Fun & Games

In a region known for top-notch golf courses, it can be hard to choose. Don’t get teed off; choose SunRidge Canyon, made famous by its challenging last six holes (the Wicked Six). Though the 71-par course is in a residential neighborhood, it doesn’t feel that way, because everywhere you go on the course, you’re surrounded by gorgeous panoramic views of the McDowell Mountains. And it’s not just the backdrop that’s beautiful. Designer Keith Foster made a point of incorporating the naturally occurring rock deposits and undulations of the land in his design, giving the course a uniquely tranquil and desert-like feel. Make sure you save time to check out the patio and outdoor fire pit at the Wicked Six Bar & Grill restaurant — unless you’ve somehow grown tired of breathtaking views.

Few sports are kind to the ravages of age, and professional football is certainly a young man’s sport. But beloved Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald has continued to dominate the league into his 30s. Not only is he able to stay competitive at age 33, he was, by any measure, one of the best receivers in the game last year. While it’s not unusual to see veteran players continue to contribute well into their 30s, they rarely keep up with the young guns as well as Fitzgerald did last year. The average age of the eight players who finished with more receiving yards than Fitzgerald is 26. Just shows what talent, hard work, and winning the genetic lottery can do for you in the National Football League.

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer, at 36, is like a fine red wine. He was the best regular-season QB in the league in 2015, and that season was an exclamation point on a career filled with many more downs than ups. Drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2003 (prior to Palmer’s arrival, Cincinnati hadn’t enjoyed a winning season since 1990), he suffered numerous injuries and poisonous front-office politics before he requested a trade in 2010. Out of spite, Bengals owner Mike Brown refused to honor the request, effectively sentencing Palmer to football purgatory after the team drafted quarterback Andy Dalton. Brown eventually relented and traded Palmer to the one franchise worse than hell — the Oakland Raiders. He spent two years playing awful Bay Area football before arriving via trade in Arizona. The following seasons have seen Palmer blossom into an elite quarterback. They say success is the best revenge after a toxic breakup, and last year was the gaudy diamond ring on Palmer’s joyous middle finger to his old bosses.

When the Arizona Diamondbacks owners demanded Maricopa County pony up almost $200 million for stadium repairs, lest the team bolt for greener pastures, you’d have to forgive the average fan for at least beginning to swallow the bait. After all, there’s precedent. When the Arizona Coyotes threatened to leave and demanded the Glendale city government give the team all but the mayor’s firstborn daughter and the city council had the gall to balk, Coyotes fans nearly tarred and feathered their elected officials. So there was some precedent that the Diamondbacks could get their way fairly easily. But there’s no serious way to look at this in which the Diamondbacks don’t come off sounding entitled and whiny. Chase Field is less than 20 years old, and it’s already not “state-of-the-art”? Maybe if the team spent some money on more than one talented player (the team’s payroll is among the lowest in the league), it wouldn’t have to beg taxpayers for repair money equal to almost half of what it cost to build the damn thing in the first place.

Ever since Steve Nash left for a second time, not much has been bright in Suns land. The 2015-16 season was a dark one, indeed, for the hometown ballers, but one shining star that appears when you go 23-59 in the regular season is you usually get a pretty good draft pick, and the Suns had more than a few needs when they landed the No. 4 slot in the lotto. Most observers had them looking for a power forward to replace Mirza Teletovic, and it seemed pretty likely that the team would draft either Croatian import Dragan Bender or University of Washington product Marquese Chriss to fill the outgoing Bosnian’s shoes. But in a move that either shows maximum indecisiveness or brilliance, the Suns traded for the eighth pick and drafted both players. To quote the little girl from the Old El Paso commercial, why not both?

Steve Kerr was part of a group that bought the Phoenix Suns in 2004, and up until 2010 he was the team’s general manager. But he left after that season when majority owner Robert Sarver refused to give Kerr and the Suns’ coaches raises, and Kerr sat on the sidelines until he became the head coach of the Golden State Warriors in 2014. Since then, Phoenix Suns fans have had to watch glumly as the Warriors became one of the most exciting teams in NBA history, with our former GM leading the team in 2016 to an NBA-record 73 regular-season wins. Kerr’s success must feel like sand in Sarver’s eyes, and Suns fans are forced to watch Kerr lead a team that has lost just one more game in two years than the Suns won during the  2015-16 season.

