Tempe has plenty of opportunities for outdoor fun, including 48 city parks. These include neighborhood and mountain parks with the usual amenities like soccer fields and playgrounds as well as special amenities like dog parks (Tempe has 5), mountain biking trails, and several urban lakes for fishing.Papago Park is located north of Tempe Lake between Mill and Rural, stretching north to the Phoenix Zoo. It's a place to mountain bike and hike among the rocky hills and buttes, and you might even see big horn sheep standing on an isolated boulder on the zoo grounds. But one of the amenities that I think is just great is the nearby, long-standing Papago Stables. Papago Stables is family owned and operated - one of the oldest riding stables in the Valley (as we refer to the Phoenix metro area). Bill and Samantha Scott opened the stable in 1965 at its Tempe location to the south of Papago Buttes. Not many businesses can boast such a long history, but with all the new development happening throughout Tempe and to the east and west of this very rural looking stable, I hope it persists. The hay, stalls, horse smells, smiling trail riders, and outdoor riding pen give character to the otherwise perfectly manicured boat marina to the west and fancy lakeside condos to the east. What a treat to have the option of trail riding in the middle of our big little city!
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