Hidden Gems Near ASU Campus That Most Students Miss

The Places Most Students Find in Their Last Semester

Every graduating ASU student has a list of things they wish they'd found earlier. The restaurant they didn't discover until senior year. The trail they walked once and wished they'd been doing all along. The coffee shop that would have been perfect for studying all those times they settled for the library.

Here are the places worth finding in your first semester instead of your last.

The Rio Salado Pathway

Most students know about Tempe Town Lake but don't realize the paved pathway along the Salt River extends well beyond it. The Rio Salado Pathway runs from Tempe all the way to downtown Phoenix on the north bank — about 9 miles of flat, car-free paved path. It's one of the best urban cycling and running routes in the Valley and the vast majority of ASU students have never touched it.

Access it from the south side of Tempe Town Lake (take Mill Avenue south, cross the pedestrian bridge, follow the signs west). The path is open and well-maintained. Early morning in the cool months, it's genuinely beautiful. You can bike to Chase Field from ASU on this path without touching a major road.

Papago Park

Papago Park is in Tempe/Phoenix — about 5 miles north of campus — and most students have heard of it but few actually go there regularly. It's worth going:

• Free to enter, open to the public
• The red sandstone buttes and rock formations are legitimately striking — it looks like somewhere in southern Utah
• Hole-in-the-Rock is a short hike (10 minutes) with views across the Valley
• The Phoenix Zoo and Desert Botanical Garden are inside the park boundaries
• Paths for running, cycling, and hiking

Get there by bike on a cool Saturday morning. It's not far and the route through Tempe is mostly flat.

House of Tricks Restaurant

This one gets mentioned in guides but most students still don't go. House of Tricks is on 1st Street just off Mill — literally a 10-minute walk from campus — and it has one of the best outdoor dining patios in Tempe. It's in an old bungalow with a garden patio that somehow feels like it's not in the middle of a college town.

Prices are higher than the casual student norm but not outrageously so. Worth going for a birthday dinner or when someone visiting wants somewhere memorable. Most students find it three weeks before graduation.

The Gammage Auditorium Interior

Everyone walks past Gammage. Almost nobody goes inside except for ticketed events. But Gammage does free tours and the interior — designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built posthumously — is genuinely stunning. The spiral ramps, the circular design, the acoustics. It's an architectural landmark that you're walking past every time you're in that part of campus.

At minimum, go see a show. Student ticket pricing makes Broadway touring productions accessible in ways they're not in most cities.

Changing Hands Bookstore

Changing Hands Bookstore on Camelback Road (about 7 miles north but also has a location in the Uptown Phoenix neighborhood) is one of the better independent bookstores in Arizona. They host author events, have a great selection, and the attached First Draft Book Bar serves beer and wine in the bookstore itself. It's worth the trip at least once.

The Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt

The Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt runs through Scottsdale — right up to the Tempe border — and is a continuous green corridor of parks, ponds, and walking/biking paths. You can access it from the east side of Tempe near Hayden Road and McClintock Drive and ride or walk north through Scottsdale for miles. It passes through parks with fishing ponds, disc golf courses, and open grass areas.

For cycling especially, the greenbelt is the best way to get into Scottsdale without dealing with traffic. It connects to the Arizona Canal trail system and you can theoretically ride from Tempe to the mountains on bike paths.

Lux Coffee Bar

Lux Central is in Phoenix proper, on Central Avenue, but for serious coffee culture it's one of the best spots in the metro. It's open early, stays open late, has excellent food in addition to coffee, and draws a creative professional crowd that's a nice change of scenery from campus coffee shops. Reachable by light rail (Central Ave/Camelback stop).

Kiwanis Park

Kiwanis Park is a large public park in Tempe on Warner Road — a little south of where most students roam — with a man-made lake, walking trails, tennis courts, and open green space. It's consistently underused by students and consistently appreciated by the Tempe locals who know about it. Good for a morning run or an afternoon outside that isn't the crowded Tempe Town Lake area.

The First Friday Art Walk in Phoenix

First Friday happens the first Friday of every month in the Roosevelt Row arts district in downtown Phoenix — reachable by light rail in 25 minutes. Galleries open late, street food vendors set up, there's music and crowds and genuine energy. It's free, it's walkable from the light rail stop, and it's one of the more interesting free things to do near Phoenix if you're looking for something different on a Friday night.

Most ASU students never make it to a single First Friday. The ones who do usually go back.

The Canal System

Tempe and Scottsdale are threaded through with irrigation canals from the Salt River Project. The canals have paved paths alongside them that connect different parts of the Valley. Most are accessible from residential streets near campus, and they're flat, quiet, and underutilized for cycling and running.

If you live south of Apache in Tempe, there's likely a canal path within a few blocks of you. Find your nearest access point and you've unlocked a car-free route through the neighborhood grid that most students who live there never discover.