10 Weirdest Street Names in Metro Phoenix

Thousands of streets crisscross metro Phoenix, and every one has a name.

Some are self-explanatory or location-oriented (Central Avenue, Baseline Road), while others honor historical figures both locally and nationally (Washington Street, Winfield Scott Plaza, Thomas Road) or are tied to various landmarks (Camelback Road, Bethany Home Road, Indian School Road).

Then, there are street names that are a bit cheeky, unusual, or just flat out weird, including the following 10:

10. This Is It Place, Scottsdale
If you have a yen for living in a spot way out in the boonies — albeit in a high-style home with a $600,000 to $800,000 price-tag that’s surrounded by other well-heeled types — then, um, this is it. And right around the corner you can drive from here to there.

9. Sesame Street, Tempe
Much to our disappointment, we didn’t spy any giant yellow birds or furry brown mammoths strolling along this side street running through a quiet neighborhood south of Baseline Road in Tempe. (Nor were there any furry blue monsters obsessing over baked goods or grumpy green creatures peeking out from any trash cans.) And, yes, when hitting up the GPS on our smartphones for directions to the location, we definitely asked, “Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?”


8. Doo Dah Lane, Surprise
According to a few online dictionaries, the word “doodah” refers to an agitated state, which we were in by the time we traveled a hour and a half to get  to this small street near 115th Avenue and Union Hills Drive.

7. Huff N Puff Place, Carefree
Carefree features an overabundance of streets bearing quaint and kitschy names, some symbolizing the town’s supposedly laid-back spirit: there's Easy Street, Lazy Lane, and Nonchalant Avenue. Then there’s Huff N Puff Place, which fittingly intersects with Breathless Drive and — nearest we can figure — reflects its location along one of Carefree’s many foothills and causes much gasping for air by lightweights who go strolling along its a gently sloping incline. Either that, or the Big Bad Wolf lives nearby.


6. Lobster Trap Lane, Tempe
Local residents are a few hundred miles removed from catching any sort of fresh shellfish larger than a crawdaddy (or whatever’s available at the nearest Red Lobster) since we’re, um, landlocked in the middle of the freakin’ desert, y'all.. This didn’t stop builders of the Lakes housing community in Tempe, which surrounds an enormous man-made lagoon, from trying to project the atmosphere of some romantic seaside town by dubbing its various streets Driftwood Drive, Whalers Way, or the silly-sounding Lobster Trap Lane.


5. Never Mind Trail, Carefree
We can imagine the sort of confusing conversations that might result from trying to find this peculiar-sounding road up in Carefree:

“What’s the name of that one street we’re looking for?”

“Never Mind.”

“No, Seriously, bro. What’s it called?”


4. Bloody Basin Road, Carefree
As you might expect, given its name, there are grizzly stories about how this road winding its way through the the area's northern hinterlands got its macabre moniker. Depending on whom you ask, it either stems a from a herd of sheep slaughtered by vengeful Verde Valley cattlemen looking to keep competing ranchers from using their land for grazing or a company of U.S. Army soldiers that massacred a band of Apaches in 1873 up toward Yavapai County. Try getting either of those blood-soaked images out of your head when driving along this peaceful and picturesque mountainside trail.

3. Bong Lane, Glendale
It’s probably a good thing this street, named for legendary World War II ace Richard Bong, is within the high-security confines of Luke Air Force Base out in Glendale, since we’re willing to bet an eighth of Purple Kush that the signs already would’ve been nabbed many times over by giddy stoners.

2. Why Worry Lane, Phoenix
If you happen to reside along this street, which is situated off 7th Avenue near Northern in the tony Royal Palm neighborhood (where most homes are valued at about $500,000), you probably don’t have much in life to worry about.

1. Dancing Bears Court, Fountain Hills 
It’s a major haul to get to this far-flung cul-de-sac cloistered away in the gated Crestview at Fountain Hills community in the Northeast Valley, to say the least. But if you wind up making the journey, feel free to remark about what a “long, strange trip its been” since its fanciful name may or may not be inspired by the dancing bears of Grateful Dead fame. Then again, it may also refer to the colloquial term for tamed bears used to entertain folks in certain circuses.