Exploring around Phoenix

The timing was perfect. After a week in Utah and Nevada, I caught a bus to meet Mr. Adventure in Phoenix, where he had a business meeting. I’d never been to Arizona, so I pinged my friend Scott Jones, a native Phoenician (I love that descriptor) and noted travel quester, and he gave me sage advice on exploring.

McDowell Sonoran Preserve

The first morning, we had a few hours before Mr. Adventure’s meeting started, so we went to McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale. At 30,000-plus acres, it’s one of the largest city parks in the country. We had just enough time to hike a couple of the preserve’s 215 miles of trails, including the excellent interpretive nature trail. Plenty of people were out in the cool early-morning air, including volunteers from the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy.

Desert Botanical Garden

That afternoon, I headed to the Desert Botanical Garden, home to tens of thousands of desert plants from around the world. I arrived just in time to join a docent-led tour of the gardens — included in the admission price and perfect for someone like me who’s interested in the plants and their habitat but doesn’t know much beyond “don’t touch the cactus.” Water bottles in hand, about 15 of us set out to explore.

Tweetup!

We were able to meet Scott and thank him in person for his great advice. He picked the Arizona Wilderness Brewery, an appropriate choice given our shared interests. Scott is a great guy and I’m delighted to have met him in person.

Taliesin West

The next morning, I headed back to Scottsdale, this time to Frank Lloyd Wright’s remarkable winter home and architecture school, Taliesin West. I love modern architecture and had visited Wright’s masterpiece Fallingwater with my mom in 2014. That trip had helped me understand the design elements of my own home, a 1950 midcentury gem that Mr. Adventure and I describe as “the biggest impulse purchase we ever made.” Now, I was eager to see how Wright interpreted the desert landscape.

Taliesin West is accessible only by guided tour, and the docents are knowledgable, enthusiastic, and understanding of visitors who aren’t accustomed to standing under the desert sun for long periods. Some elements echoed what I’d seen at Fallingwater, including the design of the furniture and the emphasis on light. And as always, I was floored by Wright’s innate understanding of architecture as an extension of the natural landscape.

The compound sits at the foot of the McDowell Mountains and overlooks the vast Salt River Valley and the Phoenix metropolitan area. Standing at the edge of the developed property, Phoenix’s sprawl was all too evident. When power lines were installed, Wright fought against them. Combined with the housing developments built more recently, the view from Taliesin West requires a bit of imagination to envision it as Wright saw it.

Scott Jones had told me about the Blue Spire, part of an unbuilt 1957 Wright design for the Arizona Capitol Building. The proposal is displayed at Taliesin West and shows an enormous pyramid with the 125-foot spire on top. Predictably, state politicians thought it it too radical. Nearly 50 years later, the City of Scottsdale decided to build the spire, which stands on a corner near a shopping mall. Of course I had to go see it.

Apache Trail

Scott also recommended a scenic drive along the historic Apache Trail. Do the loop route, he urged. Sounded good to me. I headed out of Phoenix to Highway 88 and into the mountains. Completed in 1904 to provide access to the Roosevelt Dam, which provided a reliable water supply for white settlers in Phoenix, Arizona Territory, the Apache Trail was built on top of a trail used by indigenous peoples since ancient times. Members of the Apache Nation comprised most of the road construction crew.

The first half is paved and winds past Lost Dutchman State Park and the tiny Old West town of Tortilla Flats. The Superstition Mountains loomed behind the false-front buildings. I felt like I was in an Eagles song.

After about 30 miles and several signs warning of the rough, narrow road ahead, the pavement disappears. I stopped at the Fish Creek Hill overlook, hoping to glimpse a rattlesnake sunning on the sidewalk, but no dice. Instead I got a good look at the deep canyon into which I’d be descending.

Although the road was pretty smooth, it gave me a new perspective on “narrow” and “winding” as adjectives. I made it to the bottom, crossed the bridge over Fish Creek, and started up the other side, which was somewhat wider. Just then a big ol’ pickup truck lumbered past, kicking up clouds of dust in its wake. I pulled over as far as I could, thankful I hadn’t encountered oncoming traffic during the harrowing descent.

“The Apache Trail combines the grandeur of the Alps, the glory of the Rockies, the magnificence of the Grand Canyon and then adds an indefinable something that none of the others have. To me, it is the most awe-inspiring and most sublimely beautiful panorama nature has ever created.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Compared with the Fish Creek stretch, the rest of the drive is easy peasy, and gorgeously scenic. I made it to the end of the dirt portion and turned onto Highway 188 at the Roosevelt Dam.

Tonto National Monument

I was toodling along, enjoying the big desert landscape, when I saw a brown sign: Tonto National Monument. What?! I turned onto the access road at 4:53pm, seven minutes before the monument closed for the day. I had just enough time to snap a photo of one of the cliff dwellings high above before a ranger came out of the minuscule visitor center (it might be housed in a trailer) to tell me the park was closing. I’d have loved to hike to the ruins, but it was not happening today. I chalked it up to my time crunch and vowed to return.

It was almost sunset, and I still had 90 miles to drive back to Mesa and the hotel. The route circles the Superstition Mountains, but other than a few signed mine entrances, encroaching night obscured the scenery. Nonetheless, the trip was everything Scott had promised, and left me wanting to return, this time with Mr. Adventure. So far, Arizona was fantastic — and the Grand Canyon was yet to come.