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A Desert Spring in Tucson

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Groups can feel the brush of feathers as formidable raptor birds whiz by at the Raptor Free Flight presentation. During the spring, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum holds daily raptor shows with different birds. One raptor program showcases the only raptor in the world that hunts like a wolf by using strategy: the Harris’s Hawk.

Combining elements of a zoo, a botanical garden, a natural history museum, an aquarium and an art gallery, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum strives to help guests experience the Sonoran Desert with 230 native animals and 1,200 local plant species. Most of the 97-acre museum lies outdoors along two miles of walking trails that pass by porcupines, lizards, prairie dogs, kit foxes and coyotes.

Groups can choose to wander on their own or navigate the huge complex with the one-hour Highlights Tour. Specialty tours can delve deeper into individual topics, with options such as a spring bird walk or a garden tour. Groups also love to add up-close encounters with some of the desert’s more fascinating inhabitants.

“What makes the museum interesting is that you leave with a sense of the local area,” said Gibson. “The museum does an incredible job with groups. I recently went to a catered event at the museum. There were four animal encounters with a snake, pigmy owl, bat and tortoise. The docents tell you about the animals. It was a great event.”

Agave Heritage Festival

A plant so popular that prehistoric indigenous people of the southwestern United States used it as a major food source is honored at Tucson’s Agave Heritage Festival. The weeklong party and educational festival holds seminars about agave’s far-reaching history, as well as its current use in distilling a variety of spirits.

“The Agave Heritage Festival pays tribute to tequila and a variety of other agave spirits that are connected to the area,” said Gibson. “It is a celebration of all these different spirits, and it’s a ton of fun with live music and tastings.”

Vendors across Tucson participate in the early-May festival with over 40 tastings of tequilas, mezcals, sotols and bacanoras. Groups have their choice of about 20 events to attend, among them a cocktail competition, live demonstrations and musical acts.

Seminars on a wide range of topics include agave’s traditional uses by indigenous natives and pairing agave-based cocktails with local cuisine; there are also Agave Garden Tours at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Heritage dinners featuring famed local chefs offer a relaxed way to partake in the lively event.

For more information contact Visit Tucson at 1-800-638-8350 or go to www.visittucson.org.