 | FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2026 Week of October 5, with a look ahead through the end of October. Fourteen things this week, each with a link you can tap. Four of them close registration before the event happens, so those come first. | | | ✓ | No link, no mention. Every price, date and address was checked against the venue's own page on Friday, October 2. If it could not be verified, it is not here. |
| | |  | | | REGISTER BY OCT 8 WADDELL Saguaros in Sunset at White Tank A ranger walks about two miles of the Waterfall Trail as the light goes, covering how saguaros actually live and why keeping wildlife habitat inside a growing city matters. The first half mile is paved, which makes this the most forgiving hike on the page. Bring a flashlight or a blacklight and the back half turns into a hunt for whatever comes out after dark. Registration closes Thursday Oct 8. The hike is Saturday Oct 10, 5:30 to 7 p.m. No program fee. Park entry is $10 per vehicle. Limit 30. Register by phone at 602-506-2930 ext. 5 with your name, phone number and how many are coming. Meet at the Waterfall Trailhead, which is another 5 to 10 minutes of driving past the entry station. Waddell. | | | REGISTER BY OCT 10 GOODYEAR Life Along the Gila at Estrella Mountain Two hours on the river with a ranger covering the Hohokam, the thousand years they farmed this valley, and the wildlife that has come back to the restored stretch of the Gila. It is the best Arizona history item of the month and it costs a tank of gas. The trail is the catch: two miles rated moderately difficult over loose rock, deep sand and large rocks. Registration closes Saturday Oct 10. The hike is Monday Oct 12, 8 to 10 a.m. No program fee. Park entry is $10 per vehicle. Limit 20. Call 602-506-2930 ext. 6 with your name, phone number and how many are coming. Meet at the Nature Center. Goodyear. | | | REGISTER BY OCT 22 MORRISTOWN Introduction to Archery at Lake Pleasant A certified Basic Archery Instructor teaches International Style Target Archery from the safety rules up: stance, form, aim, then target games against the other students. Ten spots, ages 10 and up because you need the shoulder strength to draw the bow, and it is the only real skill class on this list. Registration is email only and it goes to two rangers, not one. Registration closes Thursday Oct 22. The class is Saturday Oct 24, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. No program fee. Park entry is $10 per vehicle. Ages 10 and up. Limit 10. Email both Douglas.Robertson@maricopa.gov and jacqueline.vallejos@maricopa.gov with your name, phone number and how many are coming. Closed-toe shoes and a long sleeved shirt. Arrive 30 minutes early, because late arrivals may not be allowed to shoot. Morristown. | | | REGISTER BY OCT 20 QUEEN CREEK Creepy Crawly Critters night hike at San Tan Two hours after dark with a ranger looking for spiders, scorpions and snakes, which under a blacklight is the best desert science moment you can hand a kid this age. Flashlights and closed-toe shoes are required, not suggested. Ten spots total, so this is a Monday morning phone call. Registration closes Tuesday Oct 20. The hike is Thursday Oct 22, 7 to 9 p.m. No program fee. Park entry is $10 per vehicle. Limit 10. Call 602-506-2930 ext. 7 with your name, phone number and how many are coming. Bring flashlights, closed-toe shoes and water bottles. The ranger brings at least one blacklight for the group. Queen Creek. | | |  | | Dated items only. The county park programs charge nothing on top of the gate fee, and the gate fee is on every card. | | | SAT OCT 17 · PHOENIX $38 FOR FOUR International Archaeology Day at S'edav Va'aki The only publicly accessible ancestral village site inside the city, and one Saturday a year it fills up with people demonstrating how the work was actually done. The city archaeologist leads a morning tour of the Park of Four Waters, where the Hohokam canals are still in the ground. Then there is an atlatl range, which means your kids get to throw a spear with a piece of engineering older than the canals. WHEN Saturday Oct 17
Museum activities, ancient skills demonstrations and the atlatl range, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Guided tour of the Park of Four Waters, 9:30 to 11 a.m. COST Regular museum admission. $13 an adult, $6 for children 6 to 17, $6 with a student ID, free under 6, so a family of four pays $38. Admission is paid at the museum and is not sold online. WHERE 4619 E Washington St, Phoenix, on the southeast corner of 44th St and Washington SIGNING UP Nothing needed for the museum or the activity stations. The guided tour is separate, space is limited, and the museum asks you to register in advance through the museum foundation. AGES All ages welcome. The demonstrations and the atlatl range are what hold an upper elementary kid, not the display cases. ALSO WORTH KNOWING The museum is closed Tuesday and Wednesday the rest of the year. The outdoor mound trail is two thirds of a mile and closes at 4 p.m. Thursday evenings from 4 to 8 are discounted, though the city does not print the discounted price. | | | FRI OCT 16 · WICKENBURG $5 A PERSON Two programs at Hassayampa on one drive The drive to Wickenburg is the only real objection to this place, so make it once and get two programs out of it. A drop-in session at 2:30 explains the county's 100 Miles in 100 Days challenge, which starts Nov 1 and turns a winter of hiking into something your kids can log and finish. At 5:30 a ranger takes twelve people up to Lykes Lookout with a telescope for planets, galaxies, star clusters and the stories behind the constellations. WHEN Friday Oct 16
