Arizona’s Valley of the Sun

  

Story and photography by
Nancy & Eric Anderson 

 

Hemmed in as we are in our home town, San Diego, with the sea at our back and Baja below us, it's surprising how many options we have if we can afford (at today’s gas prices) to have a full tank in our cars and some sense of adventure in our hearts. Arizona’s Valley of the Sun, for example, lies just 350 miles east of San Diego, an easy, somewhat tedious drive on Interstate 8 but everything perks up "by the time you get to Phoenix," –  now America’s fifth largest city (surpassing Philadelphia).

This is a great vacation destination though its very size conspires to frustrate visitors. Tourists, however, don’t come to Phoenix for the interminable drive across town from, say, the Four Seasons resort in Scottsdale to the Heard Museum, world-famous though it may be for its indigenous art. They come to experience the American Southwest and the Valley’s attractions, to get pampering at the many destination resorts, and -- for those who’d rather climb into a bathing suit than pull on ski boots -- to enjoy the glorious winter weather.

Tour operators can take visitors, in easy rides from Phoenix, to typical western attractions such as trail rides with chuck wagon cookouts, and dude ranches, many with superb arrangements for children, and national parks like the Grand Canyon itself. Familiar desert jeep trips have been replaced now by more colorful Hummer tours such as the bright yellow ones provided by Steve Andeasen’s Roadrunner Desert Adventures (480-213-9428) or the fire-engine red vehicles of Mike Knoles AZ Hummer Tours (602-692-7124). Whichever they may take, enthusiasts get to visit a Native American desert fort about 1000 years old, an abandoned turquoise mine and see and learn about those desert plants that sustained a native existence in a harsh habitat.

Phoenix Attractions

The classic ones include the Heard Museum which has been showcasing Native American art for two thirds of a century. It has a splendid display of Hopi Katsina dolls from the Barry Goldwater collection and many arts and craft challenges for children. The Arizona Science Center has even more attractions for kids (300 hands-on exhibits in fact); it has a state-of-the-art planetarium and a 6-story high giant-screen theater. One floor makes a significant attempt to explain health issues, even demonstrating open-heart surgery.

Taliesin West, the winter camp and architectural school of Frank Lloyd Wright, offers guided tours to show how avant-garde America’s most famous architect really was. His presence is everywhere, from the chairs he designed in the living room to the Hernando’s Hideaway-like cabaret theater he created in the basement. The Desert Botanical Gardens has more than five thematic trails, 60 interactive. Allow yourself time to find it then explore.

Northwest in Phoenix lies Glendale, a laid back community with some surprising fun things to do including taking the tour of the long-established Cerreta Candy Company where cheerful women work the machines below photographs of Lucille Ball enacting their role in her famous candy conveyor belt TV scene from I Love Lucy. Glendale was the home also of Marty Robbins, actor, songwriter and Grand Ole Opry favorite performer. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982 just seven weeks before he died aged 57 of chronic heart disease. His former home in Glendale, a museum of sorts to him closed in 2006 and funding is currently sought for a future exhibit building.

Just above Glendale on the West Carefree Highway in Peoria in the Pleasant Valley Airport sits the Turf Soaring School. Out in the desert in the foothills of mountains, it catches great thermals for superb soaring. Rides and lessons are easily arranged.

Favorite Resorts

New York City may have America’s most prestigious high-rise hotels, Las Vegas the world’s biggest casinos and Vermont the country’s nicest B & Bs but Phoenix surely has the nation’s most comforting destination resorts. Competition is fierce and each meets it with a different approach.

The Arizona Biltmore (800-950-0086) is the Great Old Dame except it’s now so hip it barely justifies that title. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1929 by an architect-builder-entrepreneur Albert Chase McArthur who had worked with Wright. The master's influence is seen everywhere from the massive precast concrete blocks, a first- in the history of architecture, to Wright's characteristic geometric patterns and use of desert colors, apparently inspired by desert flowers in bloom after a sudden rain. When McArthur built his 200-room hotel in 1929, Phoenix was tiny town of 18,000 people eight miles distant.

No expense was spared. The landscaping was more lush than ever planted before in any desert location, the roofs were of Arizona copper and everything that looked like gold was gold -- the hotel had the largest gold leaf ceiling in the world. The hotel truly was a glittering "jewel in the desert" and a brilliant future was predicted.

A few months later the stock market crashed.

The Arizona Biltmore essentially created the legend of the Valley of the Sun and now, in its 79th year, it has been the choice of every U.S. president since Herbert Hoover. With a central location but still a sylvan feel, it’s a great resort to experience what Phoenix is all about: spacious grounds, eight pools, a superb spa – and like most of the upscale resorts in the Valley, restaurants good enough to make popular New Orleans places envious.

A few miles farther west in Litchfield Park lays the equally famous Wigwam Resort, with similar years of history and a western ambiance, big comfortable rooms and the celebrated Arizona Kitchen restaurant. (800-327-0396) It has a huge pool and a cutting edge spa. Like the other resorts its noted golf course makes it a favorite. The resort was originally a retreat for Goodyear Tire executives whose company developed the area as a suitable place to grow specialized cotton for tires.

Goodyear also developed Chandler at the east edge of Phoenix for the same reason. There, in this city named in 1920 after veterinarian Dr. Alexander John Chandler sits the San Marcos Resort, (800-528-8071) home of the first golf course in Arizona. The resort is less expensive than the others and is ideally situated both for golf and for antique hunters as Main Street, full of bric a bract, sits at its doorstep. Insiders say Chandler may become the next Scottsdale. We think that’s a stretch.

Nearby, as if agreeing with us, stand two fun eateries. Pinnacle Peak Patio Steakhouse is where local, er, friends take visitors but forget to tell guys to leave their ties in the car. That the steakhouse has an absolute policy of No Ties is borne out by a glance at the ceiling where hundreds of ties cut from their owners hang forlornly. Guests who are not quite ready to part with their ties might want grab an alternative bite at Greasewood Flat, a rustic diner of sorts “for cowboys and bikers” that for 30 years has been serving hearty grub in a 120 year-old bunkhouse that was the original stagecoach stop between Phoenix and Fort McDowell on the Verde river.

North in tiny Scottsdale, beside the famous Troon North golf course, has arisen one of the newer resorts in the Valley, the Four Seasons, now ten years old (480-515-5700). All the Four Seasons lacks among the giants of the Phoenix upscale resorts is a long history. Instead it offers arguably the most distinguished name in the hotel business. The remote location, the secluded casitas many with stunning panoramic views of the valley below, the fitness facilities and the fine dining all help create a Phoenix vacation to be remembered.