Explore Arizona

Sullivan Street is pretty quiet these days. A hodgepodge of antique stores, vacant buildings and Mexican-food cafes skirt this wide avenue in Miami, a mining town nestled in the foothills of the Pinal Mountains about 60 miles from the East Valley.

Ask anyone in the East Valley about the Salt River, and they’ll tell you: It’s barely deep enough to tube northeast of Mesa and rarely more than a languid trickle percolating the sandy wash alongside Loop 202 in Tempe.

View pictures of wildflowers in full bloom across the Grand Canyon state.

Jennifer Johnston is keeping her eyes trained on the rugged western slopes of the Goldfield Mountains. The winter-browned peaks are poised to erupt in brilliant springtime wildflowers, and Johnston, park manager at Usery Mountain Regional Park northeast of Mesa, is hoping to spot the spare but elegant Mariposa lily.

Sometimes Indian ruins aren’t easy to get to. A long drive and a short walk will take you to spectacular places like Tuzigoot, Montezuma’s Well and Wupatki. But there’s an Indian ruin in Globe that’s just more than an hour’s drive from the East Valley.

Soon you won’t have to wake up before the sun to lace up your hiking boots and hit the trails. Temperatures are dropping in the Valley. October is a harbinger for autumn weather and the beginning of the casual hiking season (die-hard hikers don’t stop trekking when the temperature hits triple digits). There are bound to be newcomers to the East Valley out on the trails.

People collect everything — busts of Elvis Presley, frog salt and pepper shakers, Mickey Mouse phones — and somehow all of it seems to end up in Miami, Ariz.

BENSON - As sightseers shuffle down paths deep inside Kartchner Caverns, a group of scientists works above them, shooting electrical pulses into the ground.

As fall arrives, the picturesque desert landscape in Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve becomes an urban refuge for Valley hikers. And each hiking season, the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy and a few other conservation groups offer free guided treks through the mountain preserves.

It’s hot, it’s Friday and it’s very late in August. If fun meant a cool-weather getaway this weekend, you’d have gotten away by now. So it’s time to rediscover your local resources, including your local parks.

It’s true: Mesa has a reputation for being somewhat of a boring bedroom community. But a report released Monday might change people’s minds about the fast-growing city with a small-town feel — and plenty of golf courses nearby.

PAYSON - Everyone should have a favorite swimming hole. A place where you can swing on a rope into crystal-clear water and float under the shade of trees. Idyllic places like these are practically nonexistent in the East Valley, where a break from the summer heat means jumping into a chlorinated pool.

Tell newcomers and out-of-towners to take a hike, and you probably mean they should try their hand — or, more accurately, their feet — at Camelback Mountain.

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