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Tucson & Saguaro

Things to see in Tucson & Saguaro

11 sights, museums, parks and places worth the stop.

Desert garden at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum with saguaros and a wide valley view beyond

Tucson · Museums

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

A zoo, botanical garden and aquarium in one, mostly outdoors, west of Tucson
Pinta sand dunes with a distant mountain range in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge wilderness

Ajo · Outdoor Recreation

Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge

803,418 acres of Sonoran Desert wilderness, by permit, with no services at all
View out from Madera Canyon over woodland, with Elephant Head at left and distant ranges beyond

Tubac · Outdoor Recreation

Madera Canyon

A sky-island birding canyon in the Santa Ritas, climbing from grassland to pine forest
AI-generated illustration of Mission San Xavier del Bac

Tucson · Architectural Landmarks

Mission San Xavier del Bac

A working 18th-century church on the Tohono O'odham Nation, 9 miles south of Tucson
A clump of organ pipe cactus below rocky desert mountains in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Ajo · National Parks

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

The only large natural stands of organ pipe cactus in the US, on the Mexican border
View up Sabino Canyon with saguaro-dotted slopes on both sides and green streamside trees below

Tucson · Natural Wonders

Sabino Canyon

A creek-cut canyon in the Santa Catalinas, with an electric shuttle and long trails
Stone outlines marking the footprint of presidio buildings at Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, with mesquite trees behind

Tubac · Historic Sites

Tubac Presidio State Historic Park

The ruins of Arizona's oldest Spanish presidio, and the state's first state park
Tall many-armed saguaros under a deep blue sky in the Rincon Mountain District of Saguaro National Park

Tucson · National Parks

Saguaro National Park: Rincon Mountain District

The older cactus forest east of Tucson, with an 8-mile paved loop and a wilderness behind it
White arcaded former train station with a domed tower on the Ajo town plaza

Ajo · Architectural Landmarks

Ajo Historic Plaza

A company town's white Spanish-style town square, built in phases from 1916 to 1947
A lone saguaro and rock outcrop with cactus-covered foothills behind in Saguaro National Park West

Tucson · National Parks

Saguaro National Park: Tucson Mountain District

Saguaro West: a dense young cactus forest, a dirt loop drive and Hohokam petroglyphs
Façade and unfinished brick bell tower of the mission church at Tumacácori, with green lawn and trees in front

Tubac · Historic Sites

Tumacácori National Historical Park

An unfinished Franciscan mission church in the Santa Cruz Valley, its bell tower never completed