Headed to Tuscon, AZ. Anything to not miss?

[Bad Andy]

Hello Photo Forum. I am headed to Tuscon, AZ in about two weeks and may have some free time to take in some photography. Wondering if anyone has been there, and can recommend any "not to miss" photography sites/places, etc?

Thank you in advance.

-Andy

 

[KmH]

What do you like to photograph? I used to live in Tucson. There are buttloads of things to photograph

Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita mountains south of town is one of the best birding spots in the USA.
West of town is the Arizona-Sonora Desert museum, and the Old Tucson Studios.

The University of Arizona is a hot bed of astronomical research and is home to the worlds leading large telescope mirror making lab, the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab. The mirror making facility is housed under the east wing of the football stadium. There are several major astronomical observatory sites around Tucson - Kitt Peak National Observatories to the west, the Fred Whipple Observatory on Mount Hopkins to the south, and the new LBT (Large Binocular Telescope) on Mt. Graham, a bit further away and north of Willcox.

There is the Pima Air Museum and the military aircraft bone yard atr Davis Monthan AFB. South of town is a preserved Titan missile silo that is also run by the Pima Air Museum.

There are various barrio around the downtown area, an restored art deco theater downtown (the Fox).

In about 45 minutes you can drive up Mt. Lemmon and be in alpine forest. Stop at Windy Point on the drive up and you can take unobstructed pictures of Tucson from 6580 feet up., or you can get nice aerial shots of downtown from the nearby "A" mountain.

There are lots of saguaro cacti around and lots of golf courses.

In the Rincon moutains is Collossal Cave, an ancient karst cave. There is another, more recently discovered cave network (Kartchner Caverns) south of Benson which is just a few miles south of town on the highway that goes to Sierra Vista.

In short, there is more to photograph than you will likely have time to think about.

I forgot to mention Biosphere - 2 which is north of Tucson. IIRC a team lived in it for 2 years.

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

You can go to the Sonoran Desert Museum. If you want to travel you can go about 1 hour north to Picacho Peak. Known to have some decent wildflowers and its one of the few Civil War era battlegrounds in Arizona. You can also drive about an hour and a half south and visit Bisbee, which I believe iit was once the largest city between St. Louis and San Fransisco. Its kinda like an old artsy town now. If you drive there, you will go through Tombstone as well.