Discovery Station, 100 Miles in 100 Days, 2:30 to 4 p.m., drop in
Stargazing, 5:30 to 8 p.m., registration required COST Hassayampa is a conservation area, so entry is $5 a person and children under 12 are free. Neither program charges anything on top. WHERE Hassayampa River Preserve, 49614 U.S. Hwy. 60, Wickenburg SIGNING UP The Discovery Station needs nothing, just turn up at the Visitor Center. Stargazing is limited to 12 people and registration closes Oct 14. Call 602-506-2930 ext. 9 with your name, phone number and how many are coming. AGES Family friendly with no age limit stated. Read the hike note before you commit to the evening. WHAT TO BRING Plenty of water, and headlamps rather than handheld flashlights. The stargazing spot is roughly a mile each way up a short, steep, rocky trail, and you walk it back in the dark. No pets. | | | THU OCT 22 · FOUNTAIN HILLS $10 A CARLOAD Ethnobotany hike at McDowell Mountain Ranger Jacque walks the Wagner Trail naming the Sonoran Desert plants people have eaten and used as medicine for centuries. It is a 2.2 mile loop rated easy, so the work is in the listening rather than the climbing. This is the one your kids repeat back to you for weeks, usually while pointing at something in a parking lot. WHEN Thursday Oct 22
4:30 to 6:30 p.m. COST The program is free. Park entry is $10 per vehicle, or $120 for an annual pass good at every county park. WHERE McDowell Mountain Regional Park, 16300 McDowell Mountain Park Dr, Fountain Hills. Meet at the Wagner Trailhead. SIGNING UP Registration required, limit 25, and it closes Oct 20. Call 602-506-2930 ext. 3 with your name, phone number and how many are coming. AGES No age is given. The trail is gravelly with 124 feet of elevation change and rated easy, which upper elementary handles without complaint. WHAT TO BRING Sturdy closed-toe shoes, water, sunscreen and a hat. Arrive 15 minutes early to self pay and use the campground restroom. | | | FRI OCT 23 · GOODYEAR $10 A CARLOAD Pollinator garden walk at Estrella Mountain One hour, half a mile, flat gravel and sidewalk, and no phone call to make. Ranger Nikki walks the pollinator garden pointing out ocotillo, globemallow, desert willow, penstemon and the native milkweed the monarchs need, with hummingbirds, beetles and sulfur butterflies to spot along the way. A 6th grader may find it light. It is still the easiest yes on this page. WHEN Friday Oct 23
10:30 to 11:30 a.m. COST The program is free. Park entry is $10 per vehicle. WHERE Estrella Mountain Regional Park, 14805 W Vineyard Ave, Goodyear. Meet at the Area 1 and 2 Ramadas at the garden entrance. SIGNING UP None at all. No registration required, which makes this the backup plan when a capped program fills before you call. AGES No age stated. Short and flat, so it works for a group with a spread of ages. ALSO WORTH KNOWING Restrooms and water are at the Nature Center on the way to the meeting spot. No pets, so the garden wildlife stays where it is. | | |  | | No date attached. These rotate week to week so you are not reading the same three forever. | | | ANY WEEKDAY · TEMPE FREE Touch a real meteorite at ASU A university research gallery almost nobody outside ASU knows is open to the public, holding the Carleton B Moore collection. The reason to go is the sign that says touch real meteorites, because they mean it. It is one gallery plus corridor cases, so this is a focused 45 minutes rather than a morning, and it slots into anything you are doing on the solar system. WHEN Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., excluding ASU holidays. The page does not list which days those are, so call before you drive. COST Free, always. No ticket. Parking is the only cost: ASU's Tempe garages are $4 for an hour, $8 for two and $16 at the daily maximum, so the light rail is how you make the whole trip cost nothing. WHERE Second floor of the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4, 781 E Terrace Rd, Tempe. The building is not obvious from the street, so pull up the campus map before you park. SIGNING UP Nothing for a self guided visit, just walk in during gallery hours. Guided tours go through the School of Earth and Space Exploration at 480-727-6625. AGES Strong for upper elementary and middle school. Younger kids will need an adult reading the panels with them. | | | BIGGEST MONEY SAVER TUE TO SUN · CHANDLER FREE Chandler Museum Free admission, free parking on site, and no separate ticket for the traveling exhibits, which is rarer than it sounds for a museum running shows this good. The Mask of Lincoln is up through December and works through ten famous portraits and how Lincoln used brand new photography to build his own image. That is a history lesson and a media literacy lesson standing in the same room. WHEN Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday 1 to 5 p.m.
