43 Best Sights in Southern Arizona, Arizona

This designated part of the Sonoran Desert preserves more than two dozen species of cacti, including the park's namesake, as well as other desert plants and animals. Because organ pipe cactus tend to grow on the warmer, usually south-facing slopes, you'll get the best views by taking either the 21-mile scenic loop Ajo Mountain Drive (a one-way, partly dirt road) or Puerto Blanco Drive, a 42-mile loop road (4-wheel-drive vehicles are recommended). Ranger-led talks and guided hikes are offered December through April.

Five miles south of town, this is the spot for water sports, birding, picnicking, and camping. Formed by the damming of Sonoita Creek, the 265-acre reservoir lures anglers with its largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill, and catfish; it's stocked with rainbow trout in the wintertime. You can rent rowboats, paddleboats, canoes, and kayaks at the marina. Most swimmers head for Boulder Beach. The adjoining Sonoita Creek State Natural Area is home to giant cottonwoods, willows, sycamores, and mesquites; nesting black hawks; and endangered species. From mid-October to mid-April, rangers offer guided birding and discovery tours by pontoon boat ($7) on weekends at 9, 10:15, and 11:30 (call visitor center to sign up) and free guided bird walks during the week.

This museum in the historic district is a tribute to Willcox's most famous native son, cowboy singer Rex Allen. He starred in several rather average "singing cowboy" movies during the 1940s and '50s for Republic Pictures, but he's probably most famous as the friendly voice that narrated Walt Disney nature films of the 1960s. Check out the glittery suits the star wore on tour—they'd do Liberace proud.

The museum might not look like much from the outside, but the collectibles and tree make this one of the best places to visit in town. Originally a boardinghouse for the Vizina Mining Company and later a popular hotel, the Rose Tree Inn Museum has 1880s period rooms and—its main attraction—a humongous rose tree (hence the name). Covering more than 8,600 square feet, the Lady Banksia rose tree, planted by a homesick bride in 1885, is reported to be the largest of its kind in the world. The best time to see the tree is from mid-March through May, when its tiny white roses bloom. Romantics can purchase a healthy clipping from the tree to plant in their own yards.

The San Pedro River, partially rerouted underground by an 1887 earthquake, may not look like much, but it sustains an impressive array of flora and fauna and makes for great hiking and birding. To maintain this fragile creekside ecosystem, 56,000 acres along the river were designated a protected riparian area in 1988. More than 350 species of birds come here, as well as 82 mammal species and 45 reptiles and amphibians. Animals from long ago—including woolly mammoths and mastodons—also make their former presence here known through the area's massive fossil pits; in fact, many of the huge skeletons in Washington's Smithsonian Institute and New York's Museum of Natural History came from here. As evidenced by a number of small, unexcavated ruins, the migratory tribes who passed through thousands of years later also found this valley hospitable, in part because of its many useful plants. Information, guided tours and bird walks, books, and gifts are available from the volunteer staff at San Pedro House, a visitor center operated by Friends of the San Pedro River ( sanpedroriver.org).

This adobe-style museum, run by the Arizona Historical Society, was built around 1870 by merchant E. F. Sanguinetti; it exhibits artifacts from Yuma's territorial days and details the military presence in the area. If you're dining at the Garden Café this makes for an interesting stop, but it's not worth a visit on its own, especially if you plan on visiting the more popular Colorado River State Historic Park.

This vineyard, known for its high-quality reds, was the first commercial vineyard in Arizona, planted in the early 1970s as an experiment by Dr. Gordon Dutt, former agriculture professor at the University of Arizona. It's still going strong with Gordon's granddaughter, Lori, at the helm.

You can see the original printing presses for the town's newspaper and watch a video about the production process at the Tombstone Epitaph Museum. The newspaper was founded in 1880 by John P. Clum, a colorful character in his own right, and is still publishing today. You can purchase one of the newspaper's special editions—The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp, The Life and Times of Doc Holliday, or Tombstone's Pioneering Prostitutes.

One of the largest producers of wines in the state is home to Four Monkey wines and Tombstone Red, which the winemaker claims is "great with scorpion, tarantula, and rattlesnake meat." Sample craft spirits (rum, whiskey, and brandy) next door at their distillery.

This producer of mostly Spanish varietals, including a homegrown Syrah and Tempranillo, offers tastings on weekends from 11 am to 4 pm and by appointment.

If you visit in winter, you can see some of the more than 10,000 sandhill cranes that roost at the Willcox Playa, a 37,000-acre area resembling a dry lake bed 10 miles south of town. They migrate in late fall and head north to nesting sites in February, and bird-watchers migrate to Willcox the third week in January for the annual Wings over Willcox bird-watching event held in their honor.

The most notorious tourist sight in town is now an Arizona state historic park, but it was built for the most part by the convicts who were incarcerated here from 1876 until 1909, when the prison outgrew its location. The hilly site on the Colorado River, chosen for security purposes, precluded further expansion.

Visitors gazing today at the tiny cells that held six inmates each, often in 115°F heat, are likely to be appalled, but the prison—dubbed "the Country Club of the Colorado" by locals—was considered a model of enlightenment by turn-of-the-20th-century standards: in an era when beatings were common, the only punishments meted out here were solitary confinement and assignment to a dark cell. The complex housed a hospital as well as Yuma's only public library, where the 25¢ that visitors paid for a prison tour financed the acquisition of new books.

The 3,069 prisoners who served time at what was then the territory's only prison included men and women from 21 different countries. They came from all social classes and were sent up for everything from armed robbery and murder to polygamy. R. L. McDonald, incarcerated for forgery, had been the superintendent of the Phoenix public school system. Chosen as the prison bookkeeper, he absconded with $130 of the inmates' money when he was released.

The mess hall opened as a museum in 1940, and the entire prison complex was designated a state historic park in 1961.

One of the original vineyards planted in the Willcox region, Zarpara makes outstanding wines, from Sauvignon Blanc to Syrah, and has enough grapes left over to sell to vintners elsewhere in Arizona. Taste five wines in a souvenir glass ($15), while you stroll through the vineyards or enjoy views of the Dos Cabezas Mountains from the patio (open Friday–Sunday and by appointment).