The Tucson experience: 50 must-do's

The Tucson experience: 50 must-do's

We set out to find Tucson’s most essential experiences — which events, places and things should every visitor and resident of our desert town check off their list?

Should you help the Arizona Wildcats win a game at McKale using only the power of your voice? Should you tour the peaks and trails that surround us? Maybe the most essential experience is the smell of rain.

Join us this summer as we list the top 50 essential Tucson experiences.

Hike Sabino Canyon by moonlight 

Garlanded by trails, cactus forests and streamside pools, Sabino Canyon is Tucsonans’ favorite outdoor getaway, and reader Philip Bentley has an idea for experiencing it that requires timing, a good set of lungs and some reasonable late-afternoon temperatures.

He suggests heading out for Blackett’s Ridge two hours before sunset on an evening the moon will be full. From the signed beginning of the Phoneline Trail, the steep three-mile hike to Blackett’s Ridge is rewarded by jaw-dropping views of Sabino and Bear canyons. At the top, Thimble Peak will seem almost close enough to touch.

Take your time enjoying the sunset, Bentley urges, and walk down under the silvery illumination of the already rising moon.

Canyon Tours also offers tram rides three nights a month through November. 749-2327.

A monsoon storm in the palm of your hand 

Everyone, seemingly, likes the aroma of creosote, sometimes called greasewood or chaparral. “I wish I could bottle the smell,” says Star reader Zachary Breece.

The Creosote Council, a group representing the industries that protect railroad ties and other wood products from decay, credits the odor to naphthalene, an organic compound that gives off intense aromas even at low concentrations. Tucsonans recognize it as the fresh scent that follows — even precedes — the monsoon storms that typically start arriving in July. The wait can be hard. The remedy, in these parched days before the rains come, is to snap off a sprig, rub its waxy leaves between your fingers, inhale deeply and imagine the sound of thunder.

Splurge on a round of golf 

Nothing’s wrong with Tucson’s five municipal courses, but if your usual round seems a little routine, it seems a shame not to occasionally tread where Tiger and Trevino have on some of Tucson’s most manicured fairways.

A who’s-who gallery of course architects (Fazio, Trent Jones Jr., Lehman, Nicklaus, Weiskopf) have left their mark here. At perhaps the ritziest track, the Golf Club at Dove Mountain (572-3500), weekday summertime greens fees have been settling at $37 by 1 p.m.

During peak season, when the cost of 18 holes with OMG mountain views is prohibitive, savvy shoppers look to Oro Valley. One of them, Star sports columnist Greg Hansen, likes The Views (825-3110), which has a resort feel but won’t break the bank.

See Mission San Xavier in a new way 

Longtime Tucsonans are so used to the 18th century landmark, a treasure of Spanish mission architecture and baroque art, that it sometimes seems like a creation of nature, like the storm clouds that frame its bulky bell towers each summer.

But take that short drive down Interstate 19 again, Star readers urge. Get off at the San Xavier Road exit, follow the signs, and have another look and listen.

Marvel at its intricately gilded altarpiece and chapels. Attend a choral concert in the weeks before Christmas. Try seeing the mission at sunset, when it’s cast in a pinkish hue. Take some pictures or paint a watercolor: As familiar as the White Dove of the Desert may seem, it can still surprise.

UA collection rich in culture, tradition

Reasons to visit the Arizona State Museum and its grounds, from the inside out: The museum has a huge collection of Southwest Indian pottery and basketry, an extensive assortment of Navajo rugs and items from the Seri and Western Apache, and hundreds of Mexican folk masks and costumes. At the moment, retablos and ex-votos from the collection of Gloria Fraser Giffords are on display, as well as the Dinétah paintings of Jeremy Singer and photographs by Edward S. Curtis. An elegant formal reading room is on the second floor.

