Upcoming Events

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Saturday, October 4, 2025
9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Coati Kids Club families are invited to a special event in our education classrooms and around the grounds: Migration Exploration.

Saturday, October 11, 2025

Become a certified Young Naturalist at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum! Gain confidence, form connections, and explore careers as you learn about the Sonoran Desert. Build skills in plant, animal, and mineral identification, nature conservation, and outdoor safety. Discover ecological relationships through nature journaling. Learn and use your art, science, and nature skills with the Desert Museum. See yourself as a part of the ecosystem around you and earn an official Young Naturalist Certificate!

Saturday, October 18, 2025
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Girl Scouts and accompanying adults explore the grounds and complete activities to earn their naturalist badges. Registration is through the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona.

Saturday, October 25, 2025

Become a certified Young Naturalist at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum! Gain confidence, form connections, and explore careers as you learn about the Sonoran Desert. Build skills in plant, animal, and mineral identification, nature conservation, and outdoor safety. Discover ecological relationships through nature journaling. Learn and use your art, science, and nature skills with the Desert Museum. See yourself as a part of the ecosystem around you and earn an official Young Naturalist Certificate!

October 26 - 31, 2025

Join the Desert Museum for an unforgettable trip to Valle de Guadalupe! Set on a spectacular alluvial plain surrounded by olive orchards, beautiful vineyards and expansive ranch lands, the area has evolved into a wine and culinary mecca. On this tour we visit the best wineries and farm-to-table restaurants, and learn about the history of native cultures, as well as colonial ones, and their relationships with the land. Highlights include an afternoon at a tribal community, several wine tastings, over-the-top culinary experiences, and Pacific ocean-front hotel accommodations.

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

Saturday, November 8, 2025

Become a certified Young Naturalist at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum! Gain confidence, form connections, and explore careers as you learn about the Sonoran Desert. Build skills in plant, animal, and mineral identification, nature conservation, and outdoor safety. Discover ecological relationships through nature journaling. Learn and use your art, science, and nature skills with the Desert Museum. See yourself as a part of the ecosystem around you and earn an official Young Naturalist Certificate!

Saturday, November 8, 2025
9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Coati Kids Club families are invited to a special event in our education classrooms and around the grounds: Migration Exploration.

Saturday, November 15, 2025
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Celebrate Indigenous art and culture at the Indigenous Artist Fair on Saturday, November 15th 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!

Sunday, November 16, 2025
8:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Learn how to harvest rainwater to keep your home cooler, reduce utility bills, and promote biodiversity in your own backyard!

In the Australian Outback everyone does it; In the Sonoran Desert the rain in vain falls mainly down the drain. Did you know that by harvesting water in a well-mulched basin, you can keep moisture in the soil for up to two months?! That moisture can produce lush bird and lizard habitat, and keep your home cooler, reducing utility bills. On this tour you will learn how to redirect rainwater from problem areas and how to calculate the amount of water can be collected off of your roof. We will also cover greywater, storage, related ordinances and incentives, shading, windows, slopes and diversion pipes. Participants will see many strategies that can be applied to their own home and neighborhood.

What to Bring: Water, notepad and pen. Wear comfortable shoes, dress for the weather.
What to Expect: We will study the contouring features of a park and street, and the drains, gutters, and downspouts of several homes. The tour will be completely outdoors. Creating wildlife habitat, shade for hot west-facing walls or for pedestrians, keeping foundations dry are all part of the multiple benefits that come with careful planning and implementation. We will walk about 1 mile round trip, slowly along the street.
Contact E-mail: education@desertmuseum.org
Cost:
$33.00 per Adult-Member
$36.00 per Adult-Non Member

Saturday, November 22, 2025

Become a certified Young Naturalist at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum! Gain confidence, form connections, and explore careers as you learn about the Sonoran Desert. Build skills in plant, animal, and mineral identification, nature conservation, and outdoor safety. Discover ecological relationships through nature journaling. Learn and use your art, science, and nature skills with the Desert Museum. See yourself as a part of the ecosystem around you and earn an official Young Naturalist Certificate!

