Kids Korner

Visit Arizona! Welcome to the state where you can see the largest hole in the world (the Grand Canyon), learn all about the first Americans, see giant red rocks (Sedona), get pro baseball players’ autographs (during Spring Training), play in some awesome swimming pools (Phoenix and Scottsdale hotels), and pose next to a Cactus taller than a lot of trees. Visit the special Kid Zone on the Arizona website at www.arizonaguide.com.

Did You Know?

• The Grand Canyon is as deep as some mountains are tall – more than a mile deep and 277 miles long! Water created it – the Colorado River as well as rain and snowmelt. There are all different colors in the rock – red, pink, and yellow. Some people like to hike down and back up. Others take mules or raft on the Colorado River. Many just stand at the top and look down. The Anasazi were the Canyon’s first settlers more than 800 years ago. Today, the Havasupai Indian Reservation is so deep in the western Grand Canyon that it’s 160 miles to the closest grocery store, and it is the only place in the country where mail is delivered by packhorse. It’s also home to spectacular waterfalls. Visit www.nps.gov/grca/ to decide what you want to do when you visit.

• You can stand in four states at one time – New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah – at Four Corners Monument on the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona.

• The planet Pluto was discovered in 1930 at Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory, and astronomers still study the planets and the stars here. You might be able to peer through a giant telescope, too, if you visit. (www.lowell.edu)

• There are 21 different Native American tribal communities in Arizona, including the Hopi, Apache, and Navajo. You can learn all about them at the Heard Museum in Phoenix where there’s a great exhibit called “We Are! Arizona's First People” (www.heard.org) and another area where you can walk through a pueblo or build your own mini teepee. You might also meet Native American artists showing you bead working, weaving, and carving. From January to mid-April you can also go to a free Native American dance performance at the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall in downtown Scottsdale and try Indian Fry Bread. Check the schedule at www.CultureQuestScottsdale.com.

• Lake Powell is 186 miles long and has more miles of shoreline than the entire Pacific Coast! It’s a lot of fun to rent a houseboat with your family on Lake Powell. During the holidays, people put Christmas lights on their boats. Lake Powell is named for Major John Wesley Powell, who led the first river expedition through the Grand Canyon. Lake Powell is upriver from the Grand Canyon, behind the Glen Canyon Dam. (www.lakepowell.com)

• Some Saguaro Cactus grow to be 50 feet tall and weigh seven tons – as much as several cars! But they’re a lot more than big plants. They’re condos for animals, The Gila woodpeckers and doves and screech owls peck apartments inside and they stay safe from the desert heat and night cold. A Saguaro can survive for up to two years without water! You’ll only find Saguaro Cactus in the Sonora Desert in the Southwest. You can see them by driving or hiking or taking an off-road tour. You could learn about Saguaro and many other plants and animals which live in the desert at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson. (www.desertmuseum.org)

• Twelve baseball teams, including the World Champion Chicago White Sox, hold spring training in Arizona during March. It’s much easier to get players’ autographs at spring training games than at any other time. You can probably watch your favorite players several times! (www.cactusleagueinfo.com)

• Tiny hummingbirds – some aren’t even three inches long – can race through the air at 30 miles an hour. They also can fly backwards. Arizona is called the Hummingbird Capital of the U.S. because there are more species here than any other state. In late April and early May, tens of thousands make their way north.

• Sedona has seven so-called vortexes, or psychic-energy points. You’ll see altars or medicine wheels made of rocks there. You’ll see weird-shaped sandstone mesas and canyons. Check out the rocks. They really look red and seem to turn different colors when the light changes. (www.visitsedona.com)

• Slide Rock State Park, half way between Sedona and Flagstaff, is like a natural water park. You slide downstream on a natural water chute! (www.azparks.gov)

What Other Kids Say You Should Do While In Arizona . . .

