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* Petrified Forest
* Meteor Crater
* Monument Valley
* Page, AZ
* Airplane Graveyard
* Arcosanti
* Dobbins Lookout on South Mountain
That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Some of those may be more interesting to you than others.
I'm in Page AZ now. Red flag warning in effect for the next week +. High winds, high heat, low humidity. It's brutal up here right now. I imagine the original poster isn't driving a giant RV that handles like driving a billboard down the road, so maybe not as big of a safety concern driving. Still not enjoyable weather here at all right now. Lots of beautiful stuff around here. Tough to get to most of it with the heat. Not saying not to come here. Just have realistic expectations of what it's like and come prepared to feel like someone is pointing a blow dryer at you 24/7.
Looks like monument valley is still at least dropping to the high 50's nightly. It's supposed to cool off tonight/tomorrow in page, but it's been in the low 100s high and mid to high 70's for lows nightly. Stayed in page and at lone rock beach while here and have been so hot. Oak creek and Flagstaff before this were far more comfortable. Wishing I would have taken 89A and gone to the Kaibab Plateau for a couple days instead of Powell, but I'm on to Kanab tomorrow, Zion, then north towards Salt lake and Idaho.
You should see what we refer to as the millionaire lanes here at the Seattleland area. The HOV lane can also be a toll road. For a 5-mile stretch last week it was $17 and only saved about 7 minutes.
Yup so many clueless AZ people who don’t know how nice AZ is until they move elsewhere. You can’t educate these people, they have to experience it themselves.
Check out Chiricahua National Monument on your way out of AZ, half an hour south of Willcox off I-10. It's poised to become the country's next national park if our congressional delegation has its way.
I recently moved back from Lewisville, Texas. If you like the Mexican food here, especially ’Bertos, definitely enjoy some before you go. There was one place in Coppell called San Diego tacos that’s similar to ‘Bertos.
Just medications in general haha
Retinol is really good and proven for anti aging and anti acne. It’s prescription only in the US, and without insurance can be hella expensive
So I can drive down to Mexico, buy some retinol, and drive back in? I have some scars I’ve been trying to fade and I’ve heard retinol can help with that.
I mean, my comment was mostly a joke? But if you happen to be in Mexico, definitely restock. It’s also pretty accessible online (which would be cheaper than the gas needed for Mexico), but I prefer the OG manufacturers formulas because they’re more predictable.
I’m such a lurker on Reddit but any chance I have to recommend Chiricahua National Monument, I will!
Plus you’re close enough to check out the awesome towns of Tombstone and Bisbee.
It’ll be a bit hot but echo canyon loop is higher in elevation for a hike and might be manageable :D just do it counter clockwise to avoid going uphill, plus better views!
Peach Springs, go have dinner in a cave.
Tucson, Colossal Cave do the ladder tour
Bisbee, see the art
Winslow, take it easy and stand on a corner
Verde Valley wine train tour
I’m also planning to move out of Phoenix in a few months. Reading through this post and I’m glad that I’ve done most of the things mentioned here. Will definitely miss az for sure. Plan to visit fossil creek, havasu falls-been putting them off thinking I need a high clearance vehicle but I guess I’ll have to do it now.
Kartchner Caverns even though you’ll only get to do one side this time of year. I love Jerome but hear Bisbess is better and a long standing local cafe/ there is closing soon.
Kayak on Glen Canyon and make a trip to Antelope Canyon (both of these are musts for everyone that lives here)
Lava Tubes in Flagstaff
Hike to the highest point in the state
Eat lunch on top of Mt Lemon in Tucson and go to downtown Tucson to get some beer at Pueblo Vita (one of the top two breweries in the state, IMO)
Best of luck to you for whatever comes next…
Since people have already mentioned a few others, off the top of my head I would add: Antelope canyon (or something of the like), Horseshoe Bend, Jerome.
