Tucson Sights

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Sabino Canyon near Tucson, Arizona.

• Sabino Canyon, www.sabinocanyon.com. Spectacular desert canyon cut into the south side of the Santa Catalina Mountains, now on Tucson's northern urban fringe. A tram (for a fee) will take visitors up to stop 4 (stops 5 through 9 are now closed to the tram because of extensive damage to the canyon caused by landslides in 2006). To park, you will need a National Park Pass ($5 day, $20 annual) which is also good to use on Mt. Lemmon.
• Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney Rd., Tel. (520) 883-2702, www.desertmuseum.org. More like Biosphere II than a walled institution, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is part zoo, part natural history museum and part botanical garden all in one Tucson attraction. From tarantulas to black bears, coyotes to scorpions, the museum-zoo is an entrancing and full-contact tribute to the Sonoran desert's wildlife (the wire fences are nearly invisible and the hummingbirds in the buzzing, walk-in aviary seem to think you are the attraction). Give yourself time to soak in the Southwest splendor and if time is all you have, the Museum is also on the fringes of Saguaro National Park, home to the world's largest forests of Saguaro cacti.
• Saguaro National Park, 3693 South Old Spanish Trail, Tel. (520) 733-5153, www.nps.gov/sagu. The most dense forest of the iconic cactus of the American West. The park has two unconnected units to the east and west of Tucson.
• Tohono Chul Park, 7366 N. Paseo del Norte, Tel. (520) 742-6455, www.tohonochulpark.org. "Tohono chul" means "desert corner" in the Tohono O'Odham's (desert people's) language, and this haven in the midst of Tucson's burgeoning north side offers a tea room, gift shop, bookstore, and art gallery in the middle of trails and gardens. There are extensive botanical exhibits explaining the native plants, and a wonderful plant-sale area in which to buy them for your own garden. Many kinds of desert birds are frequent visitors.
• Mission San Xavier del Bac, 1950 W. San Xavier Rd., Tel. (520) 294-2624, dizzy.library.arizona.edu/images/swf/San_Xavier.html. The "White Dove of the Desert" is a Tucson mission. Pure white and pristine against a hot desert backdrop, and still heady inside its elaborately colored and muraled interior from centuries of supplication, the Mission San Xavier del Bac was finished in 1797 when Arizona was still New Spain. It has recently been cleaned and restored by professional art conservators who worked with, and trained members of the community.
• Old Tucson Studios, 201 S. Kinney Rd., Tel. (520) 883-0100, www.oldtucson.com. Ever notice that Hollywood's Old West, the backdrop for the gun-slinging and cryptic comments of Hollywood's Western icons -- Wayne, Eastwood, Douglas and Newman -- has much in common with the Wild West of today's Tombstone and Geronimo? They've all been filmed at the Old Tucson Studios, originally built in 1939 for the making of the William Holden vehicle "Arizona." Still an active film, TV and commercial set, it's also a nostalgia-themed park, with main drag shootouts, corseted can-can dancers, educational shows, pre-Prohibition saloons, restaurants, and gift shops.
• El Tiradito (The Castaway), South Granada Avenue at West Cushing Street. El Tiradito is the only shrine to a sinner in North America. In the 1880s, a young man had an affair with his mother-in-law. When caught in the act, his father-in-law shot him and he stumbled from bed and ran out of the house. He dropped dead on this spot, and because he had not confessed his sins, he could not be buried in the church yard. His family and friends interred him where he fell, but remembered him with candles and flowers. People still burn candles and leave offerings today. The shrine is in what remains of Tucson's barrio (much of which was destroyed when the Tucson Convention Center was built). Best visited at dusk or after dark.
• Center for Creative Photography, dizzy.library.arizona.edu/branches/ccp/ccphome.html is on the University of Arizona campus, and routinely features works of famous (and not-so-famous) photographers. When they have their Ansel Adams collection up it is a must see.

Two telescopes on Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona.

• Kitt Peak National Observatory, www.noao.edu/outreach/kpoutreach.html is one hour southwest of Tucson. A "don't miss" for the astronomy buff, there are several astronomical telescopes plus a large solar telescope. There are tours available.
• Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, cfa-www.harvard.edu/flwo/visitcenter.html is one hour due south of Tucson off I-19 near the town of Amado. Call ahead for tour information.
• Pima Air & Space Museum, 6000 E. Valencia Rd., Tel. (520) 574-0462, www.pimaair.org. Features over 250 historic aircraft.
• Titan Missile Museum, 1580 W. Duval Mine Rd., Sahuarita, Tel. (520) 625-7736, www.titanmissilemuseum.org. Site south of Tucson preserves a Cold-War-era underground silo housing an unarmed Titan-II ICBM. Part of a larger field of such silos, this was one of the places from which nuclear war on the Soviet Union would have been waged.
• Tucson Botanical Gardens, 2150 North Alvernon Way, Tel. (520) 326-9686, www.tucsonbotanical.org. This beautiful oasis in the heart of Tucson was originally the home of Bernice and Rutger Porter. Dating to the 1920s, the earliest buildings on the property were constructed of adobe bricks made right on site. True to the vision of Mrs. Porter, Tucson Botanical Gardens is a place of beauty, inspiration and education about the natural world.
• Kartchner Caverns State Park, Nine miles south of I-10, off State Hwy 90, exit 302, Benson, Tel. (520) 586-CAVE, azstateparks.com/Parks/KACA/index.html. Kartchner Caverns State Park, opened in 1999, is one of Arizona's newest wonders. Kartchner Caverns is a stunning limestone cave system considered one of the top ten in the world. Discovered in 1974 by explorers Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen, and not revealed until 1988, the opportunity existed to preserve the caverns in near-pristine condition.
• Winterhaven Festival of Lights, An annual event in the Winterhaven subdivision north of Fort Lowell Road displaying a huge Christmas light festival involving several dozen homes in the subdivision. Typically, the festival starts in the middle of December, ending a few days before New Year's Day. The event is very popular, and traffic to the event is always very congested www.winterhavenfestival.org/index.html.
• Gem Show, Tucson, Arizona, www.paloverdeinn.com/gemshow. For two weeks every winter, the world meets in Tucson as it becomes a bustling, international marketplace of buyers and sellers at the Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase. The "Gem Show" is much more than a single event at one location. Rather, there are thousands of participants and attendees at nearly 50 sites around town. Dozens of shows take place at the same time--in giant white tents, at hotels and resorts and at exhibit halls. There's something for everyone at the many open-to-the-public shows--from gold and diamonds to granite bookends and glass beads--and from fine specimens of dinosaur fossils to opals dug from the Australian Outback.