Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Anyone familiar with Phoenix area?

My 13 y/o son and I are going to spend some vacation time in Phoenix this summer. What side of town/area would be good and safe for us to stay in? Any suggestions for cool stuff to do while we're there would be appreciated too. Thank You.

Do not go west/south of downtown. The closer you get to Scottsdale (east) the better you'll be. There's a fabulous zoo, a wonderful Children's Museum (my daughter is on the board there!) and lots of other great indoor attractions. Indoor is important in summer, believe me.

When we visit our daughter, we stay HERE I can recomend it.

The valley is 80 miles across so it's big. I'm an east side guy and think it has the best outlaying country... westside guys think the same about theirs.

It'll be hot but if you golf it'll be cheap and wide open. otherwise city stuff is the same as anywhere else and all the vises, there are lakes close from either.

East side is an hour or two from the Mountains, rim country, Payson, Showlow, Flagstaff

Westside is a little closer to Flagstaff, Prescott, Sedona, Willams, Grand Canyon.

Ranges, there is Ben Avery on the westside, Rio Salado on the eastside.

give me a better clue on what you are specifically interested in.

Kent

A few miles west of the Ben Avery range is a tiny airport where you could book yourselves a glider ride. THAT would be memorable.

Typical tourist stuff. Good places to eat, good places to shop (I'll buy him some clothes while we're there), any worthwhile amusement parks, places to see a movie, bowling, putt-putt, hiking (we're OK with the heat), zoos, museums, sightseeing, good gun stores/outdoor stores, anything that you folks find interesting. What about Tombstone?

We've been to Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Sedona, Jerome, and the Crater near Winslow. He wants to go to Phoenix and check that area out this summer. We'll just use our hotel as a base to operate out of...we're game for doin' anything that strikes our fancy. Thank You all.

Superstition Mountains, starting half an hour away from the east/Scottsdale area, and goes for a few hours up the Apache Trail, depending on how you drive and how much you stop. Go down the hill to Fish Creek, and hike upstream.

I spent a few months there a couple years ago with Operation Jump Start, and made it out there more than a few times. Beautiful...

If you're up for some vertical hiking, climb Picacho Peak, south, between Phoenix and Tucson. When you first look at the face, you'll think "No f'ing way!". You'll actually go over a saddle and climb the back side.

I'm not too keen on Phoenix in the summer, but late winter/spring when I was there? It was awesome!

Phoenix in the summer for a vacation? The upside is, it is the off season, you really can get some great deals on hotels rooms at some of the resorts. You might want to check out Pointe South Mountain. They're a family friendly resort and usually do have some great deals during the summer. I don't know if you're looking for resorts or a room on a budget. Outside of Pointe South Mountain, the north side and east sides of the valley are pretty safe bets.

Gun stuff - as already mentioned Ben Avery Shooting Center at Carefree Highway and I-17. The only thing I know for sure on rentals are shotguns at the sporting clays center. Scottsdale Gun Club just off of Frank Lloyd Wright and Loop 101 in Scottsdale. Full selection of rentals inclusing class III full auto. Best off it's indoors and air conditioned.

Motorsports - check out the Penske Museum in Scottsdale at Loop 101 and Scottsdale Rd. It's in the middle of Penske's huge high end auto park. It's his personal museum with a collection of his winning Indy cars. Best off, admission is free. Buddy Stubbs Harley on Cave Creek Road also has a museum with free admission. Literally everything from a one lunger WWI era Harley to a modern Ducatti. Check their website, limited hours with the museum only open for a few hours on Fridays and Saturdays. There's also quite a few indoor go-kart tracks around thew valley.

Architecture - Talliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's home, studio and school are open for tours. It's an experience just to see how seemlessly the built and natural environments can melt into one another.

Zoos - there's 2 in Phoenix and 3 if you count the Verde Vally about an hour north of us. The Phoenix Zoo is actually very nice and in Tempe. World Wildlife Zoo is out in the west valley and a little more rustic. We actually used to prefer World Wildlife, but since they built their aquariums, their admission has gone up dramtically. Look for coupons for discount admission. Out of Africa is in the Verde Valley north of Phoenix. It really is the "Redneck Zoo". But it's fun. They have a feeding tour, literally ride on a flat bed trailer as they drive around flinging whole quarters of horsemeat over the fence for the big cats to feast on. They've also got Tiger Splash where they have their tigers palying fetch over the pool with their trainers.

Shopping - there's a huge outlet mall north of Phoenix off of I-17 in Anthem. They've got a Columbia and Nike outlet among other things.

Restaurants - Harold's in Cave Creek for breakfast on the weekends. Great place that's an institution. Old Tortilla Factory in Scottsdale is really good if you're wanting a nice dinner. Lots of good hole in the wall Mexican food, but you've got to be a little brave of some of the neighborhoods. Greaswood Flats up in Carefree is good for dinner with the kids.