Santa gave the Phoenix Suns a stinker of a present at the end of 2015. Shortly after the holiday, the Suns fired two of head coach Jeff Hornacek’s assistants, Jerry Sichting and Mike Longabardi, after the team had sputtered to a start that meekly flirted with respectability. The move was disastrous. The Suns then proceeded to win just three games out of their next 30. Naturally, team leaders then fired head coach Jeff Hornacek, who had taken the reins of a promising roster two years earlier and then went on to steer the carriage into a lake. Owner Robert Sarver then promoted the lone remaining assistant coach, Earl Watson, to interim head coach, despite the fact Watson’s sole head coaching experience came in the NBA’s development league. Naturally, the Suns finished with the fourth-worst record in the NBA. But hey, at least the team got some sweet draft picks as a result.

Was it weird for the Diamondbacks to sign ace pitcher Zack Greinke to a $34 million-a-year contract? Well, in the context of a grown man getting paid $200,000 a day to throw a ball past another grown man, yes. In the context of baseball, even more so. The move placed the second-biggest salary in baseball on a team with the fifth-smallest payroll in the league. But for that kind of money, you expect big-time results, and neither Greinke nor the Diamondbacks have delivered to expectations. Greinke is having an okay season, sure, but for that kind of money, you’d better be pitching like you’re in a video game on easy mode, and Greinke has looked disappointingly human.

If baseball is America’s pastime, then we think it’s safe to say that spring training specifically is Arizona’s. Despite the increased traffic from snowbirds, spring training might just be the most wonderful time of the year in the Valley. And while we’re lucky enough to choose from a mittful of places to watch this American classic, we keep going back to Salt River Fields. Even if the complex wasn’t incredibly easy to access right off the Loop 101, didn’t have an abundance of parking available or a well-shaded grandstand, and didn’t offer great tanning potential on the affordable lawn seating, we’d still have a soft spot for these fields. What could be better than watching our home team play against the background of the beautiful McDowell Mountains in the distance?

Paul Goldschmidt is the guy that pitchers’ nightmares are made of. At 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds of solid muscle, he’s got a killer eye for the strike zone and a habit of punishing pitchers who make even minor mistakes when facing him. The Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman is one of the best in the league at drawing walks, so pitchers can’t throw outside the zone and hope he’ll chase. Nope, the only way to get him out is to throw him strikes, but unfortunately for everyone not on the Diamondbacks, he tends to crush those. He’s one of those rare players that both hits for power and a high batting average, and though the Diamondbacks might have whimpered through yet another disappointing season, Goldy is as productive as ever, named as a reserve in the All-Star game.

The history behind Big Surf is nothing short of incredible. Once a pool hall featuring musical acts such as Pink Floyd and Elton John, for decades, Phoenicians have been catching waves formed from 2.5 million gallons of water. These days, Big Surf is a bona fide water park, with speeding water sides and its newest addition, the Mauna Kea Zip Line. Big Surf is bringing the island vibes without the jet lag.

If you want to feel hip, modern, and cool (literally), we recommend grabbing your most fashionable swimsuit and heading over to the Hotel Palomar in downtown Phoenix. Sure, other hotel pools might be larger or more tricked-out, but none are more stylish than the Palomar’s rooftop escape. Between dips, you can lounge in one of the plush poolside cabanas with a delicious cocktail from Lustre Rooftop Bar, just actual steps from the edge of the pool. And if you time your visit just right, you can bathe in the glow of the evening sun reflecting off the surrounding skyscrapers. We don’t think there’s any place that in Phoenix that feels more “big city.”

One of the best things about venturing into nature is the humbling feeling of being incredibly small. And thanks to the fact that Phoenix has the largest municipal park in the nation within the city’s limits, this feeling is always close at hand. If you truly want to take advantage of everything South Mountain has to offer, we suggest visiting at sunset. Whether you brave the hike or opt for the windy drive to the summit, there’s no better place to let the vastness of both the park and the surrounding city overwhelm you than standing on the peak of the mountain while watching the glow of the evening golden hour wash over the Valley.

Everybody knows that Phoenix has stunning, photo-worthy sunsets. Though fewer people rave about them, the Valley’s sunrises are just as remarkable. Maybe the desert’s daybreaks have kept a lower profile because it’s not as convenient to wake up before the sun to catch these spectacles. Or maybe it’s just because people don’t know the best place from which to view them. Well, take note, early birds: Phoenix Mountains Preserve holds the best places to watch the sun slowly peek over the eastern horizon. And the best part is that the hikes to get to the vantage points aren’t overly strenuous. Stick to the southern side of the preserve, try to get as much height as possible, and watch the Valley light up as the day begins.

