11 Best Sights in Tucson, Arizona

The name "museum" is a bit misleading, since this delightful site is actually a zoo, aquarium, and botanical garden featuring the animals, plants, and 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 (a wild, piglike mammal with an oddly oversize head) exhibits have "invisible" fencing that separates humans from animals, and at the Raptor Free Flight show (October through 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 9 pm every Saturday, which provides a great opportunity to see nocturnal critters.

The museum has exhibits exploring the history of Southern Arizona, starting with the Indigenous Hohokam Tribe and the Spanish explorers. The harrowing Life on the Edge: A History of Medicine in Arizona exhibit promotes a new appreciation of modern drugstores in present-day Tucson. Children enjoy the exhibit on copper mining (with an atmospheric replica of a mine shaft and camp) and the stagecoaches in the transportation area.

The library has an extensive collection of historic Arizona photographs and sells inexpensive reprints. Park in the garage at the corner of 2nd and Euclid streets and get a free parking pass in the museum.

Inside the main gate of the university is Arizona's oldest museum, dating from territorial days (1893) and a preeminent resource for the study of Southwestern cultures. Exhibits include the largest collections of Southwest Native American pottery and basketry, as well as Paths of Life: American Indians of the Southwest—a permanent exhibit that explores the cultural traditions, origins, and contemporary lives of 10 native tribes of Arizona and Sonora, Mexico.

Youngsters are encouraged to touch and explore the science, language, and history exhibits here. They can examine a patient in the Bodyology Center and care for (stuffed) doggies at the PetVet exhibit. Investigation Station has air-pressure tubes where balls and scarves whiz around, and there's a Discovery Garden for all ages to climb, slide, and burn off steam. Admission is free on Thursday evenings from 5 to 7 pm and on second Saturdays.

This limestone grotto 20 miles southeast of Tucson is the largest dry cavern in the world. Guides discuss the fascinating crystal formations and relate the many romantic tales surrounding the cave, including the legend that an enormous sum of money stolen in a stagecoach robbery is hidden here.

Forty-five-minute cave tours begin every hour on the hour and require a ½-mile walk and a climb of 363 steps. The park includes a ranch area with horseback rides through saguaro forests offered October–May (from $40), a gemstone-sluicing area, a petting zoo, a gift shop, and a café. You can also picnic, hike, and mountain-bike in the surrounding 2,400-acre wilderness park; campsites ($10) are on a first-come first-served basis.

Attractions at the university's science museum include a 16-inch public telescope for evening stargazing; hands-on science exhibits about the solar system, fossils, bugs and marine biology; and planetarium shows.

If you like vintage signs, clocks, and neon art, check out this quirky and cleverly designed museum, a labor of love (and ingenuity) by Tucson sign artist Jude Cook and his wife Monica. The collection, impressive in its breadth, includes rescued, restored signs from mid-century businesses, as well as vintage wall thermometers, soda and beer signs, and items that you would never guess used neon, like old medicinal remedies for sore throats and balding hair. Demonstrations of glass bending and neon sign-making are given on most days.

This huge facility ranks among the largest private collections of aircraft in the world. More than 400 airplanes are on display in hangars and outside, including a presidential plane used by both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson; a full-scale replica of the Wright brothers' 1903 Wright Flyer; the SR-71 reconnaissance jet; and a mock-up of the X-15, the world's fastest aircraft. World War II planes are particularly well represented.

Meander on your own (even leashed pets are allowed) or take a free walking tour led by volunteer docents. The open-air tram tour (an additional $8 fee) narrates all outside aircraft. An on-site restaurant, The Flight Grill, is open daily.

This small but well-designed zoo won't tax your patience. There are plenty of shady places to sit, a well-stocked gift shop, a carousel, and a snack bar to rev you up when your energy flags. You can feed carrots to the zoo's friendly giraffes each morning at 10 (9:30 June--September, $3). At the African elephants habitat, you might view a training session (look for posted times at the entrance). If you're visiting in summer, go early in the day when the animals are active.

Encompassing mission ruins, the church of San José de Tumacácori, and a portion of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, this park became a national monument in 1908. Guided tours of the beautiful church and grounds are available daily at 11 and 2, January through March, and information on both the mission and the historic trail is available at the visitor center. A small museum displays some of the mission's artifacts, and often during winter and spring months fresh tortillas are made on a wood-fire stove in the courtyard. Creative educational programs, such as full-moon tours, bird walks, and a Junior Ranger Program, are offered throughout the year. An annual fiesta the first weekend of December has arts and crafts and food booths.

Thousands of minerals and jewels from around the world, with a focus on those from Arizona and Mexico, are on display at this newly opened museum. The university's vast collection---including a massive quartz geode and a rare tapestry made of diamonds, gold, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds---can be seen here. You can also learn about the process of extracting minerals from rocks, as well as the university's collaborative research project with NASA that involves collecting and analyzing mineral samples from asteroids.