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On the northern edge of Tucson, you can drive through a condensed version of western North America’s ecosystem in about half an hour. On the way up the Mount Lemmon Highway (also known as “Catalina Highway” or “Sky Island Scenic Byway”), you traverse almost all of the different life zones you would encounter if you were to actually drive from Mexico to Canada: starting with the saguaro-studded Sonoran desert, up through grassland, junipers and oaks, pines, and finally a mixed-conifer forest with stands of aspen. You begin at about 2500 ft. and end up at almost 9100 ft. above sea level (about 760 to 2770 meters). In the summer, especially, southern Arizonans love this road: “thirty miles, thirty degrees cooler,” as the saying goes. When it’s 105 degrees down in the city, it’s a perfect 75 up on the mountain. In the winter, you can go skiing in the southernmost ski resort in the U.S.

A little over a mile from where the deer roam in the saguaro-studded foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains, sit down for some izakaya-style dining. Japanese “tapas” might not be a completely accurate description for this genre of shareable plates, but you get the idea. Ginza is family-owned, and a nice surprise in this corner of the desert. After an evening hike in Sabino Canyon, sit down for your choice of izakaya-plates or fresh sashimi—Tucson is only a six-hour drive from the Pacific, and a four-hour drive from the Sea of Cortez. And if you’ve never had a bowl of ‘real’ ramen (just say ‘no’ to maruchan), you’re in for a revelation of toothsome noodles in porky broth. A few of my favorites are the sautéed shrimp with mild green chilies, the gyoza, and (for a main course) the bibimpbap-chirashi bowl. Over sushi-rice, you’re served a generous sampling of fresh sashimi, tamagoyaki (slightly sweet rolled omelet), sprouts, and seaweed, with a quail egg as a garnish. Korean-inspired spicy/sweet ‘bibim’ sauce tops it off. Chef-owner Jun Arai’s wife, Diana, is from Mexico, which explains the homemade flan on the menu. Take a hike, then take a seat. After the cactus, kampai!

Just to the southwest of Tucson, on the San Xavier Reservation, sits the late XVIII-century Mission San Xavier del Bac, one of the finest examples of Spanish colonial architecture in the U.S. The combination of late Baroque and Moorish-inspired design is a beacon any time of the year, but on this winter day, the flooded fields worked some magic—panoramas of reflected landscapes are almost nonexistent in southern Arizona! The ‘white dove of the desert’ is the oldest intact European structure in Arizona, and it still serves as a parish church for the Tohono O’odham people.

Visitors flock to southern Arizona for sun and saguaros... ...but for a hole in the ground? Other than the ones on golf courses? From the 1960’s to the 1980’s, Tucson was ringed by eighteen steel-and-concrete-reinforced holes in the ground--highly secure shafts in the desert that housed intercontinental ballistic missiles tipped with multi-megaton nuclear bombs. “Peace through Deterrance” was the idea, as the propaganda-phrase goes... Of the 54 Titan Missile complexes that were scattered around the country, only this one, about 45 minutes south of Tucson, has been preserved and opened to the public. It’s a startling reminder of how thin the line was that separated the “Cold War” from “M.A.D."--"mutual assured destruction.” It would only have taken 30 minutes from its desert launch for this missile to deliver unimaginable destruction--via a 9 megaton nuclear warhead--up to 6300 miles (10,000km) away... On a lighter note, some of the filming of one of the Star Trek films took place here. You can visit the subterranean control bunker and staff living quarters, access corridors, and the missile silo itself. Tours are offered on the hour year-round, with additional tours offered every thirty minutes from January through April. Closed Christmas and Thanksgiving. Whether you’re coming from the left or from the right, politically, the sobering reality of this fusion of human nature and technology is worth going underground for if you’re driving down I-19.

Don’t go looking for Casa Grande, the national monument of pre-Columbian ruins, in Casa Grande, the sprawling exurb of a town about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. You have to drive about 20 miles away to the small town of Coolidge to find the site. This may not be the most scenic stretch of desert, it must be said, but the destination is worth the detour. The Hohokam culture built this complex of dwellings and irrigation canals—one of many—late in their tenure here. Erected in the 1300s, this particular site was abandoned by the mid-1400s—the end of perhaps a thousand years of irrigated agriculture in the Sonoran Desert. The network of villages and canals continue to fascinate archaeologists and urban planners. The “big house” (Casa Grande was named by the first Spanish explorers in the area) stands about four stories tall. In the 1930s, the current shelter was built to protect it from further erosion. (Look carefully: you might catch a glimpse of the resident horned owls.) The timbers needed for construction came from the mountains about 50 miles away; at the time there were no pack animals, and thus no wheeled vehicles in this desert—makes you think... The surrounding ballgame-courts show influence from Mesoamerica. Desert civilization in North America is often thought of as a recent phenomenon—take the 20th-century explosions of Las Vegas, Phoenix, etc. Dig deeper, and get off the interstate. The past is not remote, and this is an easy day trip from Tucson.