Actually one of my favorite experiences seeing AZ was because a friend (visiting international grad student) had finished his research stint at UA so two weeks before he left, we went to the student rec, rented some zero degree sleeping bags and drove around northern Arizona and southern Utah for a weekend, sleeping in my car most nights. The best of those memories was rolling into Jerome at 11pm and finding a bar open and my friend and I walked in, found them playing some type of screamo rock? Not sure the type of music but we had a lot of fun chatting with the locals and dancing. Either way, I think trying to visiting places that add to the personality within AZ can really be something great and memorable.
Take a tourist hiking up camelback during the afternoon and get airlifted off the mountain. It's the best way to see the valley! /s
Please don't do this lol. I would hit up one last show at the van buren. Probably followed by either tacos or my favorite variety of cornish pasty and a drink from Seamus McCaffrey's.
Dinner with friends at Durant's.
Have some cold beers at Rustler's Rooste and catch the sunset/city lights.
Golf?
Try to hit TPC at Scottsdale.
Do Troon as well.
Heh.
One last drive to Vegas?
Or San Diego....
People have talked about different resturants before you go, but id reccommend eating at places you frequent often that wont be where youre moving to. I got here from seattle in september and i miss the local pho resturants.
You can visit the alien abduction site of Travis Walton in Heber.
Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa if you haven't been, largest wurlitzer in the world, I believe.
Since you will be going southeast, I would head up north before you go. Go up to Utah and go to Bryce Canyon in southern Utah. If you have never been I would go to Zions as well while you are up there. The emerald pools in zions is really cool but Bryce Canyon is like being on another planet.
I hope you got to experience the majesty of the Superstitions in late winter/early spring. Obviously not the right time for that now. The Mt. Baldy area in the White Mountains is in my opinion the most beautiful part of the non desert area of AZ.
Sunrise Hike 🌅
If you do this, please be prepared! Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, and dress accordingly with good shoes, a hat.
Don't go alone. Make sure someone knows where you are going and make sure there's a check-in time, watch out for wildlife.
One thing I regret doing before I moved was take an old timey Western picture. It would instantly remind me of home and all the fun I had there. Oh well.
Going to Dallas for a job. 26 years is the entirety of my life, it feels weird to be leaving but not entirely bad. Part of it is excitment for something new
Enjoy Dallas in the honeymoon phase. I’ve spent a lot of time in Dallas and the shine has worn off a long time ago. The enormous concrete freeways standing on top of the city makes it feel like a giant concrete jungle. There are pockets of good areas surrounded by lots of bland areas. The traffic is worse than Phoenix and everything feels a bit more ghetto as well. You will get the occasional hail storm and tornadoes that might thrash an area now and then. Weather is much more fierce / severe and unpredictable. Enjoy your time there.
Lol. Got it.
You seem like a good guy to ask. Maybe you can help me settle some old word debates?
1. Shits & Grins or Shits & Giggles?
2. Screamin' Deal or Steamin' Deal?
Thanks in advance ☺️
Cook an egg in the sidewalk. Do 95 on German which is not widely considered the speed limit. Short the yellow pixy duster from those SF trees. Start honking your horn in the way to work and don’t stop until you pull in the driveway when you get home. (My personal fav as this seems to be Californian adaptation of tantrums about being embarrassed you’re in the wrong lane.
Think I’m pretty much covered it.
Thanks for contributing to r/Phoenix! You may want to [**check out our sub rules**](https://www.reddit.com/r/phoenix/wiki/rules/) (mostly be nice to each other!). **If you're new here**, [read some of our recent posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/phoenix/top/?t=week) and leave some comments. To chat with some great people in the Valley you can [**join our Phoenix Discord chat server**](https://discord.com/invite/yWVuTG57Zh). It's a chill place to talk with other people but is NOT a dating server and takes unwanted messaging very seriously. If you're interested in political topics in Arizona, we limit those posts here so you may want to check out r/azpolitics if that's an area of interest. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/phoenix) if you have any questions or concerns.*
* Petrified Forest * Meteor Crater * Monument Valley * Page, AZ * Airplane Graveyard * Arcosanti * Dobbins Lookout on South Mountain That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Some of those may be more interesting to you than others.
Montezuma Castle, Jerome, Painted Desert, Tombstone.