Meet: Kaelyn Mahar (age 12) and her brother, Mitchell Mahar (age 9). They live in Chandler, a Phoenix suburb, and are the children of Southwest’s Phoenix Reservation Center Team Leader, April Mahar. They say: There are lots of fun things to do outside in Arizona, such as boating at Bartlett Lake in the summer, swimming, riding bikes, and hiking at Camelback Mountain (difficult for beginners), South Mountain, and Piestewa Peak. If you’re here during baseball season, go see the Diamondbacks play. (www.diamondbacks.com) Don’t Miss: The Grand Canyon. The first person to go through the canyon on the Colorado River was John Wesley Powell. He named it the Grand Canyon because he couldn’t think of any other words to describe it (we agree!). If you are here around the Christmas holidays, go see Zoolights at the Phoenix Zoo. (www.phoenixzoo.org) Don’t Go Home without this Souvenir: A rattlesnake tail . . . just kidding! Hopefully you won’t get that close! Other great souvenirs are a miniature cactus garden, a suntan, and lots of great photos. Best Place to Eat: 5 and Diner (there are five in Phoenix - www.azeats.com/5anddiner/). It’s a great place for the whole family and they have the BEST milkshakes! Best Places to Visit Outside of Phoenix: The many lakes that are all within a short drive from Phoenix, Sedona, and Slide Rock State Park. If you really want to be adventurous, hike to the Havasupai campgrounds at the bottom of the canyon where there are great waterfalls! In the winter you can snow ski or just play in the snow in Flagstaff. (www.ArizonaGuide.com for cool family adventures)

Kids, Tell Your Parents . . .

There are great hotels around Phoenix and Arizona, no matter what your budget. You’ll find gargantuan spas and pools, golf courses, and plenty of activities for every age group, even “dive-in movies.” Arizona is also a good state to sample a dude ranch. Check the website for the Arizona Dude Ranch Association at www.azdra.com. Kids especially like for pools and kids’ activities:

• The Pointe Hilton at Squaw Peak (www.pointehilton.com) with a four-acre water park and Coyote Club
• The Hyatt Regency Scottsdale (www.hyatt.com) where kids can learn Native American Dances – there’s a Native American Learning Center – and play in a two-acre plus water park
• The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess (www.fairmont.com) with a special teen hang out
• The Phoenician (www.thephoenician.com) where the kids’ clubhouse has its own arts and crafts studio
• Starr Pass Resort in Tucson, the first new Tucson resort in years (www.jwmarriottstarrpass.com)
• The Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort with its big equestrian center, HuHuGam Heritage Center, and a 2.5-mile “river” through the property (www.wildpassresort.com)

You’ll also find many suite hotels. Visit www.visitPhoenix.com, www.ExperienceScottsdale.com (where you can book online), www.visittuscon.org, or www.arizonaguide.com for more ideas, including condo rentals, RV parks, and campgrounds. Ask when you book when the rates drop. Often, if you shift your dates slightly, you can save big bucks.

Instead of driving to the Grand Canyon, you can take the Grand Canyon Railway and stay overnight. Over the holidays, take the Polar Express to visit Santa. (www.thetrain.com)

Kids also love Rawhide, an authentic 1880s western town in Chandler on the Gila River Indian Community, complete with “shoot outs.” (www.rawhide.com)

When the kids get tired of being in the pool, there are also a lot of great museums and zoos:

• The Phoenix Zoo (www.phoenixzoo.org)
• Mesa Southwest Museum, the largest display of dinosaur fossils in the state (www.mesasouthwestmuseum.com)
• The Desert Botanical Garden with the largest collection of desert plants in a natural setting and a fun scavenger hunt to identify them (www.dbg.org)
• The Heard Museum is terrific to explore the culture of Southwestern Native Americans (www.heard.org). There also is the Heard Museum North.
• The Shemer Art Center at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art has art classes and story times. (www.scttsdalearts.org)
• The Arizona Science Center with a planetarium (www.azscience.org)
• Pioneer Living History Museum (www.pioneerarizonavillage.com), where you visit an old 1800s western village
• The Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson (www.desertmuseum.org)
• The Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson with a huge collection of historic planes (www.pimaair.org)

See Past Editions of Kids Korner.

By: Eileen Ogintz, Author of Taking the Kids™