Tohono Chul Park
Tucson, AZ
Tohono Chul is a 49-acre botanical garden and nature preserve featuring curated desert gardens, ethnobotanical exhibits, and art installations. The gardens include over 500 species of arid-adapted plants from around the world. Hummingbirds are abundant throughout the garden and can be photographed at close range near feeders.
Photography Guide
- Best Time
- morning
- Crowds
- Quiet
- Shot Types
- detailportraitwide
- Best Seasons
- springfallwinter
Author's Comments
Forty-nine acres in the middle of Tucson, and most of the city does not seem to know it is here. I have walked these paths in three seasons now and the garden has yet to feel crowded. April is when I keep returning, when the desert is doing its brief and improbable thing and the curated beds at Tohono Chul are about a week ahead of the open desert outside the walls. The plantings are dense in a way the Sonoran rarely is on its own, and that density is the gift. You can stand in one place and find five compositions without moving your feet. The hummingbirds are the obvious draw and they earn it. Anna's, Costa's, broad-billed - they work the feeders and the flowering aloes with a confidence that suggests they have decided humans are furniture. A telephoto and patience will get you closer than you think. But I find myself working the macro more often, low to the ground, looking for the small geometries that the curators have arranged without seeming to. Backlit ocotillo. The interior of a barrel cactus bloom. The shadow a cholla throws on caliche at nine in the morning. Come early. The light before ten is what this garden is built for, and the heat afterward will send you to the cafe regardless. Fifteen dollars and a quiet morning. That is the trade, and it is a fair one.
Gallery
You might also like
Nearby Places
Oro Valley, AZ
Pusch Ridge Wilderness - Romero Canyon Trail
Romero Canyon Trail ascends through the western face of the Santa Catalina Mountains into the Pusch Ridge Wilderness, passing through saguaro forest, oak woodland, and ending at seasonal Romero Pools. The granite-walled pools hold water through much of the year and create natural reflecting pools. The trail provides intimate canyon scenery beneath the dramatic cliffs of Pusch Ridge.
Oro Valley, AZ
Catalina State Park - Canyon Loop Trail
Catalina State Park sits at the western base of the Santa Catalina Mountains and features dense saguaro forests with the dramatic Pusch Ridge as a backdrop. The Canyon Loop Trail traverses washes and desert grasslands with views of rugged granite cliffs. Spring wildflower blooms can be exceptional in wet years.
Tucson, AZ
Sweetwater Preserve
Sweetwater Preserve encompasses 700 acres of Sonoran Desert terrain on the western edge of the Tucson Mountains with a network of trails through saguaro-covered hillsides. The preserve offers relatively uncrowded conditions compared to nearby Saguaro National Park. Rocky ridgelines provide elevated vantage points for sunrise and sunset photography.