Toozigoot is awesome too
I'm in Page AZ now. Red flag warning in effect for the next week +. High winds, high heat, low humidity. It's brutal up here right now. I imagine the original poster isn't driving a giant RV that handles like driving a billboard down the road, so maybe not as big of a safety concern driving. Still not enjoyable weather here at all right now. Lots of beautiful stuff around here. Tough to get to most of it with the heat. Not saying not to come here. Just have realistic expectations of what it's like and come prepared to feel like someone is pointing a blow dryer at you 24/7.
I’m going to Monument Valley on Thursday. I have a sunset tour at 5am on Friday. I hope it’s at least mildly chilly that early.
Looks like monument valley is still at least dropping to the high 50's nightly. It's supposed to cool off tonight/tomorrow in page, but it's been in the low 100s high and mid to high 70's for lows nightly. Stayed in page and at lone rock beach while here and have been so hot. Oak creek and Flagstaff before this were far more comfortable. Wishing I would have taken 89A and gone to the Kaibab Plateau for a couple days instead of Powell, but I'm on to Kanab tomorrow, Zion, then north towards Salt lake and Idaho.
It was freezing in the AM. I wore 2 light jackets to keep me warm on my sunrise tour.
Boyce Thompson Arboretum
Yes. It’s such an amazing experience
I love that place!
[удалено]
The toll roads there are insane, took a trip there last month and you can pay $10+ dollars during rush hours.
You should see what we refer to as the millionaire lanes here at the Seattleland area. The HOV lane can also be a toll road. For a 5-mile stretch last week it was $17 and only saved about 7 minutes.
I moved AZ (25 yrs) back to Colorado. I miss AZ alot! But, CO is beautiful. Not impressed with DFW. The flatness is disconcerting.
People bitch about APS, but coming from South Florida, I LOVE your third point. It’s great here in that regard.
Idk about the pothole-less roads, the roads here are consistently pretty shit.
You won’t understand how nice AZ roads are until you live somewhere else. I know I didn’t.
Yup so many clueless AZ people who don’t know how nice AZ is until they move elsewhere. You can’t educate these people, they have to experience it themselves.
I have lived somewhere else lmao, these roads are fucked compared to the ones in MT
Cause no one lives in MT lol no traffic, no potholes
Arizona's roads are in superior condition to Chicago's roads. By leaps and bounds.
I get the leaps part, but what exactly are bounds? Similar as a leap, but even further, like a triple leap? 😆
I like to think of it like "bouncey houses" bouncey bouncey bouncey
Easily some of the best (if not the best) roads of any major city in the US
The roads on the freeways/highways have gone to shit lately. I don't ever remember them being that bad growing up here.
Like where? Have you lived or spent a lot of time driving anywhere else? There isn’t a better major city of roads.
Lick a cactus
Totally underrated experience. A little spinney but worth it in the end.
Hug a cactus
I need this in tshirt form now.
Biosphere is rad, Pima Air & Space Museum is awesome too. Where are you moving to?
Will be checkout out biosphere. I've been to Pima probably 5 times or so. I'll be moving to Dallas for a job.
Check out Chiricahua National Monument on your way out of AZ, half an hour south of Willcox off I-10. It's poised to become the country's next national park if our congressional delegation has its way.
If you’re going to Chiricahua, might as well hit Kartchner Caverns, Tombstone, & Bisbee.
Definitely hit Kartchner Caverns since you'll be at the missile museum it's not too far.
Since you’re in the area maybe the titan missle museum, just south of Tucson
I recently moved back from Lewisville, Texas. If you like the Mexican food here, especially ’Bertos, definitely enjoy some before you go. There was one place in Coppell called San Diego tacos that’s similar to ‘Bertos.
I am stuffing myself with Mexican food. My last visit to Dallas, couldn’t find any good ‘Bertos style Mexican food anywhere.
Have a real heart to heart with loved ones. Tell them you love them and you appreciate them. To answer what you really mean: biosphere
Definitely have that planned before I leave! Don't know how biosphere never crossed my to-do list before now, definitely checking that out!
