Escape
Flagstaff for the day
Two hours north, thirty degrees cooler, pines and a downtown built for walking. The August cheat code.
Flagstaff
$Outdoors
Day trips, weekend getaways, outdoors
Escape
Two hours north and it's forty degrees cooler. Rim country, wine country, and the trails that come back into play.
September is the turn — mornings and nights are workable, afternoons still aren't. Plan around 7am and 7pm.
Escape
Sedona red rocks
Two hours and a different planet. Go on a weekday or leave Phoenix before 7am.
Sedona
$$Outdoors
Escape
Jerome & Verde Valley wine
A mining town clinging to a mountainside, plus the tasting rooms in Cottonwood on the way home.
Jerome
$$Indoor + out
Escape
Mogollon Rim & Payson
Ninety minutes to pine forest and a 2,000-foot escarpment. Bring a cooler, stay for sunset.
Payson
$Outdoors
Escape
Echo Canyon at sunrise
1.2 miles, 1,200 feet, no shade. Trailhead lot fills by 6am and the city closes it when it's too hot.
Camelback Mountain
FreeOutdoors
Escape
Piestewa Peak Summit Trail
The in-town summit. Steep, crowded, and worth it for the 6pm October light.
Phoenix Mountains
FreeOutdoors
Escape
Dobbins Lookout drive
You can drive to the best view of the valley. Free, and unbeatable forty minutes before sunset.
South Mountain
FreeOutdoors
Escape
Salt River tubing (final weekends)
The season closes in late September. Cash for the shuttle, no glass, wild horses on the bank.
Mesa / TontoAug 20 – Sep 27
$Outdoors
Date to confirm
Escape
Prescott & Watson Lake
Granite Dells, Whiskey Row, and a courthouse square that runs about 20 degrees below Phoenix.
Prescott
$Outdoors
Family
Desert Botanical Garden
Do the flashlight tour or the last hour before close. The butterfly exhibit reopens with the season.
Papago Park
$$Outdoors
Do
Sunset kayak on Tempe Town Lake
Skyline on one side, Papago buttes on the other, and it's ten degrees cooler on the water.
Tempe
$Outdoors
Stay
Castle Hot Springs
An hour of dirt road, then geothermal springs and no cell service. The reset button.
Morristown
$$$Outdoors
Family
Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch
Flat trails, 300 bird species, and a fishing lake. Free, shaded, easy with a stroller.
Gilbert
FreeOutdoors