We were very fortunate to be on the northwest edge of Tucson and just a short drive from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Saguaro National Park. Both are in the Tucson Mountains and provide spectacular desert scenery. The Desert Museum is more than just a museum – it includes a zoo, and arboretum, an aviary, and indoor exhibits about the desert. We purchased a museum membership so we could return repeatedly, which we did. Among the highlights were a lecture on Gila monsters and rattlesnakes with an example of each (safely at the front of the auditorium) and “Cool Summer Nights” when the museum stays open until 10 PM so you can observe the animals as the sun goes down.
Saguaro National Park has several short hiking trails that allow you to get out into the desert vegetation. The park has one of the greatest stands of saguaro cactus in the world, with saguaros covering the desert mountains. We were fortunate to be in Tucson during the saguaro blooming period in May and early June. Every day from our patio we saw new white blossoms on top of the saguaros.
