Surviving Phoenix Summer 2026

 We got back from our monthlong epic TN-AL-TX roadtrip last week, and after a lovely under-average week of 100/70 and me deciding the desert was an awesome place after all, the next week has brought us back the 110/85 days. This morning I was desperately perusing google maps and honing in on any green point in a 3 hr radius.

I just canceled our camping trip for July 10, since the prediction said high of 96 at the campsite. It seems June 10-July 20th really isn't the best time to camp, even at 7000 elevation on the Rim. The campsites aren't booked up there, which tells you its just the hard-core campers there. Maybe we shall be them one day. But it's not yet. 

OK, Hannah, no need to re-invent the wheel.

June 10 to July 20th is kinda a deadzone for camping [map June 10th to Aug 15 ]

Little Rangers need to go a'ranging...

Living in the desert means being a Dawn Ranger. Waking to stars and chasing the twilights.

Phoenix in the summer is unbearable. Unless you chase the twilights. Live in the dawn and the dusks. Hide from the sun from 8am to 6pm. This handy reference helps, showing dawn times in the year.

HOW WE ARE GOING TO DO IT:

1. Wake them up at 4:30. Adventures from 5am to 7am....it starts to look beautiful 40 min before sunrise so  from 4:40 when sunrise is technically 5:20. 
2. Kids must learn to speak in whispers and travel quietly like real rangers when around Birdwatchers and Fishermen.
3. Load up to go home by 7am  
4. Siesta/Quiet Book Time at 10-2pm
5. 7:30-9:30pm//8-10pm Family Outside Time [+ Water or cooling towels around our necks and a walk]

Dawn Adventures---Weekday

• Get the kids up at 4am. Get your pass here America the Beautiful Pass. So we need to use it at least 12 times to make it retroactively worth it! 
• If Outside after 7am---Hats, sunscreen, water-bottles!!!
• Riparion trails, at 5:30-7am
• Granite Reef Recreation area, wild horses at dawn. Go on a weekday, once a week. Aim to be there, 5-7am [look out for rattlesnakes]
• ?Pebble Beach
• ?Hidden Valley/Fat Man's pass/South Mouuntain? [no water, just desert. Only right at dawn]
• ?Sears-Kay Ruin (Hohokam)
• Check out more on Alltrails....

Day Trips with Daddy (sat morn)

• Daddy's Work Breakfast Picnic. The little gardens around ASU. 5/6/7/8am there are no students up yet on Saturdays, We have the world to ourselves. It is beautiful.
• Water Wheel Falls Park. Aim to be there from 6-10. [starts filling up at 9] So need to get up at 4am and start driving. Then come home at 9:30/10 when its getting really hot and crowded, and the UV index soars. Come home, eat, and have a siesta
• ?Canyon Lake @ 5am [ 1 hr away. Acacia Recreation Site]
• ?Lake Saguaro @ 5am [42 min away]
• ?Granite Reef @ 5am [fishers?  23 min, L202 at dawn]

Evenings in the Twilights

7-9pm you can go outside, if you are wet.... The sun is down, but it has exhausted itself in pumping its heat into the earth. Here we are constrained by Daddy having a day job. So either we frolic off without him, or we drag an exhausted man out into the heat for adventures after a long day at work.... 

• Go on walks in the evening around our neighborhood, or our park, wearing the wet cooling towels on our necks. Bring Ice-cream boxes and scooper and cones. Bring a boom-box and do English Folk Dancing on the basketball court. (If I can time to when the sprinklers go off, that would be a great time to visit the park)
• Enjoy dusk together as a family, in the backyard, in some sort of water games. 
• Riparion Preserve is open from 5:30am-10pm Bring cheerios for the ducks. Riparion Preserve at 7pm on a Friday or Saturday, and stay when its dark to look through the observation telescope. Bring water and snacks, and maybe lightsabers.
• ??Riparion Trails in the Golden Hour. Trails shut at sunset, gates lock, so this might be a little stressful.... But the Riparion Park I think stays open a bit longer. Walk to the Carl's Damaged Pet Warehouse, with carrots.
• Rose Garden at Dusk. Load up on Popsicles/Icecream bars, and go visit the Rose Garden in the dark 8-9. Make the kids walk the circuit of the little trail with you, maybe 7x
• CRAZY ONE--Go to the splashpad at Riverview at 7-10pm, bring towels, two pizzas. Have kids stick with their buddies to cut down on the chaos. Maybe you'll pick up some spanish! 
•  IKEA EVENING---Feed the kids, and head over to IKEA 6pmish for an evening of perusing the display rooms. End by buying them cookies and Mork chocolate, head home and stop at the rose garden on the way to eat the chocolate and walk the circuit a few times. 

 

 The world can still be explored with highs of 113. Go and do it!!!