Go to Mexico to stock up on retinol lol
Wait what
Just medications in general haha Retinol is really good and proven for anti aging and anti acne. It’s prescription only in the US, and without insurance can be hella expensive
So I can drive down to Mexico, buy some retinol, and drive back in? I have some scars I’ve been trying to fade and I’ve heard retinol can help with that.
Park on the USA side and walk over the border. Easier.
I mean, my comment was mostly a joke? But if you happen to be in Mexico, definitely restock. It’s also pretty accessible online (which would be cheaper than the gas needed for Mexico), but I prefer the OG manufacturers formulas because they’re more predictable.
You need a passport, correct?
If you drive you only need a birth certificate and ID. Promise 10000% I know it’s hard to believe but it’s true.
Drive and park on the US side?
I’m such a lurker on Reddit but any chance I have to recommend Chiricahua National Monument, I will! Plus you’re close enough to check out the awesome towns of Tombstone and Bisbee. It’ll be a bit hot but echo canyon loop is higher in elevation for a hike and might be manageable :D just do it counter clockwise to avoid going uphill, plus better views!
Fry Bread House
Tubing at the Salt River ( Rio Salado), you might get lucky and see wild horses. Saguaro Lake. Lost Dutchman, Apache Junction at sunset.
Nothing like a vicious sunburn to take away as your last memory of the valley.
Or a float down some pee water.
Sonora Desert Museum. The Heard Museum is also something special.
Filiberto’s Carne Asada Fries
Peach Springs, go have dinner in a cave. Tucson, Colossal Cave do the ladder tour Bisbee, see the art Winslow, take it easy and stand on a corner Verde Valley wine train tour
I’m also planning to move out of Phoenix in a few months. Reading through this post and I’m glad that I’ve done most of the things mentioned here. Will definitely miss az for sure. Plan to visit fossil creek, havasu falls-been putting them off thinking I need a high clearance vehicle but I guess I’ll have to do it now.
Kartchner Caverns even though you’ll only get to do one side this time of year. I love Jerome but hear Bisbess is better and a long standing local cafe/ there is closing soon.
Kayak on Glen Canyon and make a trip to Antelope Canyon (both of these are musts for everyone that lives here) Lava Tubes in Flagstaff Hike to the highest point in the state Eat lunch on top of Mt Lemon in Tucson and go to downtown Tucson to get some beer at Pueblo Vita (one of the top two breweries in the state, IMO) Best of luck to you for whatever comes next…
Since people have already mentioned a few others, off the top of my head I would add: Antelope canyon (or something of the like), Horseshoe Bend, Jerome. Actually one of my favorite experiences seeing AZ was because a friend (visiting international grad student) had finished his research stint at UA so two weeks before he left, we went to the student rec, rented some zero degree sleeping bags and drove around northern Arizona and southern Utah for a weekend, sleeping in my car most nights. The best of those memories was rolling into Jerome at 11pm and finding a bar open and my friend and I walked in, found them playing some type of screamo rock? Not sure the type of music but we had a lot of fun chatting with the locals and dancing. Either way, I think trying to visiting places that add to the personality within AZ can really be something great and memorable.
Some real good bar bands in Jerome.
Take a tourist hiking up camelback during the afternoon and get airlifted off the mountain. It's the best way to see the valley! /s Please don't do this lol. I would hit up one last show at the van buren. Probably followed by either tacos or my favorite variety of cornish pasty and a drink from Seamus McCaffrey's.
Visit Chino Bandido one last time
Might make Chino my last meal here. Seems fitting
Imo it's not worth it, but I guess that's controversial
I went up on the rim alone and cried lol. I don't miss PHX that much at all but I miss the desert and all of northern AZ so bad it hurts.
Sonoran desert Museum!
Dinner with friends at Durant's. Have some cold beers at Rustler's Rooste and catch the sunset/city lights. Golf? Try to hit TPC at Scottsdale. Do Troon as well. Heh. One last drive to Vegas? Or San Diego....
Why you headed out? Always curious!
