Phoenix Must-Do: The Hole in the Rock at Sunset

One of the most popular tourist attractions in Phoenix is Papago Park. It's the home of the Desert Botanical Garden, the Phoenix Zoo, Hunt's Tomb, the very popular Hole in the Rock, and much more. I learned about the Hole in the Rock from a quick google search of things to do in Phoenix, and now having been, I can definitely recommend that it was a great experience.

The Hole in the Rock is just that - a giant hole in a small geological formation made of the red sandstone famous to the region. The giant hole is really easy to get to, despite its appearance. There is a simple path up from the parking lot and then a winding set of stairs that circles around the back of the rock. All in all, it's hardly a quarter of a mile from the parking lot (although you might end up walking longer if you don't arrive early and get a good parking spot). Once you get to the entrance, there is a small staircase down into the hole and a few different levels that make for decent seating options.

The view from the Hole in the Rock is gorgeous, and the window through the rock makes for a nice frame to your photos. This is a popular spot all day long, especially as there are other hiking trails nearby that you may want to explore, but in my opinion, it's even better to go at sunset. Not only does the Hole in the Rock face west, but it also faces downtown Phoenix. It's the perfect place to get great photos of the sunset behind the Phoenix skyline. You can watch the sun go down behind the mountains and, in the meantime, see it glinting off the skyscrapers downtown.

When you visit, make sure to bring something to do as it obviously does take a while for the sun to set, especially considering that you will want to be early in order to find parking. It's best to arrive at least thirty minutes before the sun is going to set, which you can easily look up in your phone's weather app. You can arrive even earlier and hike around a bit, but I don't recommend getting to the Hole in the Rock too late. This is both to get a decent parking spot but also to get a decent seat in the hole. It got pretty crowded, and you may end up standing or sitting outside the hole if you arrive too late. I took a short video of our time there, and you can see there are quite a lot of people sitting and watching what turned out to be a pretty gorgeous sunset.

You will also want to stay a bit after the sun dips down below the mountains! There is still a good amount of color to see in the sky, depending on the clouds of course. We headed down a bit early because we didn't want to have to hike back down in the dark, and we were hungry, but I regretted it a little when we saw how nice the sunset still looked. Some of the best color came after the sun itself was out of view, so consider bringing a flashlight (or using the one on your phone) so you can hike back safely after the sun has definitely for sure set.

This was a great experience. It's totally free, easy to get to, and there's so much else to see in Papago Park. I definitely recommend planning an hour around sunset to enjoy this popular Phoenix spot.