Tombstone - it's tourist trappy, but accept it for what it is and enjoy the cheesiness, it's worth seeing once. Figure a 3-4 hour drive depending where in the valley your staying. Do make sure and visit the Birdcage Theater if you go. Also down in that area of the state is Kartchner Caverns, very impressive underground caverns that's a state park and open for tours.

If you're going down to Tucson that opens up a whole 'nother barrel of opportunities. Pima Air Museum is down there. They offer tours of the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Check their website before planning a trip, tours are only Monday thru Friday and are sometimes not available. There's also their sister facility the Titan Missile Museum. The Desert Museum is just outside of Tucson and really is an incredible place. It's kind of a combination zoo, botanical garden and museum that is dedicated to the wildlife and nature of the Sonoran Desert. Old Tucson Studios is also down there. But I'll admit it's been over 20 years since I was there and that was before the big fire.

Hope my rambling helps. Post up if you've got more questions or are looking for something specific.

Take a pair of oven mittens to use until the A/C on your rental car cools the steering wheel down to a temperature below what will administer a first degree burn...

tube the salt river - get burnered to a crisp in ice cold water

go hike squaw peak mt- early -get a nice view of phx.

gunsshow every month -

depends a lot on $$$ ya are interested in spending

fairly cheap accomidation all around valley

keep us posted on time frame and will post things to do

http://visitphoenix.com/trip-ideas/phoenix-for-free/index.aspx


come in mAY AND DO THE WARRIOR DASH

http://www.warriordash.com/?gclid=CIDFh_G846cCFSU6gwoduncyIA
http://www.warriordash.com/register2011_arizona.php

In Phoenix.... stay off of Van Buren.... Tucson.... Murphy's gun shop.

Thank you to everyone who has posted so far. All of your information is just the kind of stuff I'm looking for, and it is appreciated.

I dont live in Phoenix, but I live about 45 mintues south of town in Casa Grande... You guys are welcome to stay at my house for less than it would be to stay at a hotel, if you like.

Don't underestimate the heat in the summer! Outdoor activities in the desert are no joke in the summer. People die when their car breaks down (no AC). 105 is measured in the shade, if you aren't in the shade it can be 120 or 130.

It is beautiful, but life threatening without experience, gear, and caution.

Superstition Mtns probably kill 2-5 people a year. ( a guess)

Find a hotel with a big pool and have fun!

Sycamore

Drink lots of water.

Every Spring winter visitors pass out in numbers on the golf courses from dehydration.
They'll have a beer or two and go out to play a round and wind up in an ER.

As the last few posters have said,Arizona is great,just be sure of your hydration. Oh, beer isn't really good,water is so much better. I lived in Tucson 25 years,maybe longer,wandered the deserts,and loved every minute. I just made sure I didn't out walk my water...

They just recently found the three guys from Utah that disappeared last year while trying to strike it rich by looking for the Lost Dutchman mine...

exactly when will u be here? there might be some spectator-friendly shooting things. Most of our big shooting events are october thru may tho. Huge gun show every 2 months and smaller one in between.

there are 3 large and one small non-commercial outdoor shooting ranges, Ben Avery has been mentioned. None of them rent rifles or pistols, but Avery and I think Rio Salado have shotgun rentals. Rio has the best sporting clays range in the state! several commercial indoor places, SGC has been mentioned. Cabela's, Bass Pro and 2 sportsman's warehouses.

Poole

i think one of the things often overlooked by those visiting phoenix is they think of the whole state as a desert which can't be further from the truth. If you get the time, trips up north to the white mountains, payson, showlow, hannigans meadow places like that and you can see the other side of arizona. Arizona has about every type of terrain you can think of.
Hydrate a lot. I run all the time out in the desert in the summer but carry enough water to fill a swimming pool. It's said that if you ain't peeing regularly, you are not drinking enough, very true statement in the heat. We have a number of people die, one just did, on hikes in the phoenix mountain parks system, which is in the city. People underestimate the sun, heat and dehydration.

Was there last August. It's hot. Really friggen hot. I was told before I went there it would be hot, but it would be a dry heat, not like our humid hot days in Ottawa. It is hot like I've never experienced before dry or not. It's hot before the sun rises in the morning and it is hot long after the sun's went down. And the middle of the day is way out beyond hot.

Middle of July to Middle of Sept is Hot and humid, the dry heat is earlier. Because of the humidity the nightime temps may never reach under 90. Unless you are in the mountains, aug is not the time to vacation here and do outside activities... I have to work in it and even for me it's miserable and I swear I can't do it another year...

Being here unacclimated is even worse.

Kent