Tucson is full of outdoor attractions that go unseen and under appreciated. With its beautiful saguaro forests, incredible mountain ranges surrounding the city and unforgettable sunsets, it is most definitely an alluring destination. 

Here are 3 places any Tucson local or tourist should visit if they are searching for a new adventure and want to learn more about the history of this beautiful city.


SAGUARO NATIONAL PARK 

Saguaro National Park is a must see destination if you are new to the area, or want to understand Tucson's history on a new level. This large park is separated by the city with the Rincon Mountain District to the East and the Tucson Mountain Ranges to the West. Both places offer a variety of hiking and biking trails along with horseback riding and breathtaking desert views. The Rincon district is the most visited area of the two, and offers visitors the opportunity to experience both desert and country forest in the same day. The Tucson district, on the other hand, has more historical meaning behind it. Visitors can see hundreds of petroglyphs left by ancient Native tribes, which can be seen from the Signal Hill picnic area or from neighboring hiking trails!

Address: 
- Rincon Mountain District (East), 3693 S. Old Spanish Trail
- Tucson Mountain District (West), 2700 N. Kinney Road

There's a new exhibit opening at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (2021 N. Kinney Road) this Friday: Stingray Touch. 

What do you think of when you visualize the desert? Cacti? Breathtaking sunsets? Elusive Gila monsters?

At the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, you can experience those things, as well as the touch of a stingray. Although the Sonoran Desert may be known for its dry climate, the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) and the stingrays that flow through it are critically important and the primary reason the Sonoran Desert has been named the “lushest desert on earth.”

The museum's stingray pool will feature cownose rays that are regularly debarbed—a process the museum says is comparable to giving them a stingray fingernail trim. 

If you're at the exhibit at the right time you might be able to help out at mealtime—but make sure you arrive early because the museum will be keeping a close eye on how much food the stingrays get.

Admission to the exhibit is $3 ($2 for members), and one portion of stingray food is the same price. Get a look at the exhibit hours and feeding times on the Desert Museum's website. 

Attention all Pokémon Go players: Head over to the Tohono Chul Park to get access to 13 poké stops and a gym. 
The park is now offering players half off admission, all you have to do is show them the app on your phone, provide your handle and you can get access to the deal. 

Asking only that players stay hydrated, safe and aware of their surroundings—especially with cacti and wildlife along the trails—the park only wants to help players catch them all responsibly. 

Normal admission prices are as follows:
Member: Free
Student with ID: $5
Adults: $10
Children 5-12: $3
Children under 5: Free
Active Military: $5

Head over to Tohono Chul Park, 7366 N. Paseo del Norte, to catch this deal, which is being offered though Aug. 31. 

If you've got some time for Pokémon Go hunting this weekend, the deal gets sweeter: This Friday, July 29 from 3 to 7 p.m. and Saturday, July 30 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. the park is hosting it's annual Monsoon Madness Plant Sale. Admission fees are waived during this time, so go enjoy the desert and pick up some plants while you're hunting for a Charizard.

For more information on specific times visit tohonochulpark.org or call 742-6455. 

Tucson as a whole calms down in the summer, with many desert rats retreating to their homes and whiling away the hours watching movies and spooning swamp coolers. 

Tohono Chul (7366 N Paseo Del Norte) has a different experience. 

Every summer thousands of Tucsonans visit the gardens at Tohono Chul to catch a glimpse of the majesty and beauty of the Queen of the Night, the night-blooming cereus Peniocereus greggii. When the summer heat begins to build, the buds of the Sonoran Desert native night-blooming cereus begin to appear. After a period of start-and-stop growth, the buds blossom in a mass blooming on one night.

...

Bloom Night guests will experience the magnificent Peniocereus greggii in its full glory with luminaria illuminated trails leading to each plant, delectable bites and refreshments from The Garden Bistro, lectures, and the chance to win or purchase a Queen of the Night. Marvel at the gorgeous flowers and breathe in the intense and intoxicating scent at this one-of-a-kind event found nowhere else.

While Bloom Night arrives with little warning, the park is says it will likely occur this weekend: Friday, Saturday or Sunday, June 17-19.