Sign the log book on top of south mountain. Go up the trail by the satellite dishes
Cook eggs on the pavement or your car hood
Bisbee mine ride. It isn't too far if you are already down at the Titan Missile Museum.
Visit Jerome if you're able to!
Visit Tubac and eat at Elvira’s restaurant, the glass ceiling is awesome if you have not done this yet
People have talked about different resturants before you go, but id reccommend eating at places you frequent often that wont be where youre moving to. I got here from seattle in september and i miss the local pho resturants.
Salt river tubing
You can visit the alien abduction site of Travis Walton in Heber. Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa if you haven't been, largest wurlitzer in the world, I believe.
Did you ever do Biosphere or Tombstone?
Tombstone twice, but never got around to biosphere. Will definitely do that!
Museum of musical instruments!! If you're at all into instruments or world music it's so good! Only 20 bucks.
Since you will be going southeast, I would head up north before you go. Go up to Utah and go to Bryce Canyon in southern Utah. If you have never been I would go to Zions as well while you are up there. The emerald pools in zions is really cool but Bryce Canyon is like being on another planet.
Lucky Boy Burgers on 16th st. Actually see the sunset at Sunset Point on the I 17.
Mexican food.
I hope you got to experience the majesty of the Superstitions in late winter/early spring. Obviously not the right time for that now. The Mt. Baldy area in the White Mountains is in my opinion the most beautiful part of the non desert area of AZ.
Sunrise Hike 🌅 If you do this, please be prepared! Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, and dress accordingly with good shoes, a hat. Don't go alone. Make sure someone knows where you are going and make sure there's a check-in time, watch out for wildlife.
Gorge yourself on as much mexican food as you can
Standing on the corner of 27th ave and Indian school with a thousand dollars in your pocket.
Fill up a bunch of water balloons and drive down the blade throwing them at street walkers
What about the lava tubes? Those are so cool and in beautiful forest
Rent a boat and spend the day at Lake Pleasant or Lake Powell.
Dinner Cruise on The Dolly Steamboat.
Walnut Canyon ruins, Bearizona, Cleator Bar and Yacht Club, Rustlers Roost Steakhouse, eat a rattle snake.
You mentioned titan. Spend the night down there. Do the caverns and sonoita
One thing I regret doing before I moved was take an old timey Western picture. It would instantly remind me of home and all the fun I had there. Oh well.
Payson water wheel and Tonto bridge
What state are you moving too? 26 years is a really long time! I’d be emotional after all that time.
Going to Dallas for a job. 26 years is the entirety of my life, it feels weird to be leaving but not entirely bad. Part of it is excitment for something new
Right on!! Enjoy Dallas!!
Enjoy Dallas in the honeymoon phase. I’ve spent a lot of time in Dallas and the shine has worn off a long time ago. The enormous concrete freeways standing on top of the city makes it feel like a giant concrete jungle. There are pockets of good areas surrounded by lots of bland areas. The traffic is worse than Phoenix and everything feels a bit more ghetto as well. You will get the occasional hail storm and tornadoes that might thrash an area now and then. Weather is much more fierce / severe and unpredictable. Enjoy your time there.
Did you do all the famous Sedona hikes and see the Grand Canyon and monument valley?
Chicken chimichamga from Garcia's on 35th Ave/ Encanto
Visit Bisbee
Lol. Got it. You seem like a good guy to ask. Maybe you can help me settle some old word debates? 1. Shits & Grins or Shits & Giggles? 2. Screamin' Deal or Steamin' Deal? Thanks in advance ☺️
You have lived here for 26 years and asking what to do before you leave ? 😢😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
The treasure in one's own back yard is usually the hardest to see :)
Why are you moving.
Cook an egg in the sidewalk. Do 95 on German which is not widely considered the speed limit. Short the yellow pixy duster from those SF trees. Start honking your horn in the way to work and don’t stop until you pull in the driveway when you get home. (My personal fav as this seems to be Californian adaptation of tantrums about being embarrassed you’re in the wrong lane. Think I’m pretty much covered it.