Tohono Chul Park

Why is it such a great place to visit?

The entrance to Tohono Chul Park

Because this Tucson attraction is a unique blend of botanical garden, nature preserve, art gallery, restaurant and specialty shopping destination.

There are so many things to do here that you can put in a full day’s itinerary in just one spot.

You can:

• stroll through the many specialty gardens filled with colorful flowers and unique plants,
• learn about the life and culture of the Native Peoples of the Southwest,
• view an art exhibit,
• enjoy a traditional English afternoon tea on the patio.

Colorful butterflies like this buckeye flock to the many flowers at Tohono Chul Park

This is also the perfect place to take out-of-towners for their first introduction to the Sonoran Desert.

Tohono Chul offers a unique perspective on the region by showing the interconnections between the natural environment and the cultural traditions of the Southwest.

Located on 49 acres of native desert, Tohono Chul Park is an oasis surrounded by homes and shopping centers on Tucson’s busy Northwest side.

The park is home to a variety of native plants and desert animals as well as 57 species of birds that migrate through seasonally.

The park’s wide variety of specialty gardens, each with a different theme, showcase the diversity of plants and landscapes that home gardeners can recreate in their own yards, using drought tolerant plants.

Colorful, nectar-filled tubular flowers like salvia, penstemons and desert willow bloom in the Hummingbird Garden.

Located outside the Tea Room, this garden is a perfect spot to sit and watch these jewel-colored wonders.

Look for black-chinned, Costa’s, broad-billed, rufous and Anna’s hummingbirds as they fly from flower to flower.

The Tohono Chul Park Tea Room overlooks the Hummingbird Garden

The indigenous Tohono O’odham people once flood farmed the banks of the nearby Santa Cruz River.

Tohono Chul Park’s Ethnobotanical Garden features the plants they harvested for food, basket making, medicine and cultural ceremonies.

The garden is surrounded by a living ocotillo fence to keep the rabbits from munching on the plantings of large squashes, beans, corn, sunflowers and other crops.

Stop by the diverse Demonstration Gardens area to see how you can create your own waterwise oasis at home using native plants and local materials.

The Ethnobotanical Garden

A fun Children’s Garden encourages discovery and play. The head of a giant concrete rattlesnake serves as a wall.

Kids can float wooden boats down a stream, find the hidden turtles and play in a tepee of vines.

The park has nice views of the nearby Santa Catalina Mountains, especially from the desert nature trails.

A serene setting and dramatic Santa Catalina Mountains backdrop provide a welcome refuge for anyone wishing to escape the bustle of city life.

The moment you leave the traffic of Ina Road and drive into the park, you’ll feel like you’ve left the city far behind.

During one visit, we watched a coyote casually cross the road in front of us in the middle of the afternoon.

The Saguaro Discovery Trail takes you through native Sonoran Desert

The trail is named for the saguaro cactus, which is the signature plant of the Sonoran Desert.

This tall, often multi-armed cactus has a central role in the culture of the Tohono O’odham, the Native American tribe indigenous to the Tucson area.

This unpaved path winds through the southwestern section of the park where you’ll see most of the park’s saguaros.

Along the way, there are a series of eleven signs illustrating the life cycle of the saguaro and the plant’s importance in the cultural life of the Tohono O’odham.

The signs are beautifully illustrated with paintings by Tohono O’odham artist Michael Chiago.

Tohono Chul Park also has two nature trails that are great for exploring the Sonoran Desert.

Prickly pear and cholla cactus along the North Loop Trail

These trails are also good spots to look for desert animals such as desert cottontail rabbits, antelope ground squirrels and zebra-tailed lizards.

The North Loop Trail is a favorite for birders and wildlife watchers.

Be patient and you may spot pyrrhuloxias, Gambel’s quail, phainopeplas and other desert birds.

The Moorish Garden

The lovely and diverse Desert Living Courtyard does just that.

There are 10 different garden landscapes here, each with its own theme and unique collection of plants.

These vignettes offer plenty of examples of how gardeners can create their own colorful and creative desert oasis at home using native and drought tolerant plants and local materials.

Some of the earliest gardens created purely for personal pleasure originated in the Middle East.

Tohono Chul Park’s Moorish Garden is a perfect example of these ancient gardens with their foursquare plan and central water feature.

Arches, colorful ceramic tiles and the use of blue and white colors create a soothing and cooling atmosphere typical of ancient desert gardens from Spain to India.

The park cleverly used Arizona native plants like alligator bark juniper and Mexican blue oak to replace the cypress and sycamore trees that one would find in the Middle East.

The Barrio Garden is reflective of Tucson’s Hispanic heritage.