1013 E. University Blvd. Monday-Saturday, 10-5. Adult tickets $5.

Make some prickly pear jam 

Life in the upper Sonoran Desert has its perks. Among them: six months of peerless weather and more prickly pear pods than you can shake a rain stick at. Rather than letting the pods go to waste, reader Christine Newman suggests making prickly pear jam.

Some picking, boiling, mashing and straining is involved. The dark-red and purple pods of late summer are best. Carolyn Niethammer’s “American Indian Cooking” has recipes, and Desert Harvesters (desertharvesters.org) has classes on harvesting and cooking with desert plants. If you don’t have ready access to prickly pear pods, kindly ask neighbors if you can collect theirs.

Learn to fix your bike at BICAS

When the Pima Association of Governments announced in December that our region now has more than 1,000 miles of bicycle infrastructure, it was a cue to visit the garage and check on that old two-wheeler.

Not rideable? Luckily, Tucson has BICAS (Bicycle Inter-Community Art and Salvage), a downtown nonprofit and one of the oldest community bike centers in the U.S.

There, volunteers can show you how to replace brake and shifter housings, put on a new chain — even overhaul wheel bearings.

The co-op at 44 W. Sixth St. also has used bikes for sale. 628-7950.

Tucson's Loop: the path more traveled 

Star readers point to The Loop, a multiuse trail system ringing the metropolitan area, as a major addition to Tucson’s crowded catalog of must-do experiences. But when Pima County issued an open letter to bicyclists last summer to stop treating the paths like a racetrack, it was a sign that all was not well among Loop users.

Pedestrians who don’t control their dogs and those walking three and four abreast were also taken to task in the letter, sparking a conversation about how best to brush up on our sharing skills. But everything we need to know about Loop courtesy we learned in kindergarten: Pay attention, don’t rush, smiles and waves all around. Pass it along.

Help win a game at McKale 

Maybe you couldn’t play college basketball, but you’ve wrangled the city’s most precious ticket — to a men’s basketball game at McKale Center. Now what? Well, join 14,700 of your newest friends in trying to affect the outcome.

The Wildcats once won 71 straight games at McKale and have been victorious in over 83 percent of its games at the arena since it opened in 1973. All that stomping and screaming works, the numbers suggest. After Gonzaga’s Byron Wesley missed three free throws — airballing one of them — with 3.3 seconds left in a tense game on Dec. 6, senior Arizona guard T.J. McConnell knew whom to thank. “We have the best fans in the country and they just proved why.”

So soak in the celebration. High-five the stranger in the next seat. You’ve helped lift the Cats to another win and taken part in one of Tucson’s top experiences.

UA photo center: Develop that creative outlet 

Founded by Ansel Adams and then-UA President John Schaefer in 1975, the Center for Creative Photography started as a repository for the works of five master photographers, including Adams. Today, it is the global nerve center for researchers and teachers of the art form, with 5 million archival objects, including letters, journals, negatives and, of course, cameras.

What’s in it for the point-and-shoot photographer? Admission is free, for one thing. And you might leave the center with a sharper eye for detail and see the world in new ways. “The Pure Products of America Go Crazy” exhibit opens Saturday. Make an appointment (621-0050) to delve into the archives. 1030 N. Olive Road.

Tap into Tucson's burgeoning beer scene 

Remember when Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve was considered a leap forward? When Gentle Ben’s was the only brewery in town? Today, Tucson practically bubbles over with beer options, with brewers from the south side to the Foothills producing some of the best lagers and ales ever poured here. While a lot of chalkboard menus feature hop-heavy West Coast-style IPAs, Tucson’s hard water is also well-suited for the making of stouts and porters. Relative newcomers Borderlands Brewing Co. (119 E. Toole Ave.) Dragoon Brewing (1859 W. Grant Road) and Pueblo Vida Brewing Co. (115 E. Broadway), are fine places to start exploring.