We know you’ve seen it before. The bright, colorful dresses, the braided hair with flowers, the embroidered jackets and pants, the large decorative sombreros. The women and girls dance in hypnotizing circles while holding the hems of their long skirts up in the air, swishing them back and forth gracefully. The men stamp their feet, echoing the beat of the music. This is folklorico, a traditional Mexican dance. And our favorite performers of this historic art form belong to Ballet Folklorico Ollin Yoliztli. “Ollin Yoliztli” means “life and movement” in ancient Aztec, and it’s clear to see the meaning of the words incarnate combined with pride in the tradition in the motions of the school’s students.

A word to the wise, wey: Don’t expect to see any WWE-style pyrotechnics, posturing, or production values at the weekly wrestling events put on by Lucha Libre Por. (You can always catch Raw or SmackDown for that sort of stuff, cabron.) Here, it’s all about bigger action, wilder matches, and higher-flying acrobatics, with a majority of grapplers sporting colorful and exotic-looking masks. In other words, all the traditions of Mexican-style wrestling, better known as lucha libre. It’s what draws families and fans alike inside the Plaza Del Sol marketplace every Sunday afternoon to cheer and boo the larger-than-life luchadores or chant along en español as the action takes place in the ring. The cozy nature of the venue also allows for up close and personal interaction with the competitors, like when spectators hurl vicious insults their way, resulting in a few heated (but ultimately harmless) exchanges that are all in good fun. Don’t worry, they won’t lay a finger on you, no matter how badly you’ve dissed their madre.

History is at the center of everything C.A.L.L.E. de Arizona does. The nonprofit’s goal is to share the rich history of Mexican culture through various art forms. Two of these are music and dance, specifically mariachi and folklorico. And they celebrate these traditional arts at the yearly Mariachi and Folklorico Festival in Chandler. But they don’t just expect people to show up and enjoy the festival. C.A.L.L.E. de Arizona offers workshops leading up to the festival, so as many folkoristas as possible can participate. This year, the organization employed the talents of Maestro Miguel Angel Arellano Peña to teach the students, so you know the festival is gonna be good.

Sometimes all you want to do is ride your bike; if so, you’re in luck. Established in spring 2015, the Phoenix Downtempo Ride is a community organization offering free weekly bike rides where just about anyone is welcome. The Phoenix Downtempo Ride meets at 7 p.m. at spots like Encanto Park’s Amp Island, Steele Indian School Park, Margaret T. Hance Park, and Coronado Park. The ride averages eight miles per hour, and lasts for approximately an hour, arriving usually at a restaurant or 21-and-over bar. Ending spots have included Pomeroy’s, Rosie McCaffrey’s Irish Pub, and Café Tranquilo at the Clarendon Hotel. Participants are only asked to bring a bike in good working order, though if a flat happens or if a chain busts, you won’t be left behind. Bring water, spare tubes and pumps if you have them, and even music if it’s not too disruptive to the other riders. The Phoenix Downtempo Ride people also host special themed Monday night rides, including PHX Pool Poppin, Fondue in the Park, and the Linger Longer Pedal Party.

Sedona Red was cool and all, and frankly, we’re glad it’s not gone completely, but the best resurrection of a color has to go to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Sure, they’re not doing as well as everyone would have hoped this season, especially after shelling out more than $200 million to Zack Greinke and making one of the worst trades in baseball history to acquire Shelby Miller, but damn if those boys don’t look good in teal again. In fact, whether you love them or hate them, the D-backs have the most interesting uniforms in all of baseball since the mid-’70s Houston Astros, and if we can’t get past the San Francisco Giants or the Chicago Cubs this year, we might as well look better than they do. Classic, shmassic. Teal for the win, baby. 

Depending on your deal, Tempe Town Lake is a recreational haven, or a waste of resources, or possibly the butt of a joke. In any case, the 225-acre manmade reservoir in downtown Tempe beneath Mill Avenue was closed on February 10, and drained to replace the Town Lake Western Dam. Don’t worry, representatives from the Arizona Game and Fish Department were out there casting some nets and reining in as many fish as possible. If you happened to have visited Tempe Beach Park or the North Bank Path during this window, you would have noticed a rare sight: a vast marshland dotted with beer bottles, parking cones, canopy frames from various events, and only the maker knows what else. Refilling the lake began about two weeks later, at about a foot a day until it reached 900 million gallons, restoring itself yet again on April 30 as the spot for under-bridge fishermen, standup paddleboarders, and those in rented kayaks.

