Finding Phoenix

PHOENIX -- Not long ago a friend of mine was eagerly packing for a trip Phoenix. I asked him, "What's the attraction of a city that brings to mind stately cactus, canyons and desert critters?"

"Great golf," he said.

There is a lot of golf in Phoenix. Of the more than 200 courses in Arizona, more than 120 of them are in the Phoenix area, and with about 300 days of sunshine each year, there are plenty of chances to play.

But for those not addicted to the game, there is a lot more to the Southwest city than its sand traps and fairways.

"We come here because we never outgrew our cowboys and Indians state," says Betty Walters of Pittsburgh, Pa. "I think of this as the Old West, not a golf resort."

For Walters , the lure is not the lush greens of the golf course, but the barren browns of the desert that the city is built in.

Although the city now sprawls through the nearby desert, there are still enough towering cactus and craggy mountains nearby to give you an idea of what the settlers must have seen when they arrived on horseback.

A brightly colored sunset viewed from one of the city's high points, even the blowing dust drifting across the interstate, harkens back to a time when the land belonged to the Indians who lived here, or when the first settlers wandered from water hole to water hole in the sizzling desert.

An easy drive from Phoenix are the Superstition Mountains, said to hold the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine and the Goldfield Ghost Town, with it's narrow-gage railroad and mine from the Gold Rush days.

A 30-minute drive will get you to the ruins at Casa Grande, a settlement of the prehistoric Hohokam Indians.

The Hohokam for generations farmed what is now Arizona, but by the time the first European settlers arrived they had disappeared.

The ruins at Casa Grande towers over the flat land around it. A trail allows visitors to see the four-story "big house," which was built about 1350, and the surrounding area, flat with dusty scrub and wind-blown sand. A display also presents what historians and archaeologists know about the tribe, although why the desert tower was built or what happened to the people who built it remains a mystery.

Looking at the desolate, wind-swept land where they once farmed, it seems more a miracle they flourished at all .

But visitors can dig into western history without ever leaving the city limits.

The Pueblo Grande Museum has a prehistoric Hohokam village ruin as well as an ancient ball court and the irrigation canals that allowed the tribe to flourish in the desert. There are changing exhibits and displays on the life of the Hohokam.

Another perspective on Western history is presented at the Heritage and Science Park on Monroe Street.

Heritage Square, which holds eight buildings from the late 19th century, presents life as it once was in Phoenix. The restored buildings offer a variety of exhibits, museums and restaurants. The Phoenix Museum of History is also at the site.

Among the exhibits at the museum is one on how to load a wagon for a cross-country trek. There's also an interactive exhibit on telegraphy. This is also a good place to see what has happened over the years to turn Phoenix from a dusty desert town to the big city it now is.

The 145-acre Desert Biological Gardens houses the plants that grow in this arid region. Although most of the vegetation here is cactus and succulents, each spring when the rare rains come, wildflowers carpet the desert, drawing people by the thousands to marvel at the brief display.

The paved Desert Discovery Trail offers easy walking and a chance to see cactus, aloes and other native plants. Other trails include the Plants and People of the Sonoran Desert, the Desert Living Trail and the Wildflower Trail. There are also evening programs during the summer.

Of course, not all the pioneers arrived in Phoenix in covered wagons.

Taliesin West, the winter home and architectural studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, is located on 600 acres of Sonoran Desert in the foothills of the McDowell Mountains in Phoenix.

If he hadn't come here, we wouldn't come here," says John Butler of Atlanta as he prepares for his fifth tour of Taliesin West.

"We've been to Taliesin East as well, but this one has a special appeal. His genius just shines through here."

The house and furnishings demonstrate Wright's concepts for integrating natural lines and honoring the area surrounding the structures.

The international headquarters for the Frank Lloyd Wright foundation, Taliesin West offers a variety of tours indulging the Panorama Tour, which provides a basic introduction to the complex and Wright's theories on architecture.

From October through May there is also a Behind the Scenes tour that includes tea in the colorful dining room and visits to the individual dwellings architectural students build each year.

When students come to the architectural school at Taliesin West, their dorm rooms are 8-by- 8-foot canvas tents, called shelters, in the desert. The tents, amid the sagebrush and cactus, have neither electricity nor plumbing, but the students love them.

The two-hour tour wends over a loop trail for about a mile, past some half-dozen sites in the desert where students live with nature.

The students themselves guide you through the shelters, which they remodel themselves on an ongoing basis. The dwellings range from the simple tents of first-year students to elaborate structures with cantilevered decks and fireplaces remodeled and occupied by more senior students.

The tradition of the shelters dates to back to the building of Taliesin West, when Wright and his first students camped out here until permanent structures were built. Wright moved into the comfortable house the students built for him, but kept his students in the wild, saying it gave them an understanding of the roles of site, climate, and ecology that couldn't be duplicated in a classroom. After the first year, students may move to more civilized quarters (with electricity and running water). But most prefer their desert digs.

The tour of the shelters and surrounding area, as with many of the tours through the desert and mountain areas of Phoenix, is over rough terrain and not suitable for small children or those with difficulty walking.

Anyone venturing outside in Phoenix should wear sunscreen, cool clothing, a hat, and have water handy.

That goes for golfers as well.

GETTING THERE: Sky Harbor International Airport is served by major airlines. It is about 5 minutes from downtown Phoenix. www.ci.phoenix.az.us/AVIATION/. There is a 24-hour shuttle and taxi and limousine service. To get around Phoenix and the surrounding area, an automobile is almost mandatory.

There are several rental car companies in the city.

Major highways make Phoenix accessible from all directions. The main route from Flagstaff and other points is I-17, the main route from the south and southeast or west is I-10.

Streets in Phoenix are laid out in an orderly grid. Numbered streets run north and south. Named streets go east and west.

WHEN TO GO: With over 300 days of sunshine each year, heat, not bad weather, is the key to planning trips in Phoenix. Winter is the top time in Phoenix when the desert temperatures are moderate. In the summer, temperatures regularly rise to more than 100 degrees and outdoor activities are a challenge. www.azcentral.com/

LODGING: Lodging ranges from the super luxurious spas and golf resorts to moderate motels.

The Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau distributes a "Visitors Guide" at the Downtown Phoenix Visitor Information center, 50 N. 2nd St., and at a second center in the Biltmore Fashion Park, 2404 E. Camelback Rd.; Phone 877-225-5749. www.phoenixcvb.com/

ACTIVITIES: Phoenix museums range in price from the Arizona Capital Museum, which is free, to Taliesin West, which costs $20 to $35 to tour. www.franklloydwright.org/index.cfm?sectiontour&actiontalies inwest

There are senior citizen, military and child discounts at most museums.

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is open daily, except for Christmas day, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.. Admission to the one-hour, self-guided tour is $3, under 17 free.

The Casa Grande Valley Historical Society and Museum, with more than 3,000 items related to desert life and regional history, is $2.

DINING: Tex-Mex is king, with a wide range of restaurants offering up the blended cuisine.