49 Best Sights in Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Tempe, Arizona

Known as "the West's Most Western Town," this area has rustic storefronts and wooden sidewalks alongside some of the best dining and window-shopping in town. It can be exceptionally touristy in some areas, but it's also the closest you'll come to the "Old West" as it was 80 years ago. High-quality jewelry and Mexican imports are sold alongside kitschy souvenirs.

An amalgam of hilly desert terrain, streams, and lagoons, this park has picnic ramadas (shaded, open-air shelters), a golf course, a playground, hiking and biking trails, and even largemouth bass and trout fishing. (An urban fishing license is required for anglers ages 15 and over. Visit for more information.) The hike up to landmark Hole-in-the-Rock—a natural observatory used by the native Hohokam to devise a calendar system—is steep and rocky, and a much easier climb up than down. Governor Hunt's Tomb, the white pyramid at the top of Ramada 16, commemorates the former Arizona leader and provides a lovely view.

This museum is one of the most visually appealing pieces of architecture in the Southwest. Basking in natural light, the museum makes great use of its modern, open space by tastefully fitting more than 17,000 works of art from around the world—including sculptures by Frederic Remington and paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe, Thomas Moran, and Maxfield Parrish—within its soaring concrete walls. The museum hosts more than 20 significant exhibitions annually and has one of the most acclaimed fashion collections in the country.

Four designated trails wind through this 125-acre zoo, replicating such habitats as an African savanna and a tropical rain forest. Meerkats, warthogs, desert bighorn sheep, and the endangered Arabian oryx are among the species here. The zoo is full of interactive stops for kids of all sizes. Harmony Farm introduces youngsters to small mammals, and a stop at the Big Red Barn petting zoo provides a chance to interact with goats, cows, and more. In December the zoo stays open late (until 10) for the popular ZooLights exhibit, which transforms the area into an enchanted forest of more than 225 million twinkling lights, many in the shape of the zoo's residents. Starry Safari Friday Nights in summer are fun, too.

This open-air museum features original and reconstructed buildings from throughout territorial Arizona. Costumed guides filter through the bank, schoolhouse, jail, and print shop, as well as the Pioneer Opera House, where classic melodramas are performed daily. It's popular with the grade-school field-trip set, and it's your lucky day if you can tag along for their tour of the site.

This 1895 Queen Anne Victorian is the queen of Heritage Square. Built by a physician who served a brief term as mayor, it's the sole survivor among fewer than two dozen Victorians erected in Phoenix. It was bought and restored by the city in 1974.

Phoenix's only national landmark, this park was once the site of a 500-acre Hohokam village supporting about 1,000 people and containing homes, storage rooms, cemeteries, and ball courts. Three exhibition galleries hold displays on the Hohokam culture and archaeological methods. View the 10-minute orientation video before heading out on the ½-mile Ruin Trail past excavated sites that give a hint of Hohokam savvy: there's a building whose corner doorway was perfectly placed for watching the summer-solstice sunrise. Children especially like the hands-on interactive learning center. Guided tours by appointment only.

Unpreserved in the middle of the city for years, this amazing, 6-acre historic site, formerly called "Mesa Grande Cultural Park," features a group of Hohokam structures dating to 1400–1100 BC. Once protected only by locals and the occasional landowner, it's now operated by the Arizona Museum of Natural History and was recently rechristened with a new name in the O'odham language, which means "Blue Fly's place of dwelling."

SMoCA, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art is often referred to as a "museum without walls." There's a good museum store here for unusual jewelry and stationery, posters, and art books. New installations are planned every few months, with an emphasis on contemporary art, architecture, and design.

Some 5,000 creatures including sharks, stingrays, eels, and a giant octopus call this underwater menagerie home. A 165,000-gallon tank with a 360-degree viewing tunnel is the first of its kind. Who says there's no water in the desert? Buy a dual ticket with the adjoining LEGOLAND Discovery Center and save on admission.

The world's largest city park (almost 17,000 acres) offers a wilderness of mountain-desert trails for hikers, bikers, and horseback riders—and a great place to view sunsets. The Environmental Center has a model of the park as well as displays detailing its history, from the time of the ancient Hohokam people to gold seekers. Roads climb past picnic ramadas constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, winding through desert flora to the trailheads. Look for ancient petroglyphs, try to spot a desert cottontail rabbit or chuckwalla lizard, or simply stroll among the desert vegetation. Maps of all scenic drives as well as hiking, mountain biking, and horseback trails are available at the Gatehouse Entrance just inside the park boundary.

The best place to learn about the "Dutchman" Jacob Waltz and the Lost Dutchman Mine is at Superstition Mountain Museum. Exhibits include a collection of mining tools, historical maps, and artifacts relating to the "gold" age of the Superstition Mountains.

The human-made Town Lake has turned downtown Tempe into a commercial and urban-living hot spot, and attracts college students and Valley residents of all ages. Little ones enjoy the Beach Park, and fishermen appreciate the rainbow trout–stocked lake. You also can rent a boat and tour the lake on your own.

Flanked by the desolate Mazatzal and Sierra Anchas mountain ranges, Theodore Roosevelt Lake Reservoir and Dam is an aquatic recreational area—a favorite with bass anglers, water-skiers, and boaters. This is the largest masonry dam on the planet, and the massive bridge is the longest two-lane, single-span, steel-arch bridge in the nation.

You can visit a well-preserved complex of 13th-century Salado cliff dwellings at this site, which was nearly destroyed during a wildfire in 2019. A team of archaeologists and firefighters saved the site's two dwellings, but 88 percent of the Monument's almost 1,000 acres burned. You can visit the Lower Cliff Dwelling on your own, but must sign up for a ranger-led tour to see the Upper Cliff Dwelling. Tours are offered from Friday to Monday, from November to April.

An old-time restaurant and country store are what is left of an authentic stagecoach stop at Tortilla Flat. This is a fun place for well-earned rest and refreshment—miner- and cowboy-style grub, of course—before heading back to civilization. Enjoy a hearty bowl of killer chili and some prickly pear ice cream while sitting at the counter on a saddle bar stool.

Get a glimpse of what Phoenix was like a century ago by touring the extensive grounds and the two floors of the castle, constructed in the 1920s and early 1930s. Unfortunately, the cupola—the castle's "crown"—doesn't meet fire codes, so visitors can't get the 360-degree views that cattle baron E. A. Tovrea enjoyed. A Phoenix landmark, this 44-acre site in central Phoenix is managed jointly by the city of Phoenix and a group of loyal preservationists. Reservations are required, and tickets go on sale months in advance; plan ahead to avoid disappointment.

Once the largest producing gold mine in Arizona, the Vulture Mine has found a new life in the 21st century as a tourist attraction and, sometimes, as a wedding venue. A self-guided tour through this "ghost town" wanders past mining memorabilia; old buildings including bunkhouses, the jail, and a blacksmith shop; the mine shaft itself; and the famous hanging tree, where more than a dozen ore thieves (high graders) were hanged.

Vulture Mine offers no protective safeguards for its aged buildings, shafts, and equipment. Wander at your own risk and keep an eye on children.

Head west from Wickenburg on U.S. 60 for about 6 miles, then turn left onto Vulture Mine Road and travel 12 miles to the mine at the end of the pavement.

Part of the Wild Horse Pass resort, this place includes 500 slots, live poker, blackjack, and keno.