In an otherwise flat and forlorn section of desert between Tucson and San Diego, exit 67 on I-8 is a sweet pit stop: Dateland! A grove of date palms was planted beside the railroad tracks here in the 1920s. Today, it’s more than just a typical refueling station—it’s a true road-trip oasis for your sweet tooth. Sample the variety of caramel ovals, and then get a milkshake! The date shakes are definitely “local-" if not “world"-famous, and prickly pear cactus fruit is also a flavor option. Look for the palms on the horizon about an hour east of Yuma; it’s not a mirage.

Hike into Bear Canyon on the northeastern edge of Tucson, and you’ll be rewarded (most of the year) with a view of Seven Falls, gushing out of the Santa Catalina Mountains. Even though the hike in and out is around seven miles, it’s mostly flat. You’ll find that, as you’re zigzagging across the creek on large boulders, with cliffs above the cacti all around, traffic and strip malls are a world away. When you arrive at the falls, the rushing waters are a balm for the soul. Midwinter through the middle of spring is a good time to visit this oasis; the higher-elevation snowmelt guarantees flowing water and the daytime temperatures are comfortable. Midsummer monsoon rains can also fill this canyon, and flash floods can be a sudden danger.

I hate wimpy hamburger buns--you know the kind: pickle juice and grill marks bleed through the sad white carbs...Downtown Flagstaff’s Diablo Burger rejects mushy bread in favor of hearty “db"-branded English muffins. Their beef patties are from just down the road a bit, where the cows are grass-fed, open-range, hormone & antibiotic-free...The cheese--local. Beer on tap? Almost always regional. The potatoes for their Belgian-style fries? From the local “food-shed” too. “Landscape-scale conservation that you can taste,” they say. Savor a beefy taste-of-place on your way to or from the Grand Canyon, or linger a while in this college-ski-town that defies Arizona‘s all-desert reputation. The outdoor seating area boasts a mural that is redolent of Hieronymous Bosch and Picasso. Chew on that at 7,000-ft. above sea-level... (Diablo Burger has also opened a second location a few hours south--down in Tucson...)

No matter how posh, there’s always a place for something deep-fried to go with drinks, eh? Tucked into its own private canyon on the far northwestern edge of Tucson, the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain resort is the epitome of understated desert chic... Each February, world champion golfers come to the foothills of the Tortolita Mountains to compete in the Accenture Match Play Championship, the spa has recently been ranked one of the best in the world, and it’s been open for two and a half years now...So, curious, my wife and I (we live about an hour away), thought we’d spend an afternoon here... ...and on the patio of “Ignite” (the lobby lounge/café), we noshed on “Avocado FRIES!” With a three-chili aioli and an “Arizona Greyhound,” (grapefruit and vodka), cactus wrens and cardinals darting about the blooming saguaros, the fried avocado wedges were an unexpected accompaniment to relaxing in the shade...

A couple of years ago, on Black Friday, my wife and I headed away from the malls of Tucson and into the mountains: Chiricahua National Monument, just west of the New Mexico border in SE Arizona, was one of the last strongholds of the Chiricahua Apaches, who called this area “the land of standing-up rocks.” This particular mountain peak is Cochise Head (elev. 8087'); cock your head to the right and it resembles a man’s profile. The ‘eyelash’ is formed by a tall Douglas fir tree. The volcanic formation is named after Chief Cochise, who died in 1874. About a decade after his death, several hundred of his surviving fellow Apaches were deported to Florida, never to return to their homeland again... The history of the American Southwest is a sobering mix of people on the move with conflicting labels: pioneers/invaders, defenders/terrorists, war/genocide, natives/aliens...It still hasn’t been all sorted out.

Why we love it: A photogenic inn that draws design aficionados to Saguaro National Park

Highlights:
- Design-forward suites with fireplaces and private patios
- A scenic location right on Saguaro National Park
- Unique amenities like a chef’s kitchen and yoga room

The Review:
This five-suite inn, set on 40 acres bordering the western side of Saguaro National Park, comes courtesy of Sara and Rich Combs, known for their popular Joshua Tree House rental. Just 30 minutes from Tucson, the whitewashed adobe property draws the desert sunshine indoors, where it dances with rough-hewn beams and terra-cotta-hued textiles. A variety of potted plants help connect the chic, design-forward interiors with the surrounding desert, while a 5,000-square-foot patio blurs the lines between indoors and out. Available to rent through Airbnb, all rooms feature fireplaces and refrigerators, and most have private patios or balconies.