Recent years have seen an explosion of the popularity of hangouts that mix drinks and arcade games, and while there have been plenty of cool ones to open in Phoenix in the last year, none have quite matched the vibe of Cobra, located in downtown Phoenix. The selection of games is excellent (and constantly rotating, which means you get new games on the regular), the vibe is sleek and modern — with garage door-style windows that can be opened when the weather’s cooperating — and the drinks, appropriately named for video-game characters like the Crazy Kong and the Ryuken, are well-mixed and inventive, providing top-notch liquid accompaniment for a few rounds of Street Fighter 2. 

An independently owned bowling alley is a rare thing, but it’s even rarer for one to be as cool as Let It Roll Bowl in Sunnyslope. You get everything you’re looking for in an alley — cosmic bowling specials, funky shoe rentals, and league nights — but you also get a slightly retro, totally charming vibe, with a modern bar and midcentury-inspired decor that evokes the ’60s, when the bowling alley was originally built. There’s pizza, too, and cheap pitchers, which come in handy for those nights when your game’s off and you need some help easing in to those strikes. 

Tires screaming around corners. Cars slamming into sidewalls. The agony of defeat as you see you came in ninth behind a bunch of high-school freshmen. Yeah, that’s Octane. First – the check-in with the enthusiastic and friendly young staff. You sign your life away, and that of your children, if you have any. If it’s crowded, you get to hang out in the lounge, which isn’t too bad. They even serve beer. At the appointed time, you step into the cavernous track room and pick out a helmet. Soon, the staff will have you strapped into your mini-Indy car, and the session begins. Adult sessions are 14 laps, while the slightly slower kids’ cars go for 10 laps. It’s actually a race, and you can see your time and place among the other racers in your set in a printout afterward. (See above note about defeat.) It’s an addictive experience, despite the roughly $20-per-race charge, not to the mention the battering drivers take from the g-forces in the curves. We usually find a bruise or two after Octane. It’s a good pain.

Outside of his amazing wife and wonderful family, Rob Locker’s true passion in life is skateboarding. A lifelong rider of the concrete wave, Locker founded AZPX Skateboards in 2002, and since that time has pushed local skateboarding along more than anyone in the community. Whether it has been releasing somewhere around 10,000 skateboards, sponsoring the (now-disbanded) AZPX skateboarding team, or just encouraging young and old skaters to get out and skate more and have fun, Locker’s advocacy of one of the Valley’s favorite sports is invaluable. Locker has also ventured into the music world over the years with AZPX Records, which promotes the music of skate rock bands. Often at his own expense, Locker has set up skateboard contests and demonstrations at local skate parks, and worked tirelessly to promote not only his companies, but also the art and skateboarding talent of countless people in the skateboard community. A true original, Locker will surely continue to be a vocal advocate of the skateboard community for years to come.

June 21 is Go Skateboarding Day, and nobody celebrates it quite like Cowtown Skateboards. The local company has four Valley locations and goes all out on Go Skateboarding Day to give back to the local skateboard community. The yearly events are typically held at one of the many Valley skate parks, although 2015 saw the shindig take place at downtown uber-venue The Pressroom. Hundreds of Phoenix-area skateboarders across every age range show up to celebrate with Cowtown, eat pizza, and either watch or take part in different skateboard trick contests every year. In addition to providing the grub, which you may imagine goes quickly with a group of active skateboarders, Cowtown also does a ridiculously huge merchandise giveaway every year, providing skateboards, wheels, trucks, clothing, and accessories galore.

Some of us don’t know what the winter Olympic sport of curling is, exactly, and some of us know all too well. Either way, there’s a way to get it all sorted with the Coyotes Curling Club in Tempe. Billed as the “only curling club in Arizona,” the CCC was established in 2003, and features annual bonspiel events, a variety of leagues, and public “Learn to Curl” classes. Classes are $30, and start off with a 45- to 60-minute ice tutorial, followed by roughly two hours of on-ice instruction and a half-game. These guys have more than 100 years of combined experience in curling, so it’s safe to say you’re in good gloves.

