Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum: Watching Spring Arrive Week by Week

Last Updated: May 2, 2026

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is our favorite place to visit in Tucson — and during our extended stay in early 2018, visiting became a weekly ritual. Even though our base camp was near Tombstone in southeastern Arizona, we made the drive to Tucson about once a week for errands, and a stop at the Desert Museum was always part of the plan. Watching the desert transition from bare winter through the first tentative signs of spring over the course of several weeks gave us a perspective on the museum’s seasonal rhythms that a single visit never could. This is the story of those return visits — and the spring awakening we watched unfold week by week.

Spring Arrives — Week by Week

Every week we returned, we noticed more and more flowers opening — even though it was still cold and only February. The Sonoran Desert has a subtler spring than most people expect: it doesn’t arrive all at once in a single explosion of color, but rather advances gradually, one species at a time, across weeks. The Desert Museum’s careful cultivation of native plants makes this progression visible and intimate in a way that even weeks of desert hiking can’t match.

The ocotillo were just starting to flower — their long whip-like stems tipped with clusters of bright red-orange blooms that hummingbirds find irresistible. Ocotillo are one of the most architecturally dramatic plants in the Sonoran Desert, and their blooming marks the real beginning of the desert spring season.

The flowering diversity was wonderful — desert penstemon, globemallow, primrose, and pincushion all in various stages of bloom across the museum grounds. As a photographer, Michael found this progression endlessly rewarding — the same botanical gardens looked and felt different every single week, the light catching new colors each visit.

A few butterflies were already active — the warmth of the afternoon sun bringing them out even in February. And the Cactus Wren — Arizona’s state bird — was in full nest-building mode. They’re remarkably unintimidated by people, and watching them gather nesting material with great purposefulness from the museum’s desert plantings was one of the most entertaining wildlife moments of the entire visit. Cactus Wrens mate for life, with both male and female similar in appearance — and they primarily eat insects, rarely drinking free-standing water even when it’s available, getting most of their moisture from their prey.

Hummingbirds: The Main Event

On these spring visits, the hummingbird aviary was at its most spectacular. We primarily encountered Broad-billed and Anna’s Hummingbirds — though Black-chinned, Costa’s, and Rufous hummingbirds were also present in the aviary. For Michael as a photographer, the hummingbird aviary is one of the most technically challenging and rewarding subjects at the museum — the combination of movement, iridescence, and the need for fast shutter speeds demands both patience and quick reflexes. Each visit produced different shots as the birds interacted with different flowers at different times of day.

Cardinals and raptors were active in and around the museum grounds as well — the combination of rich botanical plantings and reliable water sources makes the Desert Museum a magnet for wild birds beyond those in formal exhibits. Keeping your eyes up while walking the paths always rewards you.

Desert Wildlife: Coyotes, Javelinas, Bobcats & More

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has exceptionally well-designed large open enclosures for its coyote and javelina exhibits. The desert coyote is notably smaller than its Great Plains cousin — typically weighing only about 25 pounds — and can live up to 15 years. Watching a coyote move through a naturalistic desert habitat is a completely different experience from glimpsing one on a trail, and the museum’s enclosures give you time to observe behavior rather than just register a sighting.

The javelina — formally collared peccaries — live in large family groups, can reach 35 to 55 pounds, and have a distinctive musky scent gland on their backs used for communication. Despite their boar-like appearance, they’re not related to pigs — they’re a distinctly New World animal with their own evolutionary lineage. Their social intelligence and family behavior make them consistently entertaining to watch.

The bobcat — living up to 15 years in the wild at 15 to 30 pounds — and the gray fox — up to 10 years, typically under 5 pounds — both have excellent exhibits. The gray fox is one of the very few canid species capable of climbing trees, which sets it apart from every other fox and most other dogs. These are animals that share the desert with hikers throughout southern Arizona but are rarely seen — the museum provides context for what you might encounter on any given trail.

The Western Diamondback Rattlesnake — the most commonly encountered venomous snake in southern Arizona. During our winter visits they were inactive in the cold, but Michael had encountered plenty over the years while hiking in the Tucson area. In the museum’s reptile exhibits they’re visible up close in a way that builds genuine respect for these animals rather than simple fear. They can live 15 to 20 years in captivity and reach 7 feet in length, though most are 3 to 5 feet. Their predators — eagles, hawks, roadrunners, kingsnakes, coyotes, bobcats, and foxes — are all present elsewhere in the museum, which gives the ecology a connected, complete feeling.

Birds in the Wild: Hawks in Saguaro National Park

Driving through Saguaro National Park on the way to and from the museum, we regularly encountered raptors hunting from the saguaro canopy — Cooper’s Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, Harris’s Hawks, and a Gilded Woodpecker working the saguaro trunks in search of insects and nest cavities. These encounters in the wild, set against the context of what we’d just seen at the museum, made both experiences richer. The Desert Museum isn’t a substitute for wild desert — it’s the ideal preparation for it.

Another amazing Arizona sunset — this one from the drive back toward Tombstone, the sky was doing its best to outshine everything we’d seen at the museum all day. It almost succeeded.

Visitor Information

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is located at 2021 N Kinney Road, Tucson, AZ 85743. Open daily year-round — hours vary by season. Annual memberships are exceptional value for anyone visiting more than once. More information at desertmuseum.org.

This was our first of many return visits — read our 2023 Desert Museum visit featuring the Raptor Free Flight show and hummingbird aviary in detail, and our 2024 summer evening visit for a completely different experience.