Traveling Huntleys

Inspiring travel stories, tips, and guides from a couple exploring the world one destination at a time.

Arizona

Tucson Sunsets, Arizona: Why the Sonoran Desert Sky Performs Almost Every Night

by

Last Updated: May 3, 2026

Tucson, Arizona sits in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, and one of the genuine and reliable rewards of spending winters here is the sunset. The combination of high desert elevation, dry low-humidity air, open western horizons, and the regular procession of high-altitude clouds rolling in off the Pacific produces evening skies that perform almost nightly — even on otherwise unremarkable days. After many seasons watching the western horizon from Western Way RV Resort, we still walk out a few minutes before sundown more often than not. Sometimes the show is quiet; sometimes the entire western sky catches fire. Either way, Michael’s camera stays close.

Tucson Arizona sunset over the Tucson Mountains showing brilliant orange and red Sonoran Desert sky photographed by Michael Huntley travel blogger and photographer
[Read more…] about Tucson Sunsets, Arizona: Why the Sonoran Desert Sky Performs Almost Every Night

Mount Lemmon, Tucson, Arizona: Driving the Catalina Highway from Desert to Alpine Snow

by

Last Updated: May 4, 2026

The Catalina Highway — officially the General Hitchcock Highway — climbs 27 miles from the Sonoran Desert north of Tucson, Arizona to the summit of Mount Lemmon at 9,159 feet, and it’s one of the most remarkable short drives in the American Southwest. In those 27 miles you pass through five distinct ecological life zones — from saguaro desert at the base through chaparral, oak woodland, pine-oak forest, and finally ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir near the top — with the temperature dropping roughly 20 to 30 degrees from the desert floor. The mountain was named for Sara Plummer Lemmon (1836–1923), a botanist who made the ascent in 1881 with her husband John Gill Lemmon while collecting plant specimens — reportedly the first woman to reach the summit. We drove up on a clear March morning, rising out of the desert bloom into cool, forested air, with snow still on the ground near the top. From 75°F in Tucson to a couple inches of fresh snow above Summerhaven in about an hour.

Sandy Huntley on Mount Lemmon Tucson Arizona at the summit area of the Catalina Highway sky island drive that rises from Sonoran Desert to alpine forest in 27 miles
[Read more…] about Mount Lemmon, Tucson, Arizona: Driving the Catalina Highway from Desert to Alpine Snow

Yuma, Arizona & Coming Home: The End of an Arizona Season

by

Last Updated: May 2, 2026

Yuma, Arizona was our final overnight stop before returning to California — about a four-hour drive from Tucson, and a natural last pause before crossing the Colorado River into the California desert. Our house in San Diego had been sitting vacant for over a year while we traveled — before that it had been a rental property — and it was time to return, check on things, unload the Airstream, and begin the long list of small projects that accumulate when a house sits empty. Yuma made for a comfortable overnight before the final push west to Santee Lakes.

Michael and Sandy Huntley back in San Diego California after more than a year of RV travel through Arizona and the American Southwest
[Read more…] about Yuma, Arizona & Coming Home: The End of an Arizona Season

Saguaro National Park East & West, Tucson, Arizona: Both Districts in Late Winter

by

Last Updated: May 3, 2026

Saguaro National Park is split into two districts about 30 miles apart on either side of Tucson, Arizona — the Rincon Mountain District on the east side of the city, and the Tucson Mountain District on the west. Both protect roughly the same Sonoran Desert vegetation, but the topography, the wildlife, and the visitor experience are quite different. The Rincon side is rugged, rises to over 8,000 feet at Mica Mountain, and is one of the few places in southern Arizona where black bears, mountain lions, and coati are still genuinely present. The west district is denser with saguaros, more concentrated in volcanic ridges, and the closer of the two to the Tucson Mountains RV parks where we typically stay. After a winter that took us through Cave Creek and Tucson Mountain Park, we returned to Tucson for a longer late-winter stay — and finally made the time to visit both districts properly, plus another month of mornings at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Rincon Mountain District of Saguaro National Park east of Tucson Arizona showing the dense saguaro forest and rugged mountain terrain that defines this Sonoran Desert ecosystem
[Read more…] about Saguaro National Park East & West, Tucson, Arizona: Both Districts in Late Winter

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson: A Complete Visitor’s Guide

by

Last Updated: May 2, 2026

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is one of those institutions that defies easy categorization. It’s part zoo, part botanical garden, part natural history museum, part art gallery, part aquarium — all woven together on 98 acres of living Sonoran Desert in the Tucson Mountain foothills, with 2 miles of walking paths that feel less like museum corridors and more like hiking trails through an extraordinarily well-curated landscape. It was founded in 1952 and has been consistently rated one of the top museums in the United States and one of the best zoos in the world. Michael has been visiting since the early 1980s and has been a member for much of that time — and this February 2023 visit reminded us exactly why.

Broad-billed hummingbird hovering at a flower in the hummingbird aviary at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson Arizona
[Read more…] about Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson: A Complete Visitor’s Guide

Tucson Mountains, Arizona: Saguaro National Park West, the Desert Museum & Tucson Mountain Park

by

Last Updated: May 3, 2026

The Tucson Mountains are a small but exceptional desert range west of Tucson, Arizona — one of the four mountain ranges that surround the city, alongside the Catalinas to the north, the Rincons to the east, and the Santa Ritas to the south. Each range has its own character, but the Tucson Mountains have always been our favorite — for the sheer density of saguaro forest, the network of hiking trails through Tucson Mountain Park and Saguaro National Park West, the wildlife, and above all the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which Michael has been visiting and photographing since the early 1980s and where he has been a member almost every year since. From Cave Creek it’s about a two-hour drive south to Tucson, and the moment you turn west off I-10 toward the Tucson Mountains the saguaros thicken, the road climbs, and the city falls away behind you.

Tucson Mountains Arizona showing the dense saguaro forest and rugged volcanic peaks west of Tucson photographed by Michael Huntley travel blogger and physician photographer
[Read more…] about Tucson Mountains, Arizona: Saguaro National Park West, the Desert Museum & Tucson Mountain Park