Papago Park and Hole-in-the-Rock

Papago Park is the gentle counterpoint to Camelback: a landscape of rounded red sandstone buttes, desert scrub and lagoons on the border of Phoenix and Tempe, home to the Desert Botanical Garden and the Phoenix Zoo and laced with easy trails. Its signature is Hole-in-the-Rock, a butte pierced by a large opening eroded by wind and water over millions of years. The City of Phoenix trail to it is only about two-tenths of a mile with around 200 feet of elevation change: from the trailhead near the park's visitor center, a short dirt path and set of steps loop around the back of the butte, and you climb into the hollow to sit on the smooth rock and look out over the city, the airport flight path and the mountains beyond. It is classified as easy and is suitable for most ages, though the rock inside the hole slopes and can be slippery, so keep a hand on small children. The Hohokam, who farmed this valley with an extraordinary canal system centuries ago, are thought to have used light passing through a smaller hole in the roof to mark the seasons. Elsewhere in the park, the white pyramid on a nearby butte is the tomb of George W. P. Hunt, Arizona's first governor, with a view of its own, and flat paths such as the Crosscut Canal path and the Galvin Bikeway connect the garden, zoo and buttes for walkers and cyclists. Trails are open early until late, and the eastern section of the park, including the Hole-in-the-Rock trailhead, opens at 5am and its parking closes at 7pm.

Sunset is the moment. In the cool season locals arrive half an hour before sundown to claim a spot in the hole, and as the sun drops the sandstone turns a deep orange and the city lights come on across the Valley. It can be busy, and there is little room inside the hole, so be patient and share; sunrise is quieter and equally pretty with the light behind you. Because the walk is so short, it fits easily at the end of a Desert Botanical Garden or zoo day, or as a first-evening orientation on arrival.

For a longer outing, the park's other buttes and the Papago trails on the Tempe side offer short scrambles with views over the lagoons, and the canal paths make a flat, scenic bike ride. Families with young children often combine Hole-in-the-Rock with the zoo, the lagoons and a picnic. Photographers should bring a wide lens for the window shot and a tripod for twilight. In summer, treat even this short walk with respect: the rock radiates heat long after sunset, so go early in the morning and carry water.

Papago Park is also a good reminder of how layered Phoenix's history is. The canals you cross trace routes first engineered by the Hohokam, the buttes were used for gatherings and quarrying in the city's early years, and the park held a prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War. Today it is simply one of the most loved free green spaces in the metro, and the easiest way to see the city framed by the desert it was built in.