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Tucson
A Sonoran Desert city ringed by mountains
Tucson sits in a broad valley in the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona, ringed on all sides by rugged mountain ranges — the Santa Catalinas, Rincons, Santa Ritas, and Tucsons — that rise from desert floor to pine-forested peaks. One of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country, it grew from a Native American village and a Spanish presidio founded in 1775 along the Santa Cruz River.
Higher and a bit cooler than Phoenix to the north, Tucson sits among the giant saguaro cacti that grow nowhere else, protected in the national park that flanks the city. The surrounding "sky island" mountains climb so high that one can drive from desert to fir forest in an hour. The University of Arizona and astronomy — the clear desert skies draw major observatories — anchor the second-largest city in the state.