Upcoming Events

Join us for the kick off event to our 2026 Cool Summer Nights Series! Water is one of the most precious resources in the Sonoran Desert, which includes the Gulf of California. Help us celebrate the big blue and have a jaw-some time! Please wear blue in honor of World Oceans Day!

Enjoy live music, lectures, and hands-on activities and education from: Biosphere 2, CEDO: Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans, Desert Dolphins, The Dive Shop, and Fin Foundation.

See, smell, taste, hear, and feel the Sonoran Desert! Each day we will let our senses lead as we learn from desert plants and animals, explore nature around us, and examine bioartifiacts. And of course, we’ll explore the Museum, play lots of games, and make art that reflects on our discoveries. Come use those sensational senses to explore the desert!

Calling all curious kids! The natural world is full of surprises and fascinating stories. During this STEAM-focused camp, kids will investigate the world around them using tips and tools of scientists. We’ll use exciting technology for nature discovery, and we’ll even get to meet some Desert Museum scientists and zookeepers along the way! Throughout the week we’ll explore the Museum, make nature-inspired art, and have up close experiences with a variety of desert animal friends. We’ll have a fancactus time!

Let's celebrate the spectacular starry skies! Tucson is arguably the best city for stargazing in the United States. View the wonders of the night skies at one of our telescope stations and enjoy space-themed activities and lectures.
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We're open until 10:00 p.m. every Saturday night in June, July, and August for Cool Summer Nights!
Each night has a different theme but every night has live music, lectures, and fun, educational activities for families. Cool Summer Nights is included with Museum admission.

Celebrate and explore the desert dwellers that call our grounds home. Many Sonoran Desert flora and fauna are more active during summer nights, like the evening primrose or kangaroo rats. Witness the desert coming alive at night, enjoy Indie Rock/Latin Pop music by Nicosa, and catch Sonoran Desert Animal Spotlight in the Warden Oasis Theater.
🌵
We're open until 10:00 p.m. every Saturday night in June, July, and August for Cool Summer Nights!
Each night has a different theme with fun, educational activities to match it! Cool Summer Nights is included with Museum admission.

Travel through the Sonoran Desert seasons with us as we play, craft, create, and explore! Each day, we’ll learn from plant and animal friends about how they survive and thrive as the seasons change around them. Campers will cultivate a greater understanding of our environment and our special role within it. Come grow and change with us! This camp is for kids entering Grades 1-5 who are siblings of campers enrolled in Colors of the Desert.

Discover the many colors of the Sonoran Desert as we observe the world around us through the lenses of culture, art, and science. During the day we will explore the Desert Museum grounds, have up close live animal experiences, learn with Tohono O’odham and NOIRlab teachers, as well as create projects using nature as our inspiration. On Wednesday, we will visit Kitt Peak National Observatory to learn about traditional ecological knowledge, explore astronomy concepts, and discover the history of the land. Each day brings a new adventure as we explore the colors of the desert!

Coati Kids Club member families enjoy a special event with animal encounters, grounds exploration, and crafts. Today's theme: Saguaro Harvest

Dust off your hat and cowboy boots because we're celebrating our western heritage! Dive into local history with a talk by Tohono O'odham rancher Mr. Johnson Sr. and learn about ranching and conservation from Sara King with the Altar alley Conservation Alliance. Live music by Mamma Coal. Western wear encouraged.
🌵
We're open until 10:00 p.m. every Saturday night in June, July, and August for Cool Summer Nights!
Each night has a different theme but every night has live music, lectures, and fun, educational activities for families. Cool Summer Nights is included with Museum admission.

Incredible lightning storms and the intoxicating aroma of creosote after the first rain are two of our favorite things about monsoon season! Meet experienced storm chasers and photographers, enjoy live music by Asphalt Astronaut, and learn about this magical summertime season.
🌵
We're open until 10:00 p.m. every Saturday night in June, July, and August for Cool Summer Nights!
Each night has a different theme with fun, educational activities to match it! Cool Summer Nights is included with Museum admission.

How can we be superheroes for the plants and animals around us? Through nature exploration and hands-on activities, campers will discover everyday actions that they can do to protect the planet—no cape required! From forests and wetlands to deserts and oceans, we’ll uncover nature’s superpowers and how humans can help—or harm—these incredible ecosystems.

