The monument is made of two national parks, the East District and West District, which are separated by 30 miles of Tucson. Visit in March for the Fiesta de Saguaro. Hike or bike any time of year, especially in the spring when wildflowers make a carpet beneath the towering cacti.
The desert museum is a botanic garden, natural zoo and science museum rolled into one. Programs allow you to shadow an animal keeper, be the custodian of a desert tortoise, watch raptors in flight and take wildlife art classes.
This 17-acre home to hundreds of animals from around the world has come a long way since it was founded in 1965. It hosts camps, programs and special events year-round, and houses animals in naturalistic enclosures meant to help them thrive in captivity.
On the drive up Mount Lemmon, the temperature will drop 25 to 30 degrees, so bring a jacket. You can camp, hike, bike and even ski seasonally less than an hour from downtown Tucson. You also should go to the Mount Lemmon Observatory, which operates seven telescopes under the direction of the University of Arizona.
Also governed by the U of A, Biosphere 2 re-creates habitats from around the world and provides tours and classes for the public. Scientists lived inside the man-made environment as a trial run for future space station living. It is still an active research sight, although it opened to the public in 2002.