Shine with Ben’s Bells

These days, Ben’s Bells’ stealthy agents of kindness are doing more than randomly distributing their namesake wind chimes. The group’s programs have spread to workplaces and schools, and chapters have opened across the country, from Portland, Oregon, to Newtown, Connecticut.

Tucsonans are invited to put their kindness into action at Ben’s Bells’ downtown and Main Gate studios, or to pick up an educational to-go box with suggested activities for spreading the love. For more information, visit BensBells.org or call 622-1379. Browse other volunteer opportunities at the Volunteer Center website (bit.ly/1MSzYWD) or call 903-3977.

Arizona Inn: Taste refinement, luxury

Once on Tucson’s outskirts, the centrally located Arizona Inn is still a bastion of early-20th-century refinement, described by architect Matt Sears in the July 27 Star as an “intricately woven complex of spaces” drawing from Colonial and Mediterranean influences.

The inn’s luxurious lobbies and dining areas are open to the public, and on a December night, few things are more satisfying than a hot cup of holiday cheer near one of its many crackling fireplaces.

Locals gush about their Seven Falls

On a nice day when the water’s flowing, hundreds have been known to make the trek to Seven Falls, crisscrossing Bear Creek as it cuts through prime desert scenery adjacent to Sabino Canyon. Fed by spring snowmelt and summer showers, the stepped series of waterfalls creates a lasting visual memento of a can’t-miss day trip. From the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area Visitor Center, walk or take a tram a mile and a half to the Bear Canyon Trailhead. From there, it’s a little over 2 miles to the cool cascade. If the falls are dry, enjoy the solitude.

Tucson’s car-free days: Seems like old times

After five years’ worth of Cyclovia (bikeway) events in Tucson, we see what happens when some city streets are closed to cars and given over to bicycling, walking, and other human-powered activities: Tens of thousands of people of all ages seize the experience.

Entertainment and food hubs along the route add to the festive feel.

Tucson has been one of North America’s pace-setters in adopting the urban innovation, thought to have started in Bogota, Colombia, in the 1980s.

Lunch and a stroll at Tohono Chul Park 

As butterflies flit among the flowering plants along Tohono Chul’s walking paths, one almost forgets how unforgiving the desert can be. And that’s partly why Star readers like to visit the 49-acre park, listed by National Geographic as one of the nation’s top “secret gardens.”

Having lunch or a prickly pear lemonade brought to you in a shady spot at the Garden Bistro is a key part of part of this civilized experience, which local resident George Haber calls “a must-do for Tucsonans and visitors alike!”

The park’s botanical gardens also lend inspiration to visitors looking to get creative with their own yards, and a retail nursery with arid-adapted plants grown specifically for Tucson lets them take some of the beauty home, where an Ageratum corybosum, a purple-bloomed butterfly magnet, might forever commemorate that perfect afternoon.

Praying for rain on San Juan’s Day

If a bunch of people put their minds to it, can they make it rain? That question is one way of looking at El Dia de San Juan, a celebration of St. John the Baptist and the beginning of the monsoon season associated with him. The traditional fiesta is June 24 on the west side of the Santa Cruz River at Mercado San Agustin from 5 to 10 p.m. Expect lots of food, games and folklorico. If a little rain should fall, there’ll be dancing like you’ve never seen.

Fascinated by flight? You’re in the right town

No understanding of Tucson is complete without a grasp of its proud aviation history.

At 80 acres, the Pima Air & Space Museum is one of the biggest aviation museums in the world. Among the planes housed there: the Bumble Bee, listed briefly in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s smallest piloted plane, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and the speedy SR-71A Blackbird, which has flown from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, 4 minutes. Open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 6000 E. Valencia Road.

And a good morning to you, from Tumamoc Hill

Folks who tie their shoelaces before dawn are the type you’ll find walking the paved but steep path up Tumamoc Hill, getting some exercise and enjoying nature before the heat hits and University of Arizona environmental researchers go to work. So popular are these morning sessions that devotees have their own online group (http://bit.ly/1QxEFW5). Look for street parking near West Anklam and North Silverbell roads, two miles west of downtown.

