Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

The name undersells this place. It is really a 98-acre mix of zoo, botanical garden, natural history museum, aquarium and art gallery, devoted to one region. About 85 percent of it is outdoors, on two miles of accessible paved paths through hillside desert west of Tucson, and it holds more than 230 animal species and 1,200 varieties of plants. William H. Carr founded it in 1952, with financial backing from the conservationist Arthur Newton Pack, adapting buildings put up on the site by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

The animals are shown in naturalistic settings built into the landscape. A Mexican pine-oak woodland exhibit holds mountain lions, Mexican gray wolves, mule deer and a black bear, and there are prairie dogs in the desert grassland section. The museum has a real part in that wolf's story: the first litter of Mexican gray wolf pups born in human care arrived here in 1963. Four aviaries, a walk-through cave replica with mineral displays, and the Warden Aquarium, which features freshwater and Gulf of California species, fill out the site. A reptile, amphibian and invertebrate hall offers some air-conditioned relief.

Scheduled programs are the highlight for many people. Raptor Free Flight, a seasonal program, has birds of prey flying untethered over the desert, and keepers present live animals in the Warden Oasis Theater. Children get Packrat Playhouse, an indoor climbing area, Spadefoot Splash for the under-fives, a stingray touch pool and fossil digging at Ancient Arizona. Check the day's schedule at the entrance, since program times vary.

This is a long walk in strong sun. Bring a hat, sunscreen, comfortable shoes and a refillable bottle (there are fountains and refill stations on the grounds). The museum advises at least two hours and says to arrive before mid-afternoon. In summer it opens an hour earlier, at 7:30 a.m., and on Saturdays from June to August it stays open until 10 p.m. for Cool Summer Nights. Strollers, wheelchairs and electric scooters are available to rent.

Rideshare services will drop you here, but cell service is limited, so the museum suggests arranging a taxi for the way back. A car makes more sense anyway, given that the western district of Saguaro National Park begins a mile up Kinney Road.