Urban Parks

When you break away from the mountain communities of Utah to Phoenix, it is like an escape to an entirely new world.  Phoenix is diverse and vibrant, the climate is warm, and the area offers exceptional things to do and see.  

Phoenix Things to Do

Just as Utah, Phoenix is filled with outdoor water recreation and the mountaineer will have no troubles getting their share of sun.   The Salt River offers great activities and a place where tourists can spend a day on the beach, picnic, stroll, canoe, fish or boat.  Throughout Phoenix, there are urban park lakes stocked with catfish and trout and other fish varieties.  

Hiking and biking: Phoenix is considered ideal hiking with its many trails in the Sonoran Desert, mountains and lakes.  South

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One of the most beautiful places in Phoenix is the Japanese Friendship Garden in downtown Phoenix. It is a large 3 plus acre garden that is now a few years old with beautiful mature trees. Since it is also fall, many of the trees are full of color while others remain lush and green. It is peaceful, beautiful and invigorating, a renewing force to sooth and liven up: as nature does.

Please watch the video below, as a teaser, to what is better in real life.

 

Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix, named Ro Ho En is an authentic 3 1/2 acre Japanese Stroll Garden with tea garden and tea house. This tranquil and beautiful setting features more than 1,500 tons of hand picked rock, stone footbridges, lanterns and more than 50 varieties of plants. As…

A magnificent Japanese Garden in Central Phoenix invites visitors to relax and soak in how good it really is in this time, in this place, in this space. We haven't been to too many Japanese gardens and especially none in Japan - but that is on the schedule - We have been to a Japanese Garden in The Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, The Japanese Garden in Wroclaw, Poland- the garden in Wroclaw was first created for the World Expo in 1913, later demolished the resurrected in the early 1990's: another Japanese garden which we have been to is in Phoenix, AZ.In each case due to the climate the flora varies but few things more peaceful and serene.They share the three common characteristic of water, flora and stone and reduced scale, symbolism, and views:

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Musings on a not so 'nippy' Saturday in Phoenix.image: artur ciesielskiI long for the first days after the summer when the morning air will be nippy.  Summer is nice, but it's time for it to pass and fall to come - alas there's at least a month and a half of heat left, but maybe a nippy morning somewhere in there.  This Saturday sure was cooler after the previous days monsoon storms.It was a nice morning for a bike ride to show a home in Windsor Square to someone interested in moving into the Central Phoenix from the suburbs.  It's not the first such showing where 2,200-3,000 square feet worth of stuff needs to fit into a home of 1,200 square feet and where the large couch not flitting into the living room is the final decider.It's not unusual…

Ruminating about Phoenix on a Friday afternoon.photo: Artur Ciesielski

I was talking to a new friend yesterday after some filming for a video promoting alternative modes of transportation in the valley and we spoke a little bit about Central Phoenix.

What we keep forgetting is how unique the central valley is for a metro city of this size.  The simple fact that we have the Phoenix Mountains, a huge desert mountain preserve in which you can get lost, and it's right in the middle of the city, near the airport, Central Phoenix and major business hubs.  The highest peak in the valley is in the middle of it: Piestewa Peak.

Just as common but more private are lots of huge lots spread out throughout Central Phoenix.  Those are remnants of the

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A small inspiration lush desert park in Downtown Phoenix. photos: Artur CiesielskiAcross the street from Phoenix Art Museum is a small strip of a park just south of McDowell Rd. running down the middle of First Street with a small shopping mall to the west, offices and the new Giant Coffee on the east.The park is the Cancer Survivors Park, dedicated to those who been touched by it, but you don't have to be to enjoy this beautiful desert oasis.  The park is small with only one wide large side walk running down the middle.  On one end is a well crafted sculpture titled, "Cancer...There's Hope" then in the middle a magnificent tile covered obelisk that simply burst with vivid color.Along the way are 14 plaques promoting a positive mental…

A beautiful center piece in the Royal Palm neighborhood of North Central PhoenixIn the tradition of high community involvement, the neighborhood conducted many meetings and interviews to determine the residents' vision for the Park. In 1976,the land was contoured, the sprinkler system installed and trees planted.The Thunderbird Fitness Course was dedicated in 1980, and the low lighting, children's play ground and speed humps at the entrance were in place by 1982. (City of Phoenix Planning)The park is not the neighborhood, but it completes it, enhances it and provides a much needed public space.  Part of what makes this park so nice is the mature trees, the constantly green grass and its size: the total area is expansive.  Looking toward the…

Downtown Phoenix oasis in the high-rises.

On any evening when the city is still the new Downtown Civic Space Park is busy with conversation: people wander around the lighted displays: they sit on the tables discussing the days news: children play in the lighted water fountain and people exercise en mass on the lush green lawn. The park opened earlier in 2009 after a large redevelopment of the lot. It's a needed space in an other wise barren concrete, steel and glass landscape of high rises. 

It's also a complementary space for the new downtown Phoenix, ASU campus, part of which is across Central Ave. The park is innovative and interactive and the best time to visit is when the sun goes down.  It's once the natural light disappears that the main

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A historic park on a boulevard median in Downtown Phoenix.

In desert city grass, trees, a park bench are a luxury: a place with soggy wet grass, chirping birds, and tree lined sidewalks and the sounds of city life: cars buzzing by, people walking the the sound of the light rail: a true urban scene.  Portland Park is located within the historic Roosevelt District in downtown Phoenix.

"Portland Park was one of two landscaped central islands in the Simms addition influences by the "city beautiful" movement which was introduced at the Colombian exposition in 1883.  The broad boulevard medians, tree lines streets, and lush landscaped settings for stately homes were a departure from grid planning and added to the elegance of a neighborhood" (posted on

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Bike trails in Phoenix and exploring the Valley of the Sun.Bikes are coming back as a mode of transportation in Phoenix; something besides exercise these things are replacing cars for some commuters.  I think this is hard to do in Greater Phoenix, not only because its bloody blazing hurting dangerous hot in the summer, but there is a lack of bike lanes and many car drivers don't look out for cyclists.But don't be turned off.  There are plenty of places to cycle in the city, not only in the multitude of trails we have in the mountains like the Phoenix Mountain Preserve but, the streets as well in many places, just not the major thoroughfares.My foray into the two wheeled man powered world began when I was a kid in Wroclaw, Poland which was then…