Float around Mexican-restaurant heaven

Stare down that chimichanga and ask yourself a question: Is this the best you can do?

It’s easy to fall into a restaurant rut. Luckily for lovers of Mexican food, the Tucson area’s table is beautifully set, particularly in the corridor stretching from downtown south, encompassing Fourth, Sixth and 12th avenues. Have you tried the flautas at El Minuto lately? El Charro’s carne seca? The birria at Mi Nidito? Explore, revisit and eat yourself silly.

Feel like a kid at Reid Park Zoo

The Reid Park Zoo, founded in 1965, is more popular than ever, drawing more than 600,000 visitors a year. The birth of elephant Nandi in 2014 and the arrival of four lion cubs in December 2013 haven’t hurt. The 24-acre zoo — a fun outdoor classroom, really — spreads a message of conservation, offering (fairly) close encounters with grizzlies and jaguars, and a daily chance to hand-feed the giraffes. Summer hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. are in effect till September.

El Tour de Tucson brings out Tucson’s best

The Saturday before Thanksgiving is a prime opportunity to notch a fitness benchmark while helping the community. With events from five to more than 100 miles, there’s a place for novice bicyclists and professionals alike at El Tour de Tucson. More than 7,000 race or ride for fun, and millions are raised for dozens of charitable groups.

To 4-wheelers, Redington Pass brings a grin 

Northeast of Tucson, in the high crease between the Rincon and Santa Catalina Mountains, miles of ATV and jeep trails offer some of the area’s best rough-terrain recreation and plenty of panoramic views. Time it right and a running Tanque Verde Creek provides a nice spot for a picnic. From Grant and Tanque Verde roads, head east 18 miles on Tanque Verde until it turns into Redington Road, which turns into the steep dirt access road. 

Fourth Avenue street fairs are a community party 

Life thrives on North Fourth Avenue year-round, but it’s a whole 'nother scene during the March and December street fairs, when tens of thousands of pedestrians jam the roadway just north of downtown, browsing the arts, crafts and food booths that stretch for blocks. Live music and street performers keep the mood buoyant, and the three-day events provide some of Tucson’s best people-watching. Get your wallet and stomach ready.

At old Arizona Stadium, football's fun again 

There’s a buzz at the stadium since the arrival of Coach Rich Rodriguez, whose teams treat every offensive possession like a two-minute drill. It is the football equivalent of fast-break basketball. Fans love it, players love it. Eight weeks after defeating No. 2 Oregon at Eugene in October, the University of Arizona secured the Pac-12 South championship with a home win over Arizona State, capping the school’s third 10-win season in history. Suddenly, claiming your seat at Arizona Stadium has became one of Tucson’s top experiences.

You deserve a Sonoran hot dog

Are you a slave to the Fitbit? Know a frustrated flexitarian? Few pleasures are greater than the bacon-wrapped Sonoran hot dog. Mustard, tomato, jalapeno sauce, grilled and raw onions, a scattering of pinto beans and a serpentine of mayonnaise make for a whirl of colors and flavors on a puffy bun. Might as well make it two.

Star readers are loyal to hot-dog trucks at Sixth and 22nd, Country Club and Lee, 12th and Drexel, Park and 36th, and oh, about 96 others. Brick-and-mortar rivals El Guero Canelo and BK’s have fierce fans, too.

Spend your Saturday night with a scorpion

On Saturdays in the summer, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney Road, stays open till 10 p.m. At night, “bats turn into insect-seeking missiles, and scorpions glow under black lights,” the museum promises.

As the heat ratchets up, it’s a cooler way to visit the world-renowned attraction, which is part zoo, part botanical garden, part aquarium. Each Saturday has a different theme, starting with World Oceans Night, a collaboration with California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium. Admission rates top out at $19.50 (DesertMuseum.org).