It’s not like Cardinals running back David Johnson came out of nowhere. The Cardinals took him in the third round of the NFL draft, after all. But no one in the league foresaw the monster offensive season Johnson turned in during the 2015 campaign. He established himself as a versatile triple threat, able to confound defenses by running the ball, catching the ball, and returning kicks. His statline reflects his hugely productive season as well — 13 touchdowns and more than 1,600 yards are great numbers for anyone, not just a rookie. He showed his most exciting potential against Philadelphia last year when he gashed the Eagles for 187 rushing yards and three touchdowns. The future of the Cardinals’ backfield looks bright.

The Phoenix metro area has many excellent hiking trails, but the king of them all is Siphon Draw in Lost Dutchman State Park. Go outside and look east —see the sheer-cut mass of rock jutting from the earth like the desert version of the Wall in Game of Thrones? That’s your destination. The hike will be slightly more than four miles round trip, but it’s so steep it’ll feel like twice that. Take water and some snacks for refueling on the way — yes, it’s that strenuous. You think Camelback Mountain is tough? Siphon Draw has nearly twice the elevation gain. And the trail’s not just steep and rugged like Camelback — it’s very steep and very rugged, slippery with gravel in places. At least one section will require one or both hands to surmount. Even the flatter parts of the trail are rocky and will give your ankles a workout.

What do you get for all of this pain and suffering? Only the chance to stroll next to the largest cliffs in the Phoenix area. The huge spires and walls of the west flanks of the Superstition Mountains make a dramatic backdrop for half the hike. In the high, sloping boulder fields just north, you might catch sight of a javelina — or a herd of them. Towering in the distance is the Flatiron, a monumental formation that dominates the upper landscape. That’s where Siphon Draw goes. The trail takes a turn for the vertical, when you can find the trail. Keep a lookout for the white paint splotches that take you up the most efficient way. The top of Flatiron is flat and a great place for a picnic, and the magnificent view of Phoenix is the other main reason you came. Hikers with energy left can jog upward and eastward for another 20 minutes to a higher perch. But save some juice for the slog down.

What could make metro Phoenix’s toughest short trail even tougher? Braving it in the area’s legendary heat, of course. Echo Canyon Trail ascends about 1,200 vertical feet in 1.5 miles, and is known to reduce even tough Arizona Cardinals players to whimpers. When springtime coolness disappears, the fire department comes out more often to Camelback Mountain as unprepared or unfit hikers suffer. Be warned: Even experienced hikers can succumb to extreme heat. Several hikers, including some on Camelback, have died from heatstroke in the last couple of years. Yet when the mercury was expected to reach a record-setting (for the day) 119 degrees on a Saturday in June, our most-avid Camelback-hiking friend put the call out on Facebook: “Who’s going with me?” About five other guys showed up, he told us later. On the hottest days, the reddish surface of Camelback is so appropriate it’s ridiculous — this feels and looks like Hell. Trapped in one of several gullies where no breeze stirs, surrounded by super-heated rock on three sides, temperatures may soar to more than 130 degrees. Why do they do it? “I like the exercise factor, and I like to sweat my ass off,” says our friend. We mention that it’s also nice when the usually-packed parking lot is empty. “Oh, yeah,” he says with enthusiasm. “Put down that the parking lot’s empty.” On June 30, following a string of heat-related tragedies in Arizona, the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Board considered a motion to close its mountain-park trails when the temperatures rose over 100 degrees. More than a dozen people showed up to protest the action, and only two people argued for the closures. The board voted down the measure. Sweat on!

Pima Canyon is an ideal place to introduce kids to real hiking, or at least the general concept of it. Tykes don’t always tolerate heading down a single-track trail in one boring direction; they’d rather scamper, scramble, and explore. Here, you’ll find an awesome mix of trails within a relatively small area, and the little ones can do what they want. Once parked along the park road west of 48th Street, you and the fam can jump on one of the trails that descends into a broad arroyo full of sand, palo verde trees, and boulders. Watching out for mountain bikers, check out the hills just south toward the Arizona Grand Resort and Spa (formerly the Pointe), then circle west again, back toward the road and the end of the paved parking area. An easy walk on the start of Desert Classic Trail takes you to the barred inscription from 1537 by Spanish explorer Marcos de Niza (you don’t have to tell the kids it’s likely a 1920s forgery). Toddlers or little kids ready to cover some distance can tackle the wide, dirt road open only to pedestrians that extends about a mile to the start of the long and brutal National Trail. Even a short walk down this road and back will give a kid a sense of what desert hiking is all about, but the car isn’t far away in case of a mental meltdown or tired legs. On nice days, you’ll see many other hikers, including lots of families with kids or pets. Go around sunset for a good chance at hearing the yips and yaps of the coyotes who live in the 16,000-acre South Mountain Park/Preserve.