December 3 - 7, 2025

Join the Desert Museum on our Río Sonora Heritage Tour! We'll venture south of the border to Sonora, Mexico to explore this agrarian region. We'll visit areas that are still very much as it was hundreds of years ago, with farmers and ranchers thriving in the fertile valley where we will immerse ourselves over four adventurous days visiting missions in the region, enjoying local cuisine, and spending quality time with wonderful people that share gracious hospitality. Highlights include visits to the missions: Magdalena, Cucúrpe, Banámichi, Aconchi, and Baviácora. We will also be treated to a performance by a folklorico dance group, and to a lecture on the processing of the miraculous agave, with a mezcal tasting included!

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

Saturday, December 6, 2025

Become a certified Young Naturalist at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum! Gain confidence, form connections, and explore careers as you learn about the Sonoran Desert. Build skills in plant, animal, and mineral identification, nature conservation, and outdoor safety. Discover ecological relationships through nature journaling. Learn and use your art, science, and nature skills with the Desert Museum. See yourself as a part of the ecosystem around you and earn an official Young Naturalist Certificate!

December 12 - 14, 2025

Join the Desert Museum for an unforgettable trip set in the desert grasslands along Arizona’s southern border with the dramatic backdrop of Baboquivari Peak always in view. On this tour, we visit the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, which has breeding programs for the endangered pronghorn and Masked Bobwhite Quail, and offers birding for many species including Herons, Gray Hawks, Vermillion Fly Catchers, Loggerhead Shrikes, and Golden Eagles. We will take in a lot of local history, learning about the Spanish Barb horses that descend from Father Kino’s herd, about the Mexican Revolution as it was played out here, and about old ghost towns and mining camps. We take a side trip to see the border town of Sasabe, sprinkle geology lessons in, have a morning free for optional activities such as hiking or horseback riding, and enjoy fabulous meals. Come nighttime, we are treated to cowboy poetry and a star-studded winter sky.

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

February 19 - 23, 2026

Join the Desert Museum for an incredible 5 day excursion across the border. Our voyage of discovery includes the Seri Museum in Nuevo Bahía Kino, a visit to the Prescott College Research Station, a panga ride to the mangroves of Isla Tiburón, birding in the estuary of Laguna de la Cruz, a walk in a cardón forest, and of course, meetings with the Seri people themselves with a very special opportunity to participate in the Indigenous Language Day Festival. Our guide, retired ASDM cultural conservationist Jesús García, enthusiastically shares the culture of this desert people as well as the natural and geological history of the Central Gulf Coast subdivision of the Sonoran Desert. Our adventure also includes time on the beach of Kino Bay with its intensely blue water, as well as daily helpings of fresh seafood and opportunities to support the Seri with purchases of their handcrafted goods.

Note: You will need a valid passport book to take this trip. Your passport book must be valid for at least 6 months after our travel dates.

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

March 27, 2026 - April 10, 2026

Join the Desert Museum on an unforgettable trip through Baja California, packed with lessons in Ecology, Geology, Birding, Whale Watching, Cowboys and Ethnobotany! Led by the incomparable Jesús García and geologist/raconteur, Fred Nials, we travel by motorcoach down the entire length of the Peninsula, traversing desert chaparral, a fertile valley of grape and olive orchards to the captivating Cataviña desert with its forests of boojum, elephant trees and cardón. At Ojo de Liebre Lagoon, one of the few places in the world with up-close Grey Whale watching opportunities, three days of off-the-grid “glamping” await. Surrounded by a lush date palm oasis, our stay in San Ignacío includes a day trip to see pictographs of remote Baja. Our time in Loreto Bay includes snorkeling with tropical marine life at Isla Coronado. Experience the charming mining communities and the artists’ haven of Todos Santos as we travel to San José del Cabo, and the famous Los Arcos rock formation at the southern tip of Baja. Our return is by air.

Note: You will need a valid passport book to take this trip. Your passport book must be valid for at least 6 months after our travel dates.

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