Lose yourself at the Tucson Festival of Books 

When this celebration of the written word takes place over two days each March on the University of Arizona campus, some 140,000 people show up. Seems everyone loves a good book. And like a good book, the festival makes the improbable inevitable. You can shake hands with J.A. Jance, exchange pleasantries with Gail Sheehy or ask Noam Chomsky what the heck “Syntactic Structures” was all about. Best of all, you can take a friend along and spark their love of literature and reading.

Take in a sunset at Gates Pass

One of life’s simplest pleasures — no app necessary — is perhaps best experienced at the city’s western gateway, in Tucson Mountain Park, where Tucsonans love to watch the continually changing light in the moments before the sun disappears.

It never gets old. Travel west on Speedway until it becomes Gates Pass Road, and follow the twists and turns until you reach the scenic pull-off called the Gates Pass Overlook.

Kindle your imagination at the DeGrazia Gallery

At the studio where Ted DeGrazia lived, worked and died, reader Terry Wangsness remembers many Sunday visits. “I lived close by,” Wangsness told the Star on Facebook, and “I loved going there.”

We still can. Tucson’s most famous artist, who would have turned 106 next month, still has a big presence in Southern Arizona: the massive gallery and museum housing his paintings, figurines and plates at 6300 N. Swan Road. Writing in the Nov. 9, 2014, Star, Kevin Howard gave an architect’s perspective: “Unencumbered by the rules, this master artist had intuitively and vigorously incorporated raw material, use of light, forced perspective and scale in a unique way. To call it a mere building doesn’t seem quite right. It is a place in the desert, a retreat. I have returned there over the years to remind myself that the only limitation is our own imagination.”

A lizard shades itself in the city. A squirrel forages in Summerhaven. Each occupies a specific niche of the ecology, unaware of the other.

Such is the biotic range that finds its most visible expression along the Catalina Highway, where in as little as an hour motorists can see saguaros and chollas give way to oak and juniper forests, pine and oak woodlands, and the stands of aspen and fir where Mount Lemmon tops out at 9,157 feet. Along the way, views from the Babad Do’ag, Molino Canyon and Windy Point overlooks will find a permanent place in your memory bank. The highway starts along Tanque Verde Road, northeast of Tucson.

Some of the world’s most astounding science projects are taking place under the east wing of Arizona Stadium, and you’re invited to visit. The Steward Observatory Mirror Lab produces powerful astronomical mirrors for use in optical and infrared telescopes, allowing scientists a peek at infant galaxies. Just last week, the 27-foot Large Synoptic Survey Telescope mirror, which will survey the universe from a Chilean mountaintop, rolled out of the building. Public tour times and dates vary. Visit http://bit.ly/1Hn8ioh to secure your spot.

An Eegee's for every occasion

Homegrown Eegee’s has been administering brain freezes since 1971, when it started as a vending truck business. For many, its frozen fruit drinks are a definitive Tucson experience, evoking memories of family gatherings, birthdays, graduations and summer nights. Reader Maria Magana likes to pack them as part of the picnic dinner she brings to the movies at Cinema La Placita downtown on Thursday evenings.

Madera Canyon trail offers a super experience

Away from the picnickers and bird-watchers on the canyon floor, it’s easy enough to find some solitude along the Super Trail Loop, especially on a weekday. But you’re never really alone. Hike this pine-shaded path often enough and you may see black bears, wild turkeys, white-tailed deer and the occasional mountain lion. From the Continental Road exit off Interstate 19 to Madera Canyon, it’s 13½ miles to the Roundup Picnic Area and the trailhead parking lot.

A gem-dandy way to inspire your kids

Plenty of natural discoveries await young ones checking out the gem and mineral shows that take place each February. With exhibits at tents and hotels across the city, it’s impossible to see every meteorite chunk or dinosaur fossil, but the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show at the Tucson Convention Center is geared to the public and has free admission for children 14 and under. If your kids walk away as aspiring rockhounds or paleontologists ... you’ll find the shelf space.

