By Frederick Charlton

Phoenix…Tucson! What keeps people coming to these southwestern cities? Sunshine!

Over 300 days of glorious desert sun a year turns these cities into premier destinations for some 14 million tourists annually.

Phoenix is the bigger city of the two (2.8 million spread over 2,000 square miles); it has more skyscrapers, hotels and resorts; and boasts a world-class airport.

Tucson, with 700,000 people, appeals to visitors who like a more compact town that is easier to get around. Its higher elevation (2,400 feet versus Phoenix’s 1,100 feet) makes it five to 10 degrees cooler in summer.

Both cities share the unique features of the Sonoran Desert, which includes the saguaro cactus (suh-war-oh) with its distinctive, up-raised “arms,” a symbol that signifies “Arizona” to most travelers. The saguaro grows only in this part of Arizona, attains heights of 60 plus feet, and can live for several hundred years.

Visitors don’t have to choose which city to see…it’s easy to visit both, as only 115 miles separate the two, an easy drive on I-10.

Summers are hot, with Phoenix in the 90s and an occasional blip over 100 degrees. Tucson is a few degrees cooler. Average yearly temperatures aren’t that bad; 72 degrees in Phoenix; 68 for Tucson. Low humidity (17% in summer) makes southern Arizona more comfortable than many northern cities. Summer visitors also benefit from substantially lower lodging rates, with discounts up to 50%.

Visiting Tucson
The first-known settlers in the Tucson area were the Hohokam ancients, whose agrarian culture traces back to the 1st century. By the 14th century, they had disappeared, and today’s Pima Indians are their probable successors.

Changes occured in the 17th and 18th centuries with the arrival of Spanish explorers and missionaries. The San Augustine del Tucson presidio was built to defend the colonists from marauding Apaches. And the Mission San Xavier del Bac was established for converting the Indians to Christianity. That church exists today as the “White Dove of the Desert.”

Tucson remained Spanish until the Mexican revolt of 1821. Mexico relinquished the town to the U.S. with the Gadsden Purchase in 1854; but the Spanish/Mexican influence is still evident in architecture and culture.Here are some of our favorite things to do, plus others that are popular with visitors:

Museums: Take in the Arizona State Museum, International Wildlife Museum, Titan Missile Museum, and my favorite, the Pima Air & Space Museum. If your companion isn’t interested, drop her off at Arizona Mills for some shopping so you can spend a few hours gawking at its display of 200 planes, from the Wright Brothers to WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm military aircraft.

Parks, Gardens: Take a short side jaunt (about 20 minutes) to Saguaro National Park and the adjacent Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The road winds around a natural forest of saguaro cacti; the latter shows off desert animals (Mexican gray wolves, coyotes, bobcats, javelinas, rattlesnakes) and 300 different species of birds. It’s a marvelous place to spend a day.

Spectator sports & events: Tucson is spring training center for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rockies. It’s also home to the AAA Tucson Sidewinders, stock car racing, ice hockey, and the University of Arizona football and basketball teams. A winter highlight is the Tucson PGA Chrysler Classic Golf Tournament.

Recreation: Golf is big here, too, with 29 golf courses just in the metro area. In winter, there can be skiing on Mt. Lemmon; other seasons are for hiking, camping, river rafting and fishing in the mountainous Catalina National Forest. Hot air ballooning is becoming popular.

Cultural activities: We return every so often to visit the Downtown Arts District, as we’re partial to Painting, sculpture and Indian crafts. With galleries open Saturday nights, along with street music and local cafes it makes for a fun evening. Tucson has its symphony, the Arizona Theater Company, Ballet Arizona, the Gaslight Theater (musical comedy), and the Tucson Arts District.

Exploring Outside Tucson
Tucson is headquarters for some exciting one-day trips; here are some we have tried, and others we recommend:

• Mission San Xavier del Bac Mission and Church. Seeing this church rise from the desert as we approached by car was an unforgettable visual experience. Still an active parish church and school for Indians on the Tohono O’odham Reservation, it is a well-preserved example of 18th- century mission design with a good historical museum.
• Biosphere 2 is an on-going experiment in scientific living under a huge canopy for plants, animals and humans.
• The Tombstone-Bisbee Circle is a tour with much to see. The guides say “one day,” but we took two. Tombstone is the “town too tough to die,” and the site of the famed OK Corral gunfight, re-enacted every week. Bisbee is an old mining town loaded with art galleries and has the famed “Copper Queen” Hotel. Returning, hit Ft. Huachuca to see what a frontier Army post used to be like, then stop in Sierra Vista overnight.
• Kitt Peak National Observatory contains exhibits on astronomy and stellar and planetary research. Guided tours.
• Kartchner Caverns. Recently opened, this State Park has two major inside galleries the size of football fields and includes colorful stalagtites and stalagmites. Its outside offers miles of hiking trails and camping.
• Old Tucson Studios is where many famous westerns have been filmed. Gunfights are staged daily.

