Upcoming Events

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.
Taste the Desert is funded in part by the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area.
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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 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.
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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 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.
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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 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!
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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.

Did you know that Arizona has an official state dinosaur? It's the Sonorasaurus! Based on the fossils, it is estimated that the dino was about 50 feet long and weighed 4,000 pounds. Come see the REAL Sonorasaurus fossils (only at the Desert Museum) and join us for a journey back in time!
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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.

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!
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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.

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

Scouts and parents come for an overnight experience that includes dinner, a live animal presentation, and play and sleep in the packrat playhouse.

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!