If You're Traveling Into Phoenix...
Some helpful information from the Wikipedia:
Phoenix is home to several professional sports franchises, including representatives of all four major professional sports leagues in the U.S. The first major franchise was the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA), which started play in 1968. In 1997, the Phoenix Mercury was one of the original eight teams to launch the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Both teams play at US Airways Center. The Arizona Cardinals moved to Phoenix from St. Louis, Missouri in 1988 and currently play in the NFL's National Football Conference - West Division. The Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball (National League-West Division) began play as an expansion team in 1998. The team plays at Chase Field. The Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League moved to the area in 1996, and play at Jobing.com Arena. The city also boasts a minor league hockey team, the Phoenix Roadrunners of the ECHL, who play at the US Airways Center. This makes Phoenix one of the few cities where minor and major league teams in the same sport coexist. Phoenix also has an arena football team, the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League. Additionally, due to the favorable climate, nine Major League Baseball teams conduct spring training in the metro area, as well as nearby Tucson. These teams are collectively known as the Cactus League. The Phoenix International Raceway is a major venue for two NASCAR auto racing events per season. Boat racing, drag racing, and road course racing are also held at the Firebird International Raceway. Sprint car racing is held at Manzanita Speedway. Phoenix has also hosts several major professional golf events, including the LPGA's Safeway International and The Tradition of the Champions Tour.
Phoenix has a vast array of parks and nature attractions. Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park is located in Superior, near Phoenix. It consists of a botanical collection that includes a wide range of habitats and a 1.5 mile walking trail. Camelback Mountain is a mountain of 2,704 foot elevation. The name is derived from its shape, which resembles the two humps and head of a bactrian camel. This mountain is a hiking destination for both locals and visitors to the Valley. It is located in the Camelback Mountain Echo Canyon Recreation Area. The Desert Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located within Papago Park. The garden now has more than 21,000 plants, including 139 species which are rare, threatened or endangered. Of special note are the rich collections of agave and cacti. Encanto Park is a public park in central Phoenix. The park is composed of land consisting of picnic areas, a lagoon, boat house where boats can be rented, swimming pool, nature trail, amusement park, fishing and two golf courses. One notable attraction at Encanto Park is Enchanted Island, an amusement park with rides, games, vending and a small train around the park. Papago Park is a hilly desert park and is surrounded by the cities of Phoenix, Tempe, and Scottsdale. Papago Park is notable for its many distinctive geological formations and its wide variety of typical desert plants, including the giant saguaro cactus. The park also features a desert botanical garden, a large zoo (the Phoenix Zoo), picnic areas, several small lakes, hiking trails, bicycle paths, a fire museum, and Hunt's Tomb, the pyramidal tomb of Arizona's first governor, George W. P. Hunt. Rolling Hills Golf Course is within the park between its Phoenix and Tempe extremities. South Mountain Park is the largest city park in the United States, one of the the largest urban parks in North America and in the world. Sunnyslope Mountain a.k.a. "S" Mountain is a large, nearly symmetrical hill in the North Phoenix Sunnyslope area. The southern slope of the mountain is adorned with a 100ft white capital letter "S". The mountain, in particular the large "S", can be seen from thirty miles away on a clear day, and is distinctly visible to nearby airplane passengers. To date, "S" Mountain remains one of the most visible, artificial features of the northern skyline of the Valley of the Sun.