Phoenix
From early Hohokam and Pima villages and an agrarian economy, Phoenix has grown into a modern, skyscraper-studded metropolis, now the sixth-largest city in the U.S.

Beginning in the mid-1800s up to World War II, agriculture (cotton, citrus) helped Phoenix grow. From 1941 on, light manufacturing and aircraft-related products have outpaced agriculture. And in recent years, high-tech industries (Motorola, Intel, Honeywell) have fueled Phoenix’s phenomenal growth. Tourism is now the area’s second-biggest revenue producer.

Here’s a brief peek at what visitors can experience:

• 29 museums, parks and gardens. You probably can’t cram all into one visit, but be sure to at least include these two: The Heard Museum of Native American Living, where an amazing display of Kachina dolls and a real Navajo hogan enthrall visitors. Last spring, we toured the Desert Botanical Gardens with friends from New York City. Their image of the desert was of vast, dry spaces and lots of sand until they saw the profusion of flowering desert plants, cacti and trees at this popular Phoenix spot.
• 14 major sports teams and events, including the Phoenix Open Golf Tournament, which attracted over 400,000 spectators this past January.
• 15 cultural venues, including the Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix Symphony, Herberger Theater Center and the Scottsdale Art Center, where we recently attended a concert by “The Chieftans,” the famous Irish folk music group.
• 16 shopping malls and dozens of specialty shops. Just bring credit cards to the Biltmore Fashion Park (plenty of restaurants for shopping breaks), Scottsdale Fashion Square, Arizona Mills, Fiesta Mall and Paradise Valley Mall.
• Over 130 restaurants, with plenty of steakhouses (Arizona is still “cowboy country”), Southwestern, Asian, Continental and, of course, Mexican fare.
• Recreational opportunities. Imagine having over 190 golf courses to choose from! That’s how many there are in Maricopa County. If golf isn’t your bag, there’s hiking, tennis, swimming, desert jeep and balloon rides, fishing and boating to keep you occupied.

Exploring Outside Phoenix

• The Grand Canyon is high on everyone’s list, as is Sedona and Red Rock Country. Shorter trips can be rewarding, too. Here are some we’ve taken and can recommend:
• Apache Trail and Superstition Mountains. This rugged road winds past Lost Dutchman State Park, Tortilla Flats, Fish Creek, Saguaro and Apache Lakes, Roosevelt Dam and Lake and Tonto National Monument. These offer good picnicking, camping and fishing. Round trip from Phoenix is four hours.
• Wickenburg, Arizona. Arizona’s dude ranch capital with western-style restaurants, horseback riding and rodeos. A one-hour drive from Phoenix.
• Montezuma’s Castle was built by Pueblo Indians in the 12th century and named by Spanish explorers who saw a resemblance to Aztec dwellings.
• Taliesen West is Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural school. School buildings are vintage Wright.

Sedona and Red Rock Country
When we first glimpsed the red rock cliffs of Sedona, we grabbed our cameras to record this awe-inspiring scene.

Continuing toward the town of Sedona, photo stops became more frequent, including Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte, Cathedral Rock, “Snoopy” Rock, Capitol Butte and a dozen other unusual and memorable formations.

For many decades, this region was quite remote; today it is only an easy two-hour drive from Phoenix.

In the early 1900s, only 20 ranching families had settled here. When T.C. Schnebly became postmaster, he named the post office after his wife, Sedona. It has stuck ever since.

Through the decades since those early years, people came to marvel at Sedona’s awesome scenery. Many stayed and built a town that now hosts nearly one million visitors yearly. Here are some of the reasons:

• Art Galleries. The red rocks have always attracted artists. In the 1960s, “The Cowboy Artists of America” was formed in Sedona. Western art is prominently displayed in many of the town’s galleries.
• Tlaquepaque Center. Patterned after an old Mexican village market, its shops feature native jewelry, high-style clothing, souvenirs, galleries and fine restaurants.
• Chapel of the Holy Cross. Its dramatic cross looms against blood-red cliffs, flanked on one side by a rock formation appropriately called the “Two Nuns.”
• Boynton Canyon. A magnet for those who come to experience “vortex power,” a spiritual force some say emanates from the ancient cliff dwellers who lived here centuries ago.
• Tuzigoot National Monument. Long-ago cultures are revealed at this prehistoric ruin and visitor center a few miles west of Sedona.
• Slide Rock State Park. The place gets its name from a series of shallow ledges in Oak Creek which form a perfect “water chute” for kids and grownups alike. The park is located about six miles north of Sedona on Hwy 89A.
• Jeep Rides into the back country canyons and cliffs are popular outdoor tours. Driver-guides deliver knowledgeable lectures on the geological formations.

Accommodations in Sedona range from B&Bs and modest motels to posh resorts complete with golf courses, tennis courts and swimming pools.

When suppertime rolls around, visitors have over 70 restaurants available, from fast food drive-ups to a French country inn right on Oak Creek, the Auberge de Sedona.

For travelers going on to the Grand Canyon, the drive from Sedona on Highway 89A winds through scenic Oak Creek Canyon with “photo ops” around every curve.