By Cassaundra Brooks and Alana Stroud

Note: Miles based on Deer Valley Airport as a central location.

Arizona is a great state for enjoying pleasant fall excursions. In our search for autumn outings, we turned to the four elements: water, air, earth, and fire. If the price of another precious natural resource is making trips a little harder on you and your gas-guzzler, you needn’t drive far for some quality entertainment and relaxation. But if you don’t mind the drive and the few extra bucks, try out one of the more distant destinations for a nice extended weekend.

WATER

Lake Pleasant
peoriaaz.gov/lakepF.htm
Phone: (602) 372-7460
Approximately 24 miles
Fees: One day: $6 per car; $2 per watercraft. Developed campgrounds are $20 per night.
If you’re looking for fun, beautiful Lake Pleasant Regional Park offers recreational activities such as mountain biking, camping, and hiking, as well as developed sites for RV and tent camping. Visitors can enjoy waterskiing, Jet-Skiing, boat rentals, sailing, or fishing! While there, venture over to the educational visitors’ center that overlooks the New Waddell Dam.

Blue Ridge Reservoir
fs.fed.us/r3/coconino/recreation/mog_rim/blue-ridge-boat.shtml
Phone: (928) 477-2255
Approximately 128 miles
Fees: $8 per night/campsite
For a tranquil, scenic weekend away, this narrow reservoir winds gracefully between steep, forested canyon walls and is ideal for kayaking or canoeing. Try your hand at fishing for rainbow, brown, or brook trout—all are stocked by the Arizona Game and Fish Department. The picturesque backdrop also provides ample opportunity for sightseeing, wildlife watching, hiking, and mountain biking.

Note to the physically impaired: The shoreline is very steep with large boulders. Plan to enjoy the reservoir on the water.

AIR

Turf Soaring School
turfsoaring.com/default.htm
Phone: (602) 439-3621
Approximately 16.5 miles
Fees: Scenic rides $109–$169; Sailplane rental $39–$59/hr.
Take your mundane day to new heights at Turf Soaring School. Your pilot will not only demonstrate basic flying techniques and draw your attention to points of interest, but will also hand the controls over to you so you can “taste the very personal freedom of flight,” as the Web site poetically states. When you’ve returned to solid ground, your flight will be entered into an official pilot’s logbook that you may take home as a souvenir.

Grand Canyon Helicopter Tours
Phone: (888) 708-4706
Approximately 205 miles
Fees: $215.50 per adult and child for 50 minutes
Board a helicopter at the South Rim heliport and settle in for a narrated tour in the skies. Fly over the North Rim and Eastern Gorge and soar past the Dragon Corridor and Dragon’s Head. Check out the Kaibab Forest and the Kaibab Plateau as well as Zuni Corridor, where the Little Colorado River meets the Colorado River, Point Imperial, and Temple Butte.

EARTH

Arrowhead Desert Tours: Gold Panning
azdeserttours.com/gold.htm
Phone: (602) 942-3361
Approximately 23 miles
Fees: $89/adult, $69/child
Gold never goes out of style! Try to strike it rich as experienced prospectors teach you how to prospect for gold on Paydirt’s mile-long gold claim. You will be provided with equipment, and your guide will show you both where to look and how to sluice the pan for gold and garnets. Enjoy the four-wheel drive through wonderful desert areas in Arizona’s backcountry along the way.

Old Pueblo Archaeology Center
oldpueblo.org
Phone: (520) 798-1201
Approximately 124 miles
Fees: Field trip prices vary
Return visitors are not uncommon at Old Pueblo’s Archaeology Center. The guided tours of ongoing excavations of ancient cultural features bring out the curiosity of children and adults alike to see the progress being made and the new archaeological discoveries that continually surface. Tours typically last one to two hours.

FIRE

Hot Air Expeditions
hotairexpeditions.com/index.html
Phone: (480) 502-6999
Approximately 0 miles
Fees: $175 per person; $195 per person with hotel pickup; $8 fuel surcharge per person
The romantic individual and the adventure seeker will both appreciate the exhilaration and serenity of ballooning. At speeds of five or six miles per hour, you can hardly detect any motion as you fly with the wind. To commemorate your experience, you will be inducted into the ballooning society and awarded the Certificate d’Ascension en Machine Aerostatique.

Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting
hallofflame.org
Phone: (602) 275-3473
Approximately 27 miles
Fees: Adults, $6; senior citizens 62 and up, $5; students 6 to 17, $4; children 3 to 5, $1.50; members and children under 3, free
Honor the history of firefighting at the Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting and the National Firefighting Hall of Heroes. Over 90 restored pieces of fire apparatus dating from 1725 to 1969 and brought in from across America, as well as England, France, Austria, Germany, and Japan, are on display.