Phoenix, Arizona, is a good city to visit if you’re looking for some challenging outdoor activities. Open deserts meet dry forests and tall mountains when you’re in central Arizona, so the only real challenge is finding the perfect outdoor sport or the right mountain to explore. All you have to do is head out of town, and you’ll have no trouble finding all kinds of exciting things to do.
Skydiving
Those desert plains make it easy to set down a short airstrip, so the Phoenix area has several companies that offer skydiving for anyone who’s interested in jumping out of a plane in midair. Places like Skydive Arizona can set you up with a tandem jump if you’re just starting out, full skydiving lessons, special events and challenges for experienced skydivers, and an indoor wind tunnel where you can work on your techniques or just have some fun with friends on your birthday.
Extreme Tours
Something else that’s easy to find in Phoenix is wilderness touring companies. These companies take you out in an off-road or all-terrain vehicle and travel down trails far away from the nearest pavement so you can see a side of Arizona’s wilderness you can’t see from a highway. Companies like Desert Wolf Tours put you behind the wheel of your own vehicle so you can have an exhilarating off-road driving experience without having to buy or maintain your own ATV. You can even go out at sunset and look for scorpions and other desert animals in the dark.
Off Roading
If you do own your own off-road vehicle, whether it’s a truck, an SUV, an ATV, or a dirt bike, then your options in Arizona really open up. There are plenty of established off-road trails to the north and east of Phoenix, and different trails can be easy, moderate, or difficult to navigate. If your vehicle of choice is an ATV or a dirt bike, you can also take it out to the many motocross tracks in the area that are often open for amateurs and practicing experts when there isn’t a race going on.
Mountain Hiking
You don’t have to travel far to find a mountain you can climb. In fact, Phoenix has one right inside the city limits. Piestewa Peak rises 2,608 feet up from the residential neighborhoods down on the plains below, and foot trails crisscross the mountain along with the rest of the peaks in the Phoenix Mountains Preserve. The Piestewa Peak Park sits between Piestewa and its neighbor to the southeast, and it’s a good place to start your expedition no matter which direction you decide to go in.
If you want to have an exciting time in the great outdoors, Phoenix, Arizona, is the perfect city to start from. With blue desert skies to parachute through, vast deserts and tall mountains to explore, and plenty of places for off-road drivers to blaze trails or test their skills, Phoenix is just the city to start from for any adrenaline junkie.
“Jeep Crossing Upper Salt River” via Flickr by squeaks2569. Used with permission via CC BY-SA 2.0 / cropped from original
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