Goosebumps aplenty at soccer tournament’s kick-start

Each January on the weekend of the Tucson Association of Realtors Shootout, some 5,000 players on about 350 soccer teams spread out across the city to compete. But Friday’s opening ceremony is special — a celebratory spectacle fit for Olympians, with a parade of athletes at Fort Lowell Park, lighting of a torch, fireworks and skills contests for medals. It is hard to find this many smiles in one place.

Originally known as the Fort Lowell Shootout, the tournament started in 1991. Said its director, Diana Cannon, in the Jan. 17 Star: “When you ask so many of the athletes what do they remember about the Shootout, what they remember is the Friday night.”

El Presidio de San Agustin

El Presidio de San Agustin, foreground, is a military garrison that dates back to 1776, where women from Spain and Mexico kept house and cared for families in the fort. A walking tour developed by the Arizona Women's Heritage Trail leads walkers along famous areas of downtown Tucson that involved women. 

Do the 'Grant Road slalom,' says Star reader

This activity carries risks for those who value their vehicle’s suspensions, and its name could as easily be “the Valencia Veer” or “Speedway Swerve.” No matter where you drive here, a pothole seemingly lies in wait. While hitting one is a jarring, unavoidable mark of Tucsonhood, evading them on Grant, says Star reader Mark Owen Sawyer, is one of the city’s most indelible experiences.

Brilliant idea: A walk through Winterhaven

From mid-December to Christmas, a big beacon called the Festival of Lights shines from this northside neighborhood. Since 1949, Winterhaven residents have been decorating their homes and yards — and factoring in a bump in their electric bills — while warming the hearts of tens of thousands of Tucsonans. That it benefits the Community Food Bank makes these two weeks all the brighter.

For a shot of adrenaline, tap into Tucson’s mountain-biking scene

Already one of America’s favorite bicycling cities, Tucson can no longer be considered an under-the-radar destination for the fat-tire crowd. Each February a small city of tents and RVs appears north of Tucson for what is billed as the nation’s biggest round-the-clock mountain biking event: 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo.

And most weekends, bicyclists of all ages ply the trails at Fantasy Island, Tucson Mountain Park and the Tortolita trail system, looking for fresh air, a new view — and an exhilarating descent.

Tucsonans love a free band concert

Crickets chirp. The smell of cut grass is in the air. Neighbors gather at Reid Park and the band begins to play “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and boy is it popular. Parking and seating places go fast when the Tucson Pops Orchestra performs at the bandshell each Sunday in the spring and fall. The lawn comfortably holds 7,000 and the concerts, going on since the Cold War, are free.

Say goodbye to a loved one at the All Souls Procession

Tucson’s special, spectral All Souls Procession, a peculiar adaptation of Dia de los Muertos celebrations dating to the 1500s, is also rooted in the city’s early-1990s underground arts scene. However it’s described — picturesque, profound, intimate — it seems to fill a human need here.

These days, 40,000 or more take part in the procession, falling on the Sunday nearest to Nov. 2. Last year it ended with a cathartic show of pyrotechnics, acrobatics and drumming near Mercado San Agustín, west of Interstate 10.

Meet the desert (without shaking its hand)

Newcomers mystified by their new surroundings will find few better introductions to the Sonoran Desert’s plants and animals than at the eastern unit of Saguaro National Park.

Not only can you get close to the park’s namesake cactus on pullouts along the paved 8-mile loop drive starting at the main entrance, you also can see a century-old mine site along the Loma Verde Trail, as well as bits of the state’s homesteading and ranching history on the network of trails leading into the foothills of the Rincon Mountains.

Access the park, 3693 S. Old Spanish Trail, from I-10 exit 275 (north on Houghton) or East Broadway; right on Spanish Trail in both cases.

