Goodyear

Goodyear started as a company town — the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company grew cotton here for tires in the early 1900s, and the city kept the name. Today it's one of the fastest-growing cities in Arizona, spreading south toward the Estrella Mountains and the Gila River.

Goodyear Ballpark is the spring-training home of the Cleveland Guardians and Cincinnati Reds, and February–March Cactus League games are the city's marquee draw. A short drive south, Estrella Mountain Regional Park offers desert hiking, horseback trails, and big-sky sunsets at the base of the Sierra Estrella range.

The new Goodyear Civic Square and the growing entertainment corridor near the ballpark have given the city a genuine downtown-in-the-making, with a city hall, a library, public plazas, and a steady calendar of festivals and outdoor concerts. The PebbleCreek and Estrella master-planned communities keep golf and trail running busy year-round.

Goodyear is an easy, modern West Valley day: a morning hike in Estrella, a midday stop at Civic Square or the ballpark, and dinner in one of the newer restaurant rows. As always, summer heat pushes the outdoor stuff to dawn and dusk; October through April is the sweet spot.