It’s filled with herbs like cilantro, thyme and epazote, chiles and fruits such as grapes, figs and pomegranates.

This garden's central feature is a small shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe – a common feature of the traditional gardens found in many Mexican American home gardens.

La Galería Museum Shop

The Exhibit House displays frequently changing arts, crafts, photo and multimedia exhibits that reflect Southwestern natural history and culture.

La Galería Shop is packed with folk art, jewelry, Native American arts and crafts and Southwestern books.

The shop is a great place to find:

• Oaxacan wood carvings
• Tohono O’odham basketry
• silver and turquoise jewelry
• cultural objects for observing Día de los Muertos - the annual Day of the Dead celebration observed at the end of October throughout Mexico and much of the Southwest

Tohono Chul Park was once a private residence.

The original home, built of adobe block in a style known as Tucson Territorial, now houses the La Fuente Museum Shop and the Tohono Chul Tea Room.

This is the first building you encounter when arriving at the park.

Adobe brick buildings house the Tea Room and La Fuente Museum Shop

After passing into the vine-covered archway, you enter into a cool interior courtyard with a bubbling fountain, flowers and tables and chairs for dining.

Beyond the courtyard is the Tea Room.

This delightful restaurant is a favorite dining spot for locals and tourists alike.

The Tohono Chul Tea Room serves breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and Sunday brunch.

They offer delicious Southwestern and American style food in a lovely garden setting. Be sure to try the refreshing prickly pear lemonade.

The La Fuente Museum Shop – named after the fountain in the courtyard – carries an eclectic mix of gifts.

Every available space is filled with jewelry, pottery, Southwestern foods and handmade art work created by local artists.

Here you can find the perfect Southwestern souvenir, whether it be a bottle of prickly pear syrup or a copper quail sculpture.

The La Entrada Museum Shop and Greenhouse is next door to the entrance building.

The shop features décor for the home and garden and books on plants and wildlife.

Cactus, succulents and other garden plants are for sale in the La Entrada Museum Shop and Greenhouse

After admiring some of your favorite plants in the garden, stop by the greenhouse to take a few home with you.

There are over 300 species of drought tolerant plants to choose from, including penstemons, evening primroses, poppies and saguaro cactus.

Throughout the year, Tohono Chul Park holds some great special events including:

• a wildflower festival
• an evening concert series
• a Native American jewelry show and sale
• plant sales where you can buy many of the plants grown in the park
• a Luminaria Festival, a nighttime holiday light display, during the Christmas season.

One of the most anticipated annual events is the "Queen of the Night" Bloom Watch.

The Queen of the Night is a night-blooming cereus cactus (Peniocereus greggii) that looks like a spindly dead stick most of the year.

Between May and August, however, it grows large, waxy white flowers that bloom for only one night.

With 335 specimens, Tohono Chul Park has one of the largest collections in the world of this plant.

Each one produces a half dozen or more flowers.

• Parts of Tohono Chul Park have unpaved paths and are in full sun. Wear good walking shoes, a hat and sunscreen. Carry bottled water with you on the trails.
• No pets are allowed in the park except for service guide dogs.
• On "Queen of the Night" bloom night, Tohono Chul Park is open from 6:00 p.m. to midnight and admission is free. Contact the park to put your name on the contact list to be notified of the bloom night date.

Location:   Northwest Tucson

Address:   7366 N. Paseo del Norte Drive, Tucson, AZ 85704

Google Map Directions: Click on "+" and "-" signs on Map Controls in upper left hand corner to zoom in and out on the location.

Phone:   (520) 742-6455

Hours:   The park grounds are open daily 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. Please note that the park gates close promptly at 5:00 pm.

The Museum Shops, Greenhouse and Exhibit Hall open daily 9:00 am to 5:00 pm except New Year’s Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The Tea Room is open 8:00 am to 5:00 pm every day except for previously noted holidays.

Admission Fee:
Adults (13+): $7.00
Seniors (62+): $5.00
Active Millitary: $5.00
Students with valid ID: $3.00
Children (5-12): $2.00
Children under 5: Free
Members of Tohono Chul Park: Free

Note: Admission tickets are not sold after 4:30 pm.

Tohono Chul Park’s grounds are also open free of charge on New Year’s Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. However, the park buildings are closed on these days.

The Tea Room and La Fuente Museum Shop and the La Entrada Museum Garden Shop and Greenhouse are outside the fee area and always free of charge.

Amenities:   Restaurant; gift shops; greenhouse; exhibit hall.

Activities:   Art exhibits and sales; wildflower festival; fall concert series; ethnobotanical dinner; plant sales; guided walking tours; gardening demonstrations; children’s storytelling; holiday luminaria festival.