Catch a ball game

Fifty years ago, local Little League executive Rudy Garcia, frustrated by a lack of places to play, let the mayor know that he and 250 parents and players would be making their own baseball diamond at Irvington and Nogales Highway. Police watched but didn’t intervene.

In 1999 overzealous parks workers, worried about the condition of the grass, were forced to relent after youth teams complained about being shut out of the fields at what is now the Kino Sports Complex.

In what’s commonly called a basketball town, nothing stands between Tucsonans and their love for baseball. Tonight under the lights, at Kriegh, Anamax, Udall and Kennedy parks, from Oro Valley to Sahuarita, from the east side to the Tucson Mountains and points in between, there’s a game about to start.

Fox Theatre: Still cool at 85

Those to whom the Fox Theatre always seemed like a black-and-white memory may wish to revisit the meticulously restored movie palace, complete with its original chandeliers.

Reopened at the start of 2006, the Southwestern art deco landmark is home to concerts, theater performances, lectures and, of course, classic movies.

“I will never forget the first time I walked into the theatre after the renovation was complete,” said Ellie Patterson, former Fox Foundation Board president, on the venue’s website.

“I still get goosebumps.”

Find cool fun at Kartchner Caverns State Park

Considering that the formations were discovered in 1974 and the park opened only in 1999, today’s visitors are among the relative few who have ever laid their eyes on the huge limestone cave system near Benson, where icicle-shaped stalactites continue to grow.

The Rotunda/Throne Tour is open this time of year, and reservations can be made at azstateparks.com. Sensitive types have been known to bring a light jacket. Imagine that.

Tanque Verde Swap Meet: That is some crowd 

Tucsonans have been packing the Tanque Verde Swap Meet for 40 years now, first on East Grant and Tanque Verde Roads, and now on 33 acres on South Palo Verde Road. The nighttime crowds become so dense that walking the aisles can be near impossible, says Star reporter Kathleen Allen, who visited on a recent Saturday.

And while it’s a fine place to pick up an orbital sander or some car stereo speakers — even get a haircut — “the best part is the social part,” Russell Paxson told Allen. That seems to be the prevailing sentiment. “It’s like a li’l mini-mall,” Vanessa Lisette Rodriguez told us on Facebook.

“It’s nothing high-class, but it sure is nice to take a walk around,” she said. “You see everyone you know.”

Wasson Peak: Get a sense of the surroundings 

At 4,687 feet, Wasson Peak is the view of choice for many Tucsonans, some of whom have climbed it hundreds of times. Lined by brittlebush and desert marigolds, the King Canyon Trail and others lead to the summit, rising up and out of the desert into a series of switchbacks, eventually rewarding hikers with a 360-degree panorama.

The view is so vast, so unimpeded, the curvature of the Earth almost seems detectable. Picacho Peak, some 35 miles away in Pinal County, is visible from this perch in Saguaro National Park West — “the reason I moved here!” writes Star reader Michelle Morrall.

During rodeo week, hold on tight

Whether it involves lining up early for a good spot along the parade route, or attending every day of roping, wrangling and clowning, Star readers suggest jumping into the long rodeo weekend in late February both boots first.

Many parade watchers arrive before sun-up — even the night before — to stake out spots along South Park Avenue. After Thursday’s parade, the Rodeo Grounds come alive with competitions featuring some of the pro circuit’s best steer wrestlers and calf ropers. La Fiesta de los Vaqueros is crackling good entertainment, and to some old-timers still the city’s most important event.

Whistle through the 'boneyard' 

Tucsonans’ cheerful attachment to Davis-Monthan’s Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, or “the boneyard,” may be rooted in the fact that there simply isn’t another place quite like it.

More than 4,000 aging bombers, fighters, tankers and other military aircraft present an otherworldly tableau just off East Irvington and South Kolb roads.

Preserved in our low humidity, most are not likely to fly again, though many could be put back into service if needed. The Pima Air & Space Museum operates bus tours of the site Monday through Friday.