Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

More like Biosphere II than a walled institution, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is part zoo, part natural history museum and part botanical garden all in one Tucson attraction. From tarantulas to black bears, coyotes to scorpions, the museum-zoo is an entrancing and full-contact tribute to the Sonoran desert's wildlife (the wire fences are nearly invisible and the hummingbirds in the buzzing, walk-in aviary seem to think you are the attraction). Give yourself time to soak in the Southwest splendor and if time is all you have, the Museum is also on the fringes of Saguaro National Park, home to the world's largest forests of Saguaro cacti.

• museum
• outdoors
• history
• family

Address

2021 N Kinney Rd

Hours

Oct-Feb 8:30AM-5PM, Mar-Sep 7:30AM-5PM

Price

$14.50/adult, $5/child (Sep-May); $12/adult, $4/child Jun-Aug

Website

desertmuseum.org (opens in a new tab)