The parking lot of the Tom’s Thumb trailhead in Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve is less than an hour’s drive from central Phoenix, but it feels like another planet. The main sign of urbanity is the parking lot — which, though large, fills up with vehicles on good-weather days like there’s a Black Friday sale going on. This hill of granite and cactus has a lot to offer for rock climbers, especially at the tallest formation in the area, Gardener’s Wall. Our favorite climb there is Hanging Gardens, a moderate route that will get you noticeably nearer to the clouds. It’s rated a 5.5 for technical difficulty — sounds easy, but with outdoor climbing, everything’s more intense. There will be fear. It begins on a wonderful, gray-granite knife-edge that turns into a vertical crack system. Halfway up is a tiny belay ledge — this is no place for acrophobes. The leader brings the second climber up to that point before proceeding up a perfect hand-crack. Beginning outdoor climbers will gain new confidence on Hanging Gardens and learn the pleasures of multi-pitch climbing. It’s best to bring two ropes for the long rappel back to the ground.

Before the Phoenix Rock Gym opened in 1992, the only “rock gyms” in these parts were the boulders and crags strewn about the desert. Rock climbing was done mostly by hardcores who didn’t mind the heat, rattlesnakes, and cholla barbs sticking in shins from unplanned night descents down a mountain. Thanks to the PRG, rock climbing in metro Phoenix became something everyone could try. Suddenly, climbing wasn’t just about risky thrills and blowing out forearms, but also about pizza parties and little kids having fun — which turned out to be fantastic for the future of climbing.

Kids exposed to the sport on the PRG’s 30-foot-high climbing walls grew up to conquer Yosemite’s El Capitan, and then they began taking their own kids to the gym. Other rock gyms opened as climbing took off as a mainstream sport nationwide, and the PRG kept competitive by opening a second bouldering area, adding a lead-climbing room and making its existing walls more challenging and fresh-looking.

PRG’s longevity is partially owed to owner Paul Diefenderfer, who’s good at both climbing and running a business, and to the friendly and helpful staff members he’s hired. But the real secret is the community of fans and climbers who love the place and keep coming back over the years.

Who would have thought that Chandler would have a world-class gymnastics gym? Well, MyKayla Skinner trains at Desert Lights Gymnastics, and she traveled to Brazil as an alternate for the U.S. team. The 19-year-old finished fourth at the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, even beating out 2012 medal-winner Gabby Douglas, who finished seventh. Skinner is a Gilbert native, and she won a bronze medal on the vault at the 2014 World Championships, where she helped the U.S. take the team gold. She had to watch from the sidelines as the American team took gold, but hey, she’s still a homegrown Olympian who only narrowly missed competing on a global stage. She’s now at the University of Utah on a full gymnastic scholarship, so look for her to be a top competitor at future NCAA competitions.

Go ahead and call it the wedding cake. The three-tiered Tovrea Castle, visible from the Loop 202, is a Phoenix icon that beckons like a desert mirage with an outer defense of saguaro cactuses. The castle’s gardens and grounds are equally exotic, filled with more than 100 species of unique desert flora, including over 5,000 cactuses.

Completed in 1930, Tovrea Castle was the vision of Alessio Carraro, who oversaw the building of the structure and its gardens. It was intended to be a resort hotel surrounded by a deluxe housing subdivision called Carraro Heights. However, Carraro’s dream didn’t last. He sold the castle to Edward Ambrose Tovrea to use as a private residence.

Early on, Carraro was approached by designer M. Moktatchev, who planted more than 500 species of cactus from the Southwest as well as from Australia, Central America, South America, and Africa. Across 44 acres of grounds, the original grandeur is still apparent. Though many of the original plants did not survive, in 1998, the city of Phoenix began garden restorations. Archival photographs of the property and grounds were studied to verify which plants had been used in the original plans. Four hundred saguaros and 1,000 smaller cactuses have been planted as part of the restoration.

The Tovrea Carraro Society relies on volunteers to lead tours of the castle and gardens. There is no walking around the grounds without a tour guide. Tours must be booked in advance, are approximately two hours long, and include visiting the castle’s main floor, extensive grounds, and cactus gardens. There are no tours in July or August. Admission is $15.