Castles, Canals and Petroglyphs: Phoenix Places Worth a Second Look

Every city has its postcard sights, and Phoenix has plenty. But some of the most memorable afternoons here happen at the places people mention only once you ask them where they take visitors: a waterfall on a canal, a castle on a granite hill, a trail past rocks carved thousands of years ago. These are real, open-to-the-public spots, most of them a short drive from the center of town, and each tells you something about how this desert city came to be.

Walking through deep history

Long before Phoenix had its name, people farmed this valley with an extensive network of canals. The S'edav Va'aki Museum, the city-run museum and National Historic Landmark on East Washington Street that was called Pueblo Grande until 2023, tells that story on the site of a village settled around AD 500 and lived in for more than a thousand years. An outdoor trail of about two-thirds of a mile leads past the va'aki, or platform mound, full-size replicas of the homes families built here, and a garden of crops grown in the area.

The Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve protects more than 1,500 petroglyphs pecked into hundreds of basalt boulders, some of them close to 5,000 years old. Arizona State University has looked after the site since it opened as a preserve in 1994. A gravel trail of roughly a quarter mile brings you close to the rock art. The preserve keeps a seasonal schedule and closes in the hottest months, so check before you go.

Water in the desert

Tucked beside the Arizona Canal near 56th Street and Indian School Road, Arizona Falls is a 20-foot drop in the canal that powered the city's first hydroelectric plant in 1902. The plant was rebuilt, ran for decades, went quiet in 1950 and was restored in 2003, when the site also became a public space shaped by the artwork WaterWorks at Arizona Falls by Mags Harries and Lajos Héder. It still generates electricity today, and a footbridge leads to a shaded platform where you can sit beside the rushing water.

Downtown on North 3rd Avenue, the Japanese Friendship Garden offers a different kind of water. Its Japanese name, RoHoEn, joins the words for heron, phoenix and garden, a nod to the friendship between Phoenix and its sister city, Himeji. Opened in 2002 and designed in a style that reveals its views a little at a time, the garden circles a pond with more than 300 koi and a 12-foot waterfall. It also hosts traditional tea ceremonies.

An afternoon in Papago Park

Papago Park's red sandstone buttes sit just minutes from downtown, and Visit Phoenix calls Hole-in-the-Rock the park's most popular viewpoint. The short trail starts near the park's visitor center and climbs a set of steps on the back of the butte to a natural opening that frames the city, a popular place to watch the sun go down. Nearby, a small white pyramid marks the tomb of George W.P. Hunt, Arizona's first governor, and his wife.

Across the park, the Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting shows off a collection that began with a single 1924 fire engine given as a Christmas present. George F. Getz Jr. founded the museum in 1961 and opened its Papago Park building in 1974. The collection now counts more than 130 wheeled pieces, from hand-drawn pumpers to motorized engines, and the museum's National Firefighting Hall of Heroes honors firefighters who died in the line of duty.

Castles and a mansion on the hills

Tovrea Castle, four stories tall on the highest point of its granite hill, was built in the late 1920s and sits amid 44 acres of preserved desert and cactus gardens. The city owns it and the Tovrea Carraro Society runs docent-led tours that begin with a tram ride through the grounds. Demand is high, so tickets go by lottery; the spring 2027 drawing has closed, the next opens in June 2027 for fall tours, and returned tickets are sometimes released at the last minute.

In the foothills by the Arizona Biltmore, the Wrigley Mansion was built in 1931 by chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. as a 50th-anniversary gift for his wife, Ada. Geordie and Jamie Hormel later saved it from demolition and restored it. Today it offers guided public tours of about an hour and is part of the Arizona Biltmore experience, with restaurants on site.

If you have heard of the Mystery Castle, the home Boyce Luther Gulley built for his daughter, Mary Lou, in the 1930s beside South Mountain Park, know that it has been closed to the public since 2022. Its new owner plans to bring it back as an event venue.

Music and murals

In north Phoenix, the Musical Instrument Museum holds more than 7,500 instruments from more than 200 countries and territories. Its Experience Gallery invites you to bang a gong or try a theremin, and its Artist Gallery shows instruments played by well-known musicians.

Back downtown, Roosevelt Row is the city's walkable arts district, where local artists have covered walls with murals. Start at the 1½ Street Mural Project, an alley of collaborative work, then wander the surrounding streets.

Pick one place for a slow morning or string three together for a full day. Either way, you will see Phoenix the way the people who live here like to share it.