Outdoor & Nature (Specialty) in Phoenix
Scottsdale's McDowell Sonoran Preserve, at more than 30,500 acres, is described as the largest city-owned nature preserve in the country, and South Mountain Park and Preserve adds roughly 16,000 more acres of protected desert inside Phoenix city limits. Desert Botanical Garden holds a nationally accredited desert-plant collection of some 50,000 specimens, and Camelback Mountain — the city's highest point — draws climbers to a 100-foot sandstone spire called the Praying Monk.
McDowell Sonoran Preserve
Scottsdale's McDowell Sonoran Preserve protects more than 30,500 contiguous acres of Sonoran Desert, threaded by over 180 miles of trails — a scale that leads it to be described as the largest city park (technically a nature preserve) in the United States. Voters created it through a dedicated sales-tax increment starting in 1994, and it's managed jointly by the city and the nonprofit McDowell Sonoran Conservancy.
South Mountain Park and Preserve
At roughly 16,000 acres within Phoenix city limits, South Mountain Park and Preserve is consistently cited as one of the largest municipal parks in the country, laced with more than 50 miles of multi-use trails climbing the South Mountains. The Hohokam left petroglyphs throughout the range, and Dobbins Lookout, near the park's high point, offers a panoramic view over the entire Phoenix metro area.
Desert Botanical Garden
Founded in 1939 on 140 acres inside Papago Park, Desert Botanical Garden holds roughly 50,000 individual desert plants representing thousands of taxa, and its cactus and agave holdings carry accreditation from the American Public Gardens Association's Plant Collections Network as nationally significant collections. It's also one of a small number of botanical gardens accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
Camelback Mountain
Rising 2,706 feet, Camelback Mountain is the tallest point within the city of Phoenix and one of the most-climbed peaks in the country, with the Echo Canyon and Cholla trails drawing steady crowds despite steep, technical grades. Senator Barry Goldwater led the 1960s campaign that protected its upper elevations from development before it became a city park in 1968; rock climbers still scale the Praying Monk, a 100-foot sandstone spire on its north face.
Papago Park — Hole-in-the-Rock
Papago Park's red sandstone buttes, eroded over 6 to 15 million years, include Hole-in-the-Rock, a formation whose openings the Hohokam may have used to track solstices and equinoxes centuries ago. The park's WWII history is just as distinctive: a POW camp on the site was the scene of the "Great Papago Escape" in December 1944, when 25 German prisoners tunneled out in what's often described as the largest escape by Axis POWs on U.S. soil during the war.
Piestewa Peak
Piestewa Peak — Phoenix's third-highest point at 2,610 feet — was renamed in 2003 to honor Army Specialist Lori Piestewa, a Hopi soldier and the first known Native American woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military; the U.S. Board on Geographic Names made the change official in 2008. Its Summit Trail is climbed thousands of times a week, and extended hours until 11 p.m. make it one of the few peaks in the valley regularly hiked after dark.
White Tank Mountain Regional Park
At 29,271 acres, White Tank Mountain Regional Park is the largest regional park in Maricopa County, and its Waterfall Trail leads to petroglyphs left by the Hohokam and, by some estimates, by Archaic-period peoples as far back as roughly 10,000 years ago. Eleven archaeological sites, including seven Hohokam village sites, have been identified within the park.