Phoenix

Before the city S'edav Va'aki was settled around AD 500 and occupied for more than 1,000 years, and its 2/3-mile trail passes a platform mound and full-size replica houses. The City of Phoenix has looked after the site since 1929. Under its old name, Pueblo Grande Museum, you will still see it in older guidebooks and maps; it took its current name in 2023. The land that the Heard Museum stands on is within the homeland of the Akimel O'otham, descendants of those village builders, and the museum says so in its own history.

Museums The Heard opened in 1929 and now has 12 galleries of American Indian art, with free docent tours several times a day. Its World Championship Hoop Dance competition takes place in February and its Indian Fair & Market in March. The Musical Instrument Museum, in the far north of the city by Loop 101, holds more than 7,500 instruments from more than 200 countries and territories, and headsets play the sound of each exhibit as you walk up. Most guests spend about three hours there. Timed tickets are in force through April 30, 2027.

Desert and hiking The Desert Botanical Garden, set among the Papago Buttes, has five trails across 55 cultivated acres. For real hiking, South Mountain Park/Preserve has more than 100 miles of trails, and you can also drive up Summit Road to Dobbins Lookout at 2,330 feet. Camelback Mountain, with its Echo Canyon and Cholla trails, and Piestewa Peak in the Phoenix Mountains Preserve are the other well-known climbs. North Mountain Park is due to close for renovation from December 2026 to early 2028, though other Phoenix Mountains Preserve trailheads stay open.

Heat rules Take them literally. On days when the National Weather Service issues an Extreme Heat Warning, the city closes the Echo Canyon and Cholla trails, the Piestewa Peak Summit trail and associated trails, and South Mountain's Holbert, Mormon and Hau'pal Loop trails, plus access to the National Trail from Pima Canyon, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Older articles give other hours; they are out of date. In 2024 the city had 45 closure days between May 1 and October 13, and 121 days reached 105°F or more. More than 200 hikers are rescued from Phoenix's mountain parks every year. The monsoon, officially June 15 to September 30, adds storms and flash floods. Rain is otherwise scarce: Sky Harbor averages only about 7 inches a year.

Getting around Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is right next to S'edav Va'aki, which is minutes from downtown and can be reached by light rail and Sky Train. The Heard has its own stop at Encanto/Central on the light rail line. The Desert Botanical Garden, the Musical Instrument Museum and South Mountain all have parking, and the last two are easiest by car. Arizona does not use daylight saving time, so Phoenix stays on Mountain Standard Time all year.

When to go October to April is the comfortable window. The Desert Botanical Garden's Las Noches de las Luminarias is a holiday-season tradition dating to 1979, and spring brings the arts and dance events at the Heard. In July and August, hike at dawn if at all, and check each venue's hours: S'edav Va'aki, for one, runs a shorter schedule in those months.