Trips leaving Phoenix

Phoenix Sky Harbor is the largest airport in the Southwest and the closest one to the Grand Canyon’s South Rim from the south, at about three and a half hours by road. Sedona and the red rock country around it are roughly two hours up the same route, which is why the two are usually sold together.

The climb matters. Phoenix sits at about 1,100 feet and the South Rim at around 7,000, so a trip that leaves in shirtsleeves can arrive somewhere twenty or thirty degrees colder, with snow on the ground between December and March.

The season runs the opposite way to Utah’s: Phoenix is at its most comfortable from November to April, which is exactly when the northern parks are hardest to reach.

Phoenix is the practical base for the Sonoran desert as well as the plateau: Saguaro National Park is a couple of hours south near Tucson, and the state parks around the city are at their best in exactly the months the north is snowed in.

Summer here is not a matter of discomfort. Daytime temperatures over 110°F are normal in July and August, and any walking on those days happens at first light or not at all — which is why the trips leaving from here are timed the way they are.