Closed Monday COST Free. No admission charge, no separate exhibit ticket, and free surface parking on the library campus it shares. WHERE 300 S Chandler Village Dr, Chandler SIGNING UP Not needed. Walk in. AGES Better for upper elementary and middle school than for little ones. There is no hands-on kids gallery, so it is a reading and looking museum, which is exactly why it works for older kids. ALSO WORTH KNOWING On now: The Mask of Lincoln, July 7 through December 2026, and Being Eddie Basha, March 2026 through summer 2027. The Office of Collecting and Design, a traveling museum of the small and the misplaced, is only in the building Oct 7 through 11. | | | MON TO FRI · DOWNTOWN PHOENIX FREE Phoenix Police Museum A small free museum on the ground floor of the 1929 Historic City Hall, covering 144 years of Phoenix law enforcement in photographs, equipment and stories from 1881 forward. It is a real artifact museum about how investigation worked before computers, which lands better with a 5th or 6th grader than with a little kid. Parts of it are sober, including the line of duty memorial. WHEN Monday through Friday. Doors open at 9 a.m. and last entry is 2:30 p.m., so plan to arrive by 1. Closed Saturday, Sunday and all City of Phoenix holidays. COST No entrance fee. Donations accepted, not expected. WHERE 17 S 2nd Ave, Historic City Hall, first floor, Phoenix SIGNING UP Nothing for a family. Groups of more than 10 must schedule online and pay a $25 non-refundable scheduling fee, so keeping a co-op outing at 10 or fewer is what keeps this genuinely free. ALSO WORTH KNOWING There is no public parking at the museum. Use the city garage at 305 W Washington St and ask at the desk for the 50 percent parking discount coupon. | | |  | | A field trip rate that beats walking in by half, a working dairy, and 90 acres of territorial Arizona that just flipped to winter hours. | | | BEST STANDING DEAL ANY DAY, ALL YEAR · NORTH PHOENIX $8 A STUDENT Musical Instrument Museum field trip rate Eight dollars a student, and chaperones inside the ratio get in at no extra cost, which is the biggest dollar swing in this issue. Asked on their own page whether homeschool educators can book, the museum answers absolutely and points you at the same request form the schools use. Walking in off the street instead is $68 for a family of four. The only real cost here is planning 15 days ahead. WHEN Field trips run year round, seven days a week. Most groups arrive between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m., and start times and tour length can be tailored. The museum itself is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. COST $8 per student. One chaperone for every five elementary students, or one for every 10 middle and high school students, is admitted at no additional cost. The Drum and Dance Workshop is $2 more per student. Regular walk-in admission is $24 an adult, $15 for teens 13 to 19 and $10 for children 4 to 12, which is $68 for a family of four. WHERE 4725 E Mayo Blvd, Phoenix SIGNING UP Submit the Field Trip Request Form at least 15 days ahead. No minimum group size is printed anywhere on the page. Guided trips take up to roughly 180 students. Questions go to grouptours@MIM.org or 480-245-6919. AGES Pre-K through 12th grade. The geography galleries and the audio guide reward a kid who can follow a thread, so this is one of the few paid options that does not skew young. ALSO WORTH KNOWING The Experience Gallery is where they actually play things: a gong, a theremin, a drum kit, a harp. Add the $2 drum workshop and every kid gets an instrument and an instructor. | | | MON TO SUN · MESA $13.50 A PERSON Superstition Farm, the Arizona five C's tour Two and a half to three hours on a working dairy built around Arizona's five C's, and at every stop they make or handle something. They groom the rescue animals, pull seeds out of raw cotton and bag them to germinate, squeeze citrus into their own lemonade, and hammer out a copper bracelet to keep. Fresh milk and ice cream are in the price. The activities skew a little young, so aim an older kid's questions at the milking parlor and at how a dairy actually makes money. WHEN Tours run about two and a half to three hours and you pick a start time on the booking form. Farm hours are Monday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with Tuesday open until 8. COST $13.50 a person, every age. All tours need a non-refundable 50 percent deposit or a purchase order to hold the date, so a 10 person booking commits you to $67.50 you cannot get back. Tell them at least 48 hours ahead if your headcount changes. WHERE 3440 S Hawes Rd, Mesa. Exit the Loop 202 at Elliot, head west, first right onto Hawes. SIGNING UP Book through the tour