). Boat tours, offered Saturday and Sunday at 1, 3, and 5pm, cost $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and children 6 to 12, and $4 for children 5 and under. Tempe Town Lake is the focus of a grand development plan that will include a new Tempe Center for the Arts, which is scheduled to open in 2006.

Among the city's most popular parks are its natural areas and preserves. These include Phoenix South Mountain Park, Papago Park, Phoenix Mountains Preserve (site of Piestewa Peak), North Mountain Preserve, North Mountain Recreation Area, and Camelback Mountain-Echo Canyon Recreation Area.

Not far from downtown Phoenix is the Steele Indian School Park, at Third Street and Indian School Road (tel. 602/495-0739; www.phoenix.gov/PARKS/sisp.html). This park, as its name implies, was once an Indian school. Several of the old buildings are still standing, but it's the many new fountains, gardens, and interpretive displays that make this such a fascinating place. A stop here can easily be combined with a visit to the nearby Heard Museum.

The Phoenix Zoo
Forget about polar bears and other cold-climate creatures; this zoo focuses its attention primarily on animals that come from climates similar to that of the Phoenix area (although the rainforest exhibit is an exception). Most impressive of the displays are the African savanna and the baboon colony. The Southwestern exhibits are also of interest, as are the giant Galápagos tortoises. The newest exhibit features monkeys from Central and South America. All animals are kept in naturalistic enclosures, and what with all the palm trees and tropical vegetation, the zoo sometimes manages to make you forget you're in the desert.

Wild West Theme Towns

Despite a population running to the millions, Phoenix and Scottsdale still occasionally like to present themselves as grown-up Wild West cow towns. But since there are more Ford Mustangs than wild mustangs around these parts, you'll have to get out of town way before sundown if you want a taste of the Old West. At the outer edges of the Valley, you'll find a couple of Hollywood-style cow towns that are basically just tourist traps, but, hey, if you've got the kids along, you owe it to them to visit at least one of these places.

Cave Creek, founded as a gold-mining camp in the 1870s, is the last of the Valley towns that still has some semblance of Wild West character, but this is rapidly fading as area real-estate prices skyrocket and Scottsdale's population centre moves ever northward. Still, you'll see several steakhouses, saloons, and shops selling Western and Native American crafts and antiques. The main family attraction is a place called Frontier Town, which is right on Cave Creek Road in the centre of town. It's a sort of mock cow town that also happens to be home to the Black Mountain Brewing Company, which brews Cave Creek Chili Beer. You can try this fiery beer at The Original Crazy Ed's Satisfied Frog Saloon & Restaurant, located here in Frontier Town. Another popular local watering hole goes by the name of The Horny Toad. To learn more about the history of this area, stop in at the Cave Creek Museum, at Skyline Drive and Basin Road (tel. 480/488-2764). It's open from October through May, Wednesday through Sunday from 1 to 4:30pm; admission is $3 for adults and $2 for seniors and students.

Over on the east side of the Valley, just 4 miles northeast of Apache Junction, you'll find a reconstructed 1890s gold-mining town. Although it's a bit of a tourist trap -- gift shops, an ice-cream parlor, and the like -- it's also home to the Goldfield Superstition Historical Society Museum (tel. 480/677-6463), which has interesting exhibits on the history of the area. Of particular note is the exhibit on the Lost Dutchman gold mine, perhaps the most famous mine in the country despite the fact that no one knows where it is. Goldfield Mine Tours provides guided tours of the gold mine beneath the town. The Superstition Scenic Narrow Gauge Railroad circles the town, and the Goldfield Livery (tel. 480/982-0133) offers horseback riding and carriage rides. If you're here at lunchtime, you can get a meal at the steakhouse/saloon.

Architectural Highlights

Hunt's Tomb
The Great Pyramid of Phoenix -- If you're driving through Papago Park, perhaps on your way to the Desert Botanical Garden, and see a shimmering white pyramid on a hilltop, you might at first imagine that you're having a heat-induced hallucination. Not so. The pyramid is real. However, it was not built by wandering Aztecs or ancient Egyptians. It is the tomb of Governor George W. P. Hunt, who was the first, second, third, sixth, seventh, eighth, and tenth governor of Arizona! No other governor in any state has served as many terms in office as Hunt, who was born in 1859 and died in 1934. The tomb is accessible from a parking area near the zoo.


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