Weird day trips from Phoenix
The strangest Phoenix finds are often a short drive out. These 6 day trips — Arcosanti, Carefree Sundial, Superstition Mountain Lost Dutchman Museum (with Elvis Presley Memorial Chapel) and more — are each hand-vetted and sourced: ghost towns, hot-spring soaks, roadside oddities, and odd small-town museums worth the gas. A weird day trip is its own kind of date.
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Arcosanti
Paolo Soleri's half-built utopian 'arcology' city rises out of the mesquite 70 miles north of Phoenix — poure…
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Carefree Sundial
A 62-foot copper-clad sundial with a 35-foot gnomon aimed at the North Star anchors the tiny desert town's De…
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Superstition Mountain Lost Dutchman Museum (with Elvis Presley Memorial Chapel)
A regional-history museum in the shadow of the Superstition Mountains whose best-known exhibit is the Elvis M…
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Dwarf Car Museum
Ernie Adams, the self-described 'Father of the Dwarf Car,' hand-builds fully operational 5/8-scale classic-ca…
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Critter Crawl Night Tour, Boyce Thompson Arboretum
Once the gift shop closes and the crowds leave, docents lead small flashlight-equipped groups out into the ar…
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Rock Springs Cafe
A former military bivouac and stagecoach water stop dating to the 1880s, formalized in 1918 as an adobe gener…