Wildlife Viewing

Tucson, Tucson & Saguaro

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

A zoo, botanical garden and aquarium in one, mostly outdoors, west of Tucson

From $2

Lake Havasu City, Lake Havasu & Colorado River

Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge

One of the last natural cottonwood-willow forests on the lower Colorado, where the Bill Williams River meets Lake Havasu

Free

Ajo, Tucson & Saguaro

Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge

803,418 acres of Sonoran Desert wilderness, by permit, with no services at all

Free

Cottonwood, Sedona & Verde Valley

Dead Horse Ranch State Park

Lagoons, Verde River access, camping and over 20 miles of shared-use trails

From $5

Tubac, Tucson & Saguaro

Madera Canyon

A sky-island birding canyon in the Santa Ritas, climbing from grassland to pine forest

From $8

Scottsdale, Phoenix & Superstition Mountains

McDowell Sonoran Preserve

More than 30,500 acres and 230 miles of free multi-use trails inside Scottsdale's city limits

Free

Yuma, Lake Havasu & Colorado River

Imperial National Wildlife Refuge

Thirty miles of Colorado River backwaters north of Yuma, including the river's last unchannelled stretch before Mexico

Free

Marble Canyon, Page & Monument Valley

Navajo Bridge

Twin steel arches 467 feet above the Colorado River, the old one now open to walkers

Cottonwood, Sedona & Verde Valley

Tuzigoot National Monument

A 110-room Sinagua pueblo on a limestone ridge above the Verde River

From $10

Apache Junction, Phoenix & Superstition Mountains

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Arizona's oldest and largest botanical garden, a copper baron's desert project near Superior

From $10

Sierra Vista, Tombstone & Bisbee

Ramsey Canyon Preserve

A cool, spring-fed canyon in the Huachucas, famous for hummingbirds

From $5

Sierra Vista, Tombstone & Bisbee

San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area

Forty miles of cottonwood-lined river, birds by the hundred and 13,000 years of human history

From $2