Tucson

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

February 19, 2023 by Michael Huntley

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…]

Sonoran Desert Life in Three Quarter Time: Tucson, Tubac & the Desert Museum

May 12, 2021 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: May 4, 2026

So much of travel moves at a pace set by logistics — the next destination, the checkout time, the reservation that can’t be changed. The Sonoran Desert has a way of overruling all of that. You slow to three-quarter time whether you intend to or not, because the things worth seeing here don’t reveal themselves to anyone moving too fast. The cactus wren sitting three feet away on a saguaro arm. The bobcat stretched out in a patch of morning sun. The Costa’s hummingbird hovering in front of a blooming aloe, iridescent purple gorget catching the light. You have to be moving at the desert’s pace to see any of it. Continuing our spring stay at Western Way RV Resort near Tucson Mountain Park, we had two more weeks to let the desert set the tempo — with a day trip south to the artist colony at Tubac and daily visits to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum thrown in. Jake set the pace each morning, and it was always exactly right.

Saguaro cactus and spring desert landscape in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Arizona

[Read more…]

Spring in the Sonoran Desert: Gila Bend to Tucson, Arizona

April 17, 2021 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: May 4, 2026

Spring is the Sonoran Desert at its absolute best — wildflowers carpeting the desert floor, saguaros preparing to bloom, hummingbirds working every flowering shrub, and evenings that turn the western sky a deep molten orange behind the Tucson Mountains. We drove in from the west in April 2021, stopping overnight in Gila Bend before continuing to our favorite base camp on the west side of Tucson near Saguaro National Park West and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We needed some minor repairs done on the RV — this was our third stay at Western Way RV Resort — and once the work was sorted, we spent two weeks photographing wildflowers, raptors, woodpeckers, numerous species of hummingbirds, and the kind of sunsets that make you understand why people choose to live in Tucson. Jake was entirely in his element.

Brilliant spring sunset over saguaro cactus and the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Arizona

[Read more…]

Saguaro National Park, Tucson: Spring Bloom & Desert Wildlife in a Quiet May

May 24, 2020 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: July 12, 2026

Tucson in late May 2020 was different. COVID-19 had shuttered the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, closed Western Way’s pool and clubhouse, and pushed most snowbirds north weeks earlier than usual. The campground was nearly empty. But the Sonoran Desert didn’t get the memo — it was putting on one of the most spectacular bloom seasons we’ve seen in years, and we had it almost entirely to ourselves.

The catch: it was running about 20 degrees hotter than normal. We’d timed the trip for the saguaro bloom, which typically peaks in late April to early May when highs hover in the low 80s. Instead, we got 100°F every afternoon. Early mornings cooled into the 60s, which made dawn walks and hikes genuinely pleasant — we just had to be done before 9 a.m.

Saguaro cactus silhouetted at sunset in Saguaro National Park's Tucson Mountain District, Arizona

[Read more…]

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

March 10, 2018 by Michael Huntley

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.

Broad-billed hummingbird in the hummingbird aviary at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson Arizona showing the iridescent green and red plumage of this Sonoran Desert species

Tucson, Arizona: Saguaro National Park, Desert Museum & Mountain Parks

February 2, 2018 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: May 2, 2026

Tucson is one of those cities that rewards you more the longer you stay. On our first extended winter stay — several weeks in western Tucson in January and February 2018 — we had practical reasons to be there: RV service work at Freightliner and Freedom RV. But what we actually spent our time doing was exploring one of the most biologically diverse and visually spectacular desert landscapes in North America. Michael has been coming to Tucson since the 1980s, drawn back repeatedly by the saguaro forests, the mountain ranges, and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. This first extended RV stay confirmed everything that has kept bringing us back.

Saguaro cactus silhouettes against a brilliant orange and red sunset sky in the Tucson Arizona Sonoran Desert in January

[Read more…]