Car Rental Tucson - Exploring Tucson

Southern Arizona offers visitors some of America’s most spectacular desert scenery, and it is well worth taking a few days to explore the region by car.

Saguaro National Park, located to the east and west of Tucson, is a unique landscape peppered with enormous saguaro cacti, massive succulents that can reach a height of up to five storeys. The park features some wonderful hiking trails of varied length and difficulty, ranging from easy walks across the flat landscape of the Sonoran Desert, to steep, challenging trails in the rugged Rincon mountains.

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a world-famous zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden. It focuses on educating visitors about the beauty and wonder of the Sonoran Desert, the environmental threats the area faces and the measures that can be taken to protect it.

The museum features over 300 indigenous desert species in amazingly natural environments, 1,200 plant varieties, and fascinating educational programs and presentations. Over 3kms of paths traverse this 8.5-hectare area of beautiful desert. The museum is located approximately four kilometres from town, on Kinney Road.

Coronando National Forest, located less than an hour from Tucson by car, is a natural desert oasis thriving with bird and animal life, and encompassing some breathtaking scenery. Here you can find great opportunities for horseback riding, white-water rafting in Sabino Canyon, bird-watching, hiking and rock climbing.

Santa Cruz county, south of Tucson, is equally blessed with natural beauty, featuring fish-filled lakes, remote campgrounds, excellent hiking trails, and superb bird-watching which draws travellers from all over the world. Tumacacori National Historic Park is a Franciscan mission that was founded in 1795, and regularly attacked by Apache Indians. At the site, you can see the ruins of the old chapel and graveyard, as well as a later, ornate church from 1822, and a visitor centre presenting information on the mission.