form on their page. The farm asks school groups and groups of 10 or more to use it, so treat this as a co-op outing rather than a drop-in. AGES No age limit stated. The making-things stations land squarely in the early grades and still work for upper elementary. Two middle schoolers on their own would find parts of it young. ALSO WORTH KNOWING You do not have to commit to the tour to see the place. The petting zoo is $4 a head with no appointment, any day during farm hours, and free during Taco Tuesday from 5 to 8 p.m. That is a $16 test drive for a family of four. | | | WED TO SUN, OCTOBER TO MID MAY · NORTH PHOENIX $44 FOR FOUR Pioneer Living History Museum Ninety acres and twenty historic 19th century buildings covering territorial Arizona from 1863 to 1912: blacksmith shop, carpenter shop, print shop, bank, sheriff's office, schoolhouse, opera house, and a Telephone History Museum nobody expects that middle schoolers find oddly absorbing. Winter hours opened on Oct 1, which matters more than it sounds, because from May 15 the place is only open from 7 to 11 in the morning. This is the best month of the year to go. WHEN Oct 1 through May 14, Wednesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
May 15 through Sept 30, Wednesday through Sunday, 7 to 11 a.m.
Closed Monday and Tuesday all year COST $12 an adult, $10 for children 5 to 16, $8 for seniors, veterans and public safety, free under 5, so $44 for a family of four. Admission includes the Telephone History Museum. WHERE 3901 W Pioneer Rd, Phoenix, off the I-17 near Anthem SIGNING UP Nothing for a family, walk in during open hours. Field trips use the request form on the teacher resources page, which prints no minimum and recommends one chaperone for every five students. AGES Territorial Arizona is squarely a 4th through 8th grade topic, which is what makes the drive worth it. Go without a question list in hand and it turns into a self guided walk past plaques. ALSO WORTH KNOWING The Guns of Pioneer do a pre-show at 10:45 and the Western show at 11, Wednesday through Friday, but the page warns the gunfights depend on volunteer availability and class size. The booked field trip rate is $10 flat for students, teachers and chaperones alike, or $5 for a Title 1 school, so a small group saves almost nothing by calling it a field trip. | | | Ten is still the number, and this week one of them does not ask for a number at all Superstition Farm asks school groups and groups of 10 or more to book the five C's tour, and the deposit on it is half the bill and non-refundable, so collect commitments before you reserve. The Musical Instrument Museum prints no minimum at all and lets chaperones in free within ratio, which is unusual enough to take advantage of. Pioneer prints no minimum either, but its group rate charges adults the same $10 as students, so a small group saves nothing by booking as a field trip. Joining one group fixes most of this at once. |  |
| | |  | | | 1 | Call White Tank before Thursday. Saguaros in Sunset is Saturday Oct 10 at 5:30, the trail starts paved, and registration closes Oct 8. Phone only, 602-506-2930 ext. 5, limit 30. |
| | | 2 | Email both Lake Pleasant rangers about archery. Ten spots, ages 10 and up, Saturday Oct 24 at 10 a.m., registration closes Oct 22. Email Douglas.Robertson@maricopa.gov and jacqueline.vallejos@maricopa.gov together, not one or the other. |
| | | 3 | Book the Musical Instrument Museum field trip rate. Eight dollars a student with chaperones free inside the ratio, seven days a week, all year, and no minimum printed. Walking in instead costs $68 for a family of four. They need the form 15 days ahead. |
| | | Know a family who would use this? It is free, and it is meant to be passed around. Forward this email, drop the link in your homeschool Facebook group or co-op chat, or text it to a few families. THE LINK COPY AND PASTE THIS Free Friday email for Phoenix-area parents, homeschool or not: free days, field trips and things to do with your kids around the Valley, every one checked that morning. carpoolingwithjesus.com/homeschool |
| | | FROM THE SAME FAMILY Five minutes, on the drive to co-op. Carpooling with Jesus is a free kids Bible podcast built for the drive you are already making. No ads aimed at kids, ever.  Carpooling with Jesus EVERY SCHOOL MORNING One verse and one real kid situation, in five minutes. |  Goodnight Psalms BEDTIME One Psalm a night to wind kids down. |  Heroes of the Bible FIVE-PART SERIES One Bible character at a time. |
On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you already listen. | | | This list is free because Carpooling with Jesus Ministries, a 501(c)(3), keeps it that way. Support it. |
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