Grab the kids and head over to Tohono Chul Park every Tuesday this month to explore the desert. 

Explore, learn and have fun as Tohono Chul Park showcases different parts of the desert each week, explaining how important they are for our ecosystem. 
Each week there will be something new to discover from 8 to 10 a.m., at the Tohono Chul Park, located at 7336 N. Paseo del Norte. 

The first discovery day kicks off Tuesday, June 7, and will continue every week through June 28. 

The themes for each week are as follows:

June 7: Bats and Saguaros
June 14: Reptiles 
June 21: Pollinators
June 28: Desert Weather & Monsoon

For members and children admission is free, but regular admission prices apply for non-member adults.  

Interested in discovering the beauty of your desert? Visit the Tohono Chul Park website or call 742-6455 ext. 228 to register for a spot. 

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's annual Cool Summer Nights program is getting started this Saturday, May 21. 

This weekend's festivities include live music by the Napskippers and Mr. Nature's Music Garden, a free "How to Take Great Animal Photos" workshop, crafts and access to the International Society of Scratchboard Artists 5th Annual Exhibition. This Saturday also marks the first of the summer's four Full Moon Festivals. 

The fun continues each Saturday through Sept. 3, with each event running 5 to 10 p.m. Regular admission rates apply.

Here's the schedule for the rest of the summer (details can be found on the museum website):

Last week we talked about the plethora of ridiculous holidays we "celebrate" each day of the year, but I think I just found my favorite one: World Naked Gardening Day takes place this Saturday, May 7.

From wngd.org:

Gardening has a timeless quality, and anyone can do it: young and old, singles or groups, the fit and infirm, urban and rural. An elderly lady in a Manhattan apartment can plant new annuals in her window box. Families can rake leaves in their back yard. Freehikers can pull invasive weeds along their favorite stretch of trail. More daring groups can make rapid clothes-free sorties into public parks to do community-friendly stealth cleanups.

Why garden naked? First of all, it's fun! Second only to swimming, gardening is at the top of the list of family-friendly activities people are most ready to consider doing nude. Moreover, our culture needs to move toward a healthy sense of both body acceptance and our relation to the natural environment. Gardening naked is not only a simple joy, it reminds us—even if only for those few sunkissed minutes—that we can be honest with who we are as humans and as part of this planet.

Just watch out for the cholla and don't let your neighbors see. 

Google marked Earth Day with some truly stunning illustrations. As beautiful as those doodles are, celebrating our planet is better done offline and outside.

Go to a farmers market, take a hike, grab a sketch book and illustrate the Earth on your own. Find a way to say thanks to the planet for keeping us alive all these years.

Sometimes professors are feeling merciful around finals and let their evening classes out after only ten minutes. Quiet scenes of palm trees, olive trees and red brick buildings from my walk back to my car from the Marshall Building to the parking lot behind the Harvill building on the UA campus on Thursday, April 21.

Slideshow

A Blog Post That Jumped Out Of A Tree

Click to View 4 slides

I was enjoying a quiet moment sitting in the shade of my favorite old tree at Catalina Park earlier this week, blissfully unaware of my surroundings until I felt a small impact ripple across the ground. Mystified, I looked behind me and a young male had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. I stared at him for a second, trying to process where in the world this person could have come from. He told me that he’d been up in the tree, enjoying the beautiful day and if I was “feeling adventurous” I should try it out myself. He caught me on a laundry day in a pair of pants that have gotten a little bit tighter over the years, but I promised him I’d come see what the tree is all about when I’m wearing something stretchier. With a warm smile, he told me to have a good rest of my day in that very genuine Tucson-way that reminds me of why I love living here, and off he went.

Today, I came back to that towering (for the desert) tree. Using the gnarly old lumps dotting the trunk as footholds, I hauled myself up into the canopy and appreciated the view from 20 feet up, letting go of the stresses of four classes, two jobs and an internship for a few minutes and watching the storm clouds roll by through the tree branches. Sometimes strangers have good advice.  

If you want to climb the tree too, look for the tallest tree in the southwest corner of Catalina Park at 900 N 4th Ave.