Book a single suite or buy out the whole property for an event, workshop, or reunion, then take advantage of amenities like a pool, rooftop lounge, chef’s kitchen, dining patio, fire pit, yoga room, and projector for movie nights. While Posada intends to add a chef-in-residence program, it doesn’t currently offer food service, so plan to pack groceries and grill outside, cook in one of the kitchens, or head out to a local restaurant like the Ocotillo Café at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, just 10 minutes away.

The wording is irresistible: “Get a taste of history.” On the grounds of one of the oldest Spanish missions (est. 1691) in Arizona, tortillas cooked over a mesquite fire, in the shade of mesquite trees, steps from an adobe church--this is Tumacácori. Drive about an hour south of Tucson. Just 20 miles from the Mexican border, this mission/Nat’l Historical Park was originally established by the Jesuits. The remaining structure (surprisingly intact) dates from the early 19th century, when Franciscans and the native Tohono O’odham stacked some ninety thousand adobe bricks together to build their church. Spaniards and Basques settled the Santa Cruz River valley, missionaries brought fruit trees and foreign religion...After the Colonial period, support from the government in Mexico dwindled, Apache attacks increased, and by the 1850’s, when the U.S. acquired this territory, the mission had been abandoned. Tortillas are made outdoors most weekends fall through spring; call ahead to confirm. (520-398-234) [pronunciation note--Tumacacácori: “too-mah-KAH-koh-ree”]

When people think of southern Arizona and its border with Mexico, cactus and sun-baked sand may come to mind — but a mountain canyon with fall foliage, homestead cabins, and deer? Go high enough, and you’ll find this and more. The Huachuca Mountains climb to over 9000 feet just north of the border in Cochise County, about an hour and a half from Tucson. Toward the southern edge of the town of Sierra Vista, the Nature Conservancy has set up the Ramsey Canyon Preserve, which is ideal for hiking and birdwatching. The deer are tame, wild turkeys are common, and fourteen species of hummingbirds have been spotted among the 150+ species of birds that find refuge in this “sky island” — a mountain range that rises high enough above the surrounding desert to provide a cooler and wetter ecosystem. By late fall, the cottonwoods, maples, and sycamores transform the canyon into a landscape that would be reminiscent of New England if it weren’t for the omnipresent agave plants. Watch your step, and stay alert for the occasional black bear, javelina, or mountain lion. Chimneys, log cabins, and apple trees remain from early homesteaders who found refuge from the desert in these mountains, which were originally named “Huachuca"—meaning ‘thunder'—by the Apaches.

As you speed through the desert on I-10 between Tucson and Phoenix, consider getting off at Exit 219, especially if you have kids in the backseat... ...and even if you don’t have kids in the backseat, feeding ostriches and lorikeets is FUN! This is a classic road-trip must-stop thing to do. Stretch your legs and take a break from dodging eighteen-wheelers while communing with a bit of feathered nature at the foot of Picacho Peak. There are deer and goats to feed as well, and ostrich feather dusters for purchase, along with gigantic eggshells and related desert avian kitsch. The ‘rainbow lorikeet forest’ is a delight--these Australian parrots fly free in this tree-filled enclosure and will happily land on you to feed from the cups of nectar you’ll be offering... I’d passed by this area for years before finally stopping, always curious but skeptical. I can honestly say it’s not a rip-off and you’ll probably end up spending more time than you thought you would...unless you have a phobia of birds. (Keep in mind--mid-summer mid-day temps can be brutal here, and there are occasional dust-storms in this area. Plan accordingly.)

Tucson is predictably well-endowed with Mexican restaurants...But it’s still worth driving about an hour south to the little town of Tubac for a meal at Elvira’s. Upon entering the cool space, you won’t be surprised to learn that the chef/owner got degrees in design and graphic arts before going to cooking school. The restaurant, family-owned since 1927, is named after Ruben Monroy’s grandmother. Originally located in Nogales, Mexico, Elvira’s moved up to Tubac a few years ago... Have a welcoming “Hola-tequila-shot” (just fifty cents!) while perusing the menu...I had the pipián rojo mole—perfectly tender chicken under a vibrant sauce made with ground pumpkin seeds; my wife tried the day’s light lunch special of mushroom enchiladas with tomatillo salsa, and for out-of-town family, the squash-blossom-stuffed poblano chile relleno “Frida Kahlo.” Beef tongue with salsa verde and the other moles will have to wait for a return visit. Suspended from the ceiling are constellations of lanterns, blown-glass teardrops, flying cherubs—Mexican folk-art with a surreal twist. Your eyes will not be bored. More importantly, neither will your taste buds... (Tubac, incidentally, was the starting point of the 18th-c. expedition that led to the founding of San Francisco, Santa Clara, & San José, CA. Not much of the original Spanish presidio remains, but for the past few decades, “where art and history meets” has become the slogan of this ‘artists’ colony’ in the high desert.)