Discover the incredible diversity of animals in the Sonoran Desert! Each day focuses on a different animal taxonomic group as campers explore what makes each group unique, learn about conservation challenges that wildlife face, and meet live animals up close. Through hands-on activities and engaging discovery, campers will build curiosity about science, develop empathy for animals, and learn how they can help protect species and ecosystems.

All things reptilian are in the spotlight tonight! Learn about our Tortoise Adoption Program and meet some of the available tortoises in our program, hear from notorious Herpetologist Craig Ivanyi, and enjoy live music by Halsero.
🌵
We're open until 10:00 p.m. every Saturday night in June, July, and August for Cool Summer Nights!
Each night has a different theme with fun, educational activities to match it! Cool Summer Nights is included with Museum admission.

How can we be superheroes for the plants and animals around us? Through nature exploration and hands-on activities, campers will discover everyday actions that they can do to protect the planet—no cape required! From forests and wetlands to deserts and oceans, we’ll uncover nature’s superpowers and how humans can help—or harm—these incredible ecosystems.

Discover the incredible diversity of animals in the Sonoran Desert! Each day focuses on a different animal taxonomic group as campers explore what makes each group unique, learn about conservation challenges that wildlife face, and meet live animals up close. Through hands-on activities and engaging discovery, campers will build curiosity about science, develop empathy for animals, and learn how they can help protect species and ecosystems.

Round two of celebrating the spectacular starry skies, but this time we're sprinkling in some extra stardust (aka minerals)! View the wonders of the night skies at one of our telescope stations and enjoy space-themed lectures, live rock music, and visiting our friends from the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society.
🌵
We're open until 10:00 p.m. every Saturday night in June, July, and August for Cool Summer Nights!
Each night has a different theme with fun, educational activities to match it! Cool Summer Nights is included with Museum admission.

Discover the Flavors and Traditions of the Sonoran Desert! Ever baked with mesquite flour or tasted pickled cholla buds? These unique desert ingredients aren’t just delicious — they can boost food security, improve health, and protect the environment. Join us for a flavorful celebration of the Sonoran Desert’s rich food heritage! Sample creative bites (tasting tickets are an additional $8) from local chefs featuring desert-adapted ingredients and learn about the history and future of desert foodways. Come explore how the resilient flavors of the desert can nourish both the body and the land.
🌵
We're open until 10:00 p.m. every Saturday night in June, July, and August for Cool Summer Nights!
Each night has a different theme with fun, educational activities to match it! Cool Summer Nights is included with Museum admission.

Let’s celebrate incredible insects and amazing arthropods! The Sonoran Desert is a hot spot of insect diversity and this is your chance to meet them. Get a bugs-eye view of many of the million species of arthropods that make the Sonoran Desert their home.
🌵
We're open until 10:00 p.m. every Saturday night in June, July, and August for Cool Summer Nights!
Each night has a different theme with fun, educational activities to match it! Cool Summer Nights is included with Museum admission.

After nearly disappearing in the 1980s, the recovery of Mexican Gray Wolves has been a continuous, binational effort between the U.S. and Mexico. The Desert Museum even helped pioneer early breeding and population management programs in human care! Today, we’re proud to care for our own wolves, Sol, Luna, and Estrella, who help visitors learn about their vital role as a keystone species and the ongoing efforts to restore them to the wild. Celebrate all things Mexican Gray Wolf with us, and get a sneak peek of their new habitat that's currently in the works.
🌵
We're open until 10:00 p.m. every Saturday night in June, July, and August for Cool Summer Nights!
Each night has a different theme with fun, educational activities to match it! Cool Summer Nights is included with Museum admission.

Coati Kids Club member families enjoy a special event with animal encounters, grounds exploration, and crafts. Today's theme: Nocturnal Toxins

Are you feeling batty? Come celebrate the only flying mammals—bats! The evening will be filled with fun, educational activities, talks, and crafts designed to help you better appreciate these amazing aerial acrobats!
🌵
We're open until 10:00 p.m. every Saturday night in June, July, and August for Cool Summer Nights!
Each night has a different theme but every night has live music, lectures, and fun, educational activities for families. Cool Summer Nights is included with Museum admission.