Phoenix also has its share of culture, history, and science as well. Arizona Opera is an opera company which operates in both Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. The Arizona Opera was established in 1971 as the Tucson Opera Company, under founding general director James P. Sullivan, and presented its first production, of Rossini's The Barber of Seville, in 1972. By 1975 the company had expanded to include performances in both Tucson and Phoenix. Arizona Opera offers seven performances of each of its five productions per season, with four performances at Phoenix Symphony Hall and three at the Tucson Convention Center Music Hall). Arizona Science Center is focused on inspiring, educating, and entertaining people about science. The Center is located in Heritage and Science Park in the heart of downtown Phoenix. Home to over 350 permanent hands-on exhibits, the Center is able to provide their 400,000 annual visitors with interactive experiences. Aside from the permanent exhibitions, Arizona Science Center has featured a number of nationally traveling exhibitions. Along with daily demonstrations throughout the Center, the Center provides shows in the Dorrance Planetarium and in the new, five-story, giant screen IMAX® Theater. The Heard Museum is dedicated to Native American art. It was founded in 1929 by Dwight B. and Maie Bartlett Heard to house their personal collection of art. Currently its collection consists of over 35,000 items. It currently has over 130,000 square feet (12,000 m²) of gallery, classroom and performance space. Some of the signature exhibits include, a full Navajo hogan, Mareen Allen Nichols Collection containing 260 pieces of contemporary jewelry, and the Barry Goldwater Collection of 437 historic Hopi kachina dolls. Much of the archaeological material in the Heard's collection came from La Ciudad Indian ruin, which the Heards purchased in 1926. It is the home of the annual World Championship Hoop Dance Contest, typically held in early February. Mystery Castle is located in the foothills of South Mountain Park. It was built in the 1930s by Boyce Gulley for his daughter Mary Lou Gulley, who as of 2007 still resides there but is too weak to lead tours. Said to be held together by a combination of mortar, cement, calcium, and goat milk, the sprawling 18-room, three story castle is built from a wide range of materials—stone, adobe, automobile parts, salvaged rail tracks from a mine, telephone poles, etc. It features a chapel, cantina, and a dungeon. Parts of the castle remain unfinished, and electricity and plumbing weren't added until 1992. Phoenix Art Museum was founded in 1936 as the Phoenix Art Center, a part the Works Progress Administration, Federal Art Project. It later evolved into the Phoenix Fine Arts Association, before being renamed the Phoenix Art Museum. The Collection includes 17,000 works of art that span the centuries and the globe. Its emphasis is on American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern and contemporary, and Western American art, and fashion design. In 2006, the Museum added a new modern art wing and a new entrance pavillion. The Phoenix Zoo, opened in 1962, is the largest non-profit zoo in the United States. The zoo operates on 125 acres of land in the Papago Park area of Phoenix. According to employees, as of July 2007 there are actually over 1700 animals currently at the zoo.
. . . Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Phoenix is served by Sky Harbor International Airport, which is centrally located in the metro area near several major freeway interchanges east of downtown Phoenix. Sky Harbor is the ninth-busiest airport in the U.S. for passenger traffic, handling more than 41 million travelers in 2006. The airport serves more than 100 cities with non-stop flights. British Airways, Air Canada, WestJet, and Aeromexico are among several international carriers providing flights to destinations such as London, Canada, Costa Rica and Mexico.
Public transportation throughout the metropolitan area is provided by Valley Metro, which operates a system of buses and a rideshare program. Valley Metro is currently building Valley Metro Rail, a light rail project, which is scheduled for completion in 2008. As of 2004 Phoenix has been the largest US city devoid of a rail transit system. Interest has also been expressed in Phoenix and several neighboring cities for the creation of a commuter rail system operating on existing railroad lines.
Amtrak no longer serves Phoenix Union Station; Phoenix is the largest city in the United States with no intercity passenger rail service. The Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle stop three times a week at Maricopa, thirty miles south of downtown Phoenix. Amtrak Thruway buses connect Sky Harbor to Flagstaff for connection with the daily Southwest Chief service to Los Angeles and Chicago. Phoenix is served by Greyhound bus service, with the station at 24th Street located near the airport.
The street system in Phoenix is laid out in a traditional grid system, with most roads oriented either North-South or East-West. Numbered Avenues run north-south west of Central; numbered Streets run north-south east of Central. Major arterial streets are spaced one mile apart. Phoenix Area Freeway System The I-10 (the Maricopa and Papago Freeways) from Los Angeles travels from the west through downtown, and exits the metro area in a southeast direction towards Tucson. The I-17 (the Black Canyon Freeway) begins in downtown Phoenix and travels north to Flagstaff. The US 60 (the Superstition Freeway) also travels through the heart of the city, heading northwest through the suburbs of Glendale, Peoria, and Surprise. It also exits to the east of downtown, traveling through the suburbs of Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, and Apache Junction, and beyond. The Loop 101 (the Agua Fria, Price, and Pima Freeways) is also a major highway that forms a semicircle around the northern suburbs of the city, starting from the I-10 in the west and traveling around to the Santan portion of the Loop 202 in the southeast.
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