In July, sports-media supervillain Dave Portnoy posted a video online in which he sat atop a unicorn statue on the campus of the University of Arizona and announced that the company he founded, Barstool Sports, had not only secured the naming rights for the Arizona Bowl but also would be broadcasting the 2021 college bowl game through its app, website, and social media channels. But Booker's only 24 years old, and his contract has him in Phoenix a few more years. (He didn't miss a single shot from the floor during that quarter, either.) Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to win that game, or the series. In Game Four against the Bucks, he scored 42 points, including 18 in the third quarter alone. He dropped 34 to complete the sweep of the Nuggets. He put up 47 points in the game that knocked the Lakers out of the playoffs. But Booker was who you came to watch night after night after night. Yes, the addition of Chris Paul was essential to the Suns' playoff run, and players like Deandre Ayton, Jae Crowder, and Mikal Bridges made huge contributions. His performance in the 2020-21 season was on a whole other level, though - it would feel wrong to call anybody else the Best Male Athlete, given the majestic basketball Booker played on the way to leading the Suns to their first NBA Finals in 28 years. Back then, inside the NBA bubble (remember that?), the Suns shooting guard's superstar status was still incubating. We gave this award to Book last year, too. Just keep your head on a swivel and eyes open for more than nature's spectacle, as bikers, cyclists, and boaters going to and from Bartlett Lake also frequent the road. Go in the early spring for wildflowers in bloom, after a monsoon storm for fantastic smells, or in the early evening when everything's enhanced by the deep colors of dusk. Sonoran plant life like saguaro cacti, ocotillo, and teddy bear cholla dot a landscape alive with such creatures as javelinas, bald eagles, and the occasional bighorn sheep. Bare-rock bluffs and rolling hills surround you. Navigate the twists, turns, and gentle dips along this 14-mile paved road running east from Cave Creek Road through the high desert wilderness of Tonto National Forest and prepare to be awed. A trip down Bartlett Dam Road, though, offers glimpses of all of this and more in a single drive. And wide-open stretches of scenery that become even more epic at sunset. Lush riparian areas teeming with flora and fauna. When you live in a place as picturesque as the Valley, many drives are often scenic ones, each with their own respective views of various natural splendors: Jagged mountains stretching into the sky.

Tortilla flats bicycle ride