With Summer ending and a new school year about to begin, we're closing out the 2026 Cool Summer Nights season by celebrating Teachers and Support Staff! We appreciate all the hard work that it takes to inspire and educate our children. Teachers and Support Staff enjoy free admission (with school employee ID), swag bags, freebies, raffles, and more!
🌵
We're open until 10:00 p.m. every Saturday night in June, July, and August for Cool Summer Nights!
Each night has a different theme but every night has live music, lectures, and fun, educational activities for families. Cool Summer Nights is included with Museum admission.

Join the Desert Museum on an extraordinary trip through Northern Spain via slow train!

On this tour we learn about Bronze Age castros, Roman gold and iron mining, and Asturian and Cantabrian traditional lifeways. As a counterpoint to the old, we visit Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum of modern art, and learn about and taste Basque culture. We explore the hinterlands of farms, forests and hamlets, walking a stretch of the Camino de Santiago. Our coastal route follows the narrow-gauge local train, the FEVE, from which we hop on and off for stays at seaside towns, where we drink apple cider and enjoy regional seafood and Asturian fabada. Then there is the fairytale scenery: the northern edge of the peninsula falls dramatically into the Cantabrian Sea in steeply tilted rock walls. To complement the landscape, we share lessons on the geology of the Iberian Peninsula. This is the land that the Celts originated from, and that the Basques continue to inhabit. This trip is bound to be filled with memories of a lifetime.

Led by Sonya Norman, Jesús García, and Jim Malusa. Sonya will provide perspective on being the daughter of a Spanish "Valenciana" - sharing the gastronomy, history, and sites of her mother's homeland. She is a native of Tucson, has a B.S. in Geosciences, plants trees and collects rainwater in her neighborhood, and helps control buffelgrass in the Tucson Mountains. Sonya is the Public Programs Coordinator for the Museum. Jesús García will provide perspective from the Kino Heritage Fruit Trees Project - detailing the legacy of Jesuits missionaries on modern Mexican agriculture, and the connections between Old World and Sonoran traditional knowledge. Jesús grew up in the farming and ranching town of Magdalena, Sonora. Jim Malusa, retired University of Arizona botanist and Museum volunteer, adds to our natural history lineup.

Note: You will need a valid passport to take this trip. Airfare is NOT included.

For details on pricing, registration, and the full trip itinerary, click learn more and scroll down.

Contact E-mail: education@desertmuseum.org

Coati Kids Club member families enjoy a special event with animal encounters, grounds exploration, and crafts. Today's theme: Flower Power - Pollinator Party

Join the Desert Museum in an exploration of the cathedrals, synagogues, markets, farm towns, ancient castles and sunny beaches of Spain as we trace the cultural and agricultural roots of the Southwest. Tour a late 19th Century rice processing plant, bird the estuary and rice fields of La Albufera, follow the evolution of Iberian Copper Age pottery through its refinement into Baroque ceramic art, and see the masterpieces of El Prado. During the fall grape harvest you will tour a rural winery, walk fields and orchards, make paella, even see the Holy Grail... Destinations include Barcelona, Valencia, Toledo and Madrid. This trip is very personalized with a maximum group size of 16. It's sure to offer an intimate cultural and educational experience that will stay with you forever.

In the Southwest we use the adjective "Spanish" frequently and loosely. Indeed, many elements of our culture originate in Spain. But, the 16th - 18th century Christian Spain that colonized the Americas was the sum total of its previous occupants - Arabs, Jews, Visigoths and Romans.

Led by Sonya Norman and Jim Malusa. Sonya will provide perspective on being the daughter of a Spanish "Valenciana" - sharing the gastronomy, history and sites of her mother's cosmopolitan port city and of her grandfather's farming town of Villar del Arzobispo. Sonya is the Public Programs Coordinator for the museum. Jim has biked and hiked through the Cantabrian and Pyrenees ranges of Spain reporting on reclusive wolf and brown bear populations, as well as on the reclusive Knights Templar of Soria. Jim, a retired botanist, has written for Natural History and Discovery magazines and is the author of Into Thick Air: Biking to the Bellybutton of Six Continents.

Note: You will need a valid passport to take this trip. Airfare is NOT included.

For details on pricing, registration, and the full trip itinerary, click learn more and scroll down.

Contact E-mail: education@desertmuseum.org

Celebrate Indigenous art and culture at the Indigenous Arts Fair on Saturday, November 14th from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Desert Museum!

Meet talented artists, watch live demonstrations, and shop authentic handmade jewelry, pottery, paintings, and more. Experience tradition, creativity, and connection in a vibrant outdoor setting. Free with admission!