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Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Review
The name "museum" is a bit misleading, since this delightful site is actually a zoo, aquarium, and botanical garden featuring the animals, plants and, yes, even fish of the Sonoran Desert. Hummingbirds, coatis, rattlesnakes, scorpions, bighorn sheep, bobcats, and Mexican wolves all busy themselves in ingeniously designed habitats.
An Earth Sciences Center has an artificial limestone cave to climb through and an excellent mineral display. The coyote and javelina (wild, piglike mammals with oddly oversize heads) exhibits have "invisible" fencing that separates humans from animals, and at the Raptor Free Flight show (October-April daily at 10 and 2), you can see the powerful birds soar and dive, untethered, inches above your head.
The restaurants are above average, and the gift shop, which carries books, jewelry, and crafts, is outstanding. June through August, the museum stays open until 10 pm every Saturday, which provides a great opportunity to see nocturnal critters.
- Address: 2021 N. Kinney Rd., Westside, Tucson, AZ 85743 | Map It
- Phone: 520/883-2702
- Cost: $14.50
- Hours: Mar.--May, daily 7:30--5; June--Sept., daily 7--5; Oct.--Feb., daily 8:30--5
- Website: www.desertmuseum.org
- Location: Northwest Tucson and Westside
Contact Information
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Travel Deals in Tucson
- $148* & up -- Nationwide Flights thru Fall on American, R/T American Airlines
- $99 & up -- Tucson AAA 4-Diamond Resort, Save 40% The Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa
- $119-$169 -- Carefree, AZ: Luxe Resort w/Credit, 65% Off The Boulders, a Waldorf Astoria Resort
- $89 -- Arizona AAA 4-Diamond Resort at 40% Off — $89 Hilton Tucson El Conquistador Golf & Tennis Resort
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