Silent Sunday

There's nothing like being in a public place without the public. We've achieved this higher state of being twice, and we're not about to tell you where or how. Find your own deserted public crib to crash. As an example, take the Phoenix Zoo, a facility that's difficult to navigate under the most optimal conditions. You've got your crushing hordes of humanity on the hoof, baby strollers stretching to the horizon, and roving gangs of wild-eyed dipsticks screeching like howler monkeys. Grrr. But what if you could have the zoo all to yourself? Just you and the beasts, and to hell with the dipsticks? That's the premise of Silent Sunday, an alt-transportation-awareness event in which the Central Avenue entrance to South Mountain Park and Preserve is closed to Sunday drivers and other bothersome vehicular traffic. Wanna breathe some actual, real fresh air? Bike the curvaceous access road to the top of the range -- or zoom down all devil-may-care -- without the threat of being squashed or run off a cliff? Walk down the center stripe of a stretch of asphalt -- just 'cause you can? Whatever. It's your crib, man. Crash it.
Sun., Nov. 23, 5 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sun., Dec. 28, 5 a.m.-11 p.m., 2008