20 Attractions to Explore Near Coronado National Forest

Peppersauce Cave is a limestone cave found in the Santa Catalina Mountains approximately ten miles south of Oracle, Arizona. Peppersauce is frequented by about 23,000 visitors every year and contains approximately one mile of mapped passages. The cave has been subject to vandalism and heavy littering for over fifty years.

Mount Lemmon Ski Valley is a recreational ski area in the U.S. state of Arizona, and the southernmost ski destination in the continental United States. Mount Lemmon Ski Valley is located on the slopes of Mount Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains just north of Tucson, Arizona. It is part of the Coronado National Forest, located near the mountaintop village of Summerhaven.

It is the highest point in the Santa Catalina Mountains. It is located in the Coronado National Forest north of Tucson, Arizona, United States. Mount Lemmon was named for botanist Sara Plummer Lemmon, who trekked to the top of the mountain with her husband and E. O. Stratton, a local rancher, by horse and foot in 1881.

Also known as the Mount Lemmon Infrared Observatory, is an astronomical observatory located on Mount Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains approximately 28 kilometers northeast of Tucson, Arizona . The site in the Coronado National Forest is used with special permission from the U.S. Forest Service by the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory, and contains a number of independently managed telescopes.

This is a 4,000 acre wildlife refuge in the northern foothills of the Catalina Mountains. The park offers day-use picnic areas and over 15 miles of trails for use by hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians. The most common plants in Oracle State Park are prickly pear and cholla cactus, scrub oak, mesquite, many wildflowers, and the occasional piñon and juniper. Bird species include red-tailed hawks, golden eagles, prairie falcons, black-throated sparrows and so more.

The Historic Kannally Ranch House in Oracle State Park was built in the later 1920s and early 1930s in Oracle, AZ.The original 160-acre ranch was purchased by Neil and Lee Kannally in 1903. The two brothers were later joined by three other family members and the ranch grew to almost 50,000 acres.The present Kannally Ranch House was built in 1929Ð1932 and is of Mediterranean Revival Style with Moorish influences, patterned on Italianate villas of the 1920s.

Biosphere 2 is an American Earth system science research facility located in Oracle, Arizona. Its mission is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching, and lifelong learning about Earth, its living systems, and its place in the universe. It is a 3.14-acre structure originally built to be an artificial, materially closed ecological system, or vivarium. It remains the largest closed ecological system ever created.

Pusch Ridge Wilderness Area is a 56,430 acre wilderness area. It is located within the Coronado National Forest in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona, United States. Established in 1978, the area varies greatly in elevation and biodiversity, rising from 2,800 feet to over 9,100 feet in elevation.

Catalina State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, that is adjacent to Coronado National Forest on the western slopes of the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson.

Sabino Canyon is a significant canyon located in the Santa Catalina Mountains and the Coronado National Forest north of Tucson, Arizona. It is a popular recreation area for residents and visitors of Southern Arizona, providing a place to walk, hike or ride. Minutes away from the desert are large waterfalls along Sabino Creek with minor bridges constructed over them. Wildlife in the canyon includes deer, javelina, skunks, tortoises, rattlesnakes, and mountain lions.

DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun Historic District is the artistic manifestation and architecture constructed by Ettore DeGrazia. The property is a series of buildings scattered throughout a natural desert setting. Built in Tucson near the intersection of Swan Road and Skyline the property is now a museum open to the public.

The 76,317-acre Galiuro Wilderness encompasses the mid to upper slopes of the mountains as they rise from golden grasslands, through dense thickets of evergreen oak, to stands of ponderosa pine. The mountains support vegetation varying from semidesert grasslands through pinion, juniper, oak, and brush to mixed conifers and even aspens in the higher elevations. A variety of wildlife can be found in the Galiuro Wilderness, including large mammals.

Trail Dust Town is a historical outdoor shopping center located in Tucson, Arizona. on its grounds exists a great number of historical artifacts, including an Allan Herschell merry-go-round which was manufactured in 1954 that still contains its original horses and benches.

Fort Lowell was a United States Army post active from 1873 to 1891 on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona. Fort Lowell was the successor to Camp Lowell, an earlier Army installation. The Army claimed a military reservation that encompassed approximately eighty square miles and extended east toward the Rincon Mountains.

A botanical garden, nature preserve and cultural museum located in Casas Adobes, a suburb of Tucson, Arizona. The mission of Tohono Chul is to connect people with the wonders of nature, art and culture in the Sonoran Desert region and inspiring wise stewardship of the natural world.

The Redfield Canyon Wilderness (6,600 acres) is in southeastern Arizona. It is a narrow red-walled chasm suitable for hiking during the spring and fall seasons. Tall cliffs pocked with eroded caves and strewn with boulders, Redfield Canyon offers the visitor a variety of recreational opportunities. It became part of the now over 109 million acre National Wilderness Preservation System established by the Wilderness Act of 1964.

The Tucson Botanical Gardens is a 5.5-acre collection of sixteen residentially scaled urban gardens in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Paths connect these gardens, which include a Zen Garden, a Prehistoric Garden, a Barrio Garden, a Butterfly Garden, a Xeriscape Garden, and a Children’s Garden.

Aravaipa Creek lies within the Basin and Range region of southern Arizona, emerging from the Pinaleno, Santa Teresa, and Galiuro mountains at an elevation of about 3,000 feet.This Creek flows year-round, an unusual phenomenon in the Arizona desert. Nurtured by this abundant water, large sycamore, ash, cottonwood, and willow trees flourish along the stream, flanked by other riparian vegetation.

Rincon Mountains are a significant mountain range east of Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, in the United States. The Rincon Mountains are one of five mountain ranges surrounding the Tucson valley. One of the beautiful and greenish places in Pima county.

The Center for Creative Photography established in 1975 and located on the University of Arizona campus, is a research facility and archival repository containing the full archives of over sixty of the most famous American photographers. , as well as a collection of over 80,000 images representing more than 2,000 photographers. The CCP collects, preserves, interprets, and makes available materials that are essential to understanding photography and its history.