Upcoming Events

Ring in the ‘Noon Year!’ with all of your favorite animal friends! Ditch the midnight ball drop and watch our giant Spadefoot toad leap into 2026 with the Desert Museum at noon!

Littles can dance the day away with DJ Herm, get their face painted, or catch a live show in the Warden Oasis Theater. There will be arts and crafts stations, games, and other fun, educational activities, too!

Celebrate the new year without missing bedtime?! It's the ultimate New Year's Eve party for your littles!

Celebrate World Desert Day with the Desert Museum! Join us at the Museum for special hands-on activities or enjoy virtual programs from anywhere in the world. World Desert Day is a global celebration dedicated to raising awareness, inspiring action, and cultivating appreciation for the world’s desert ecosystems and the communities, plants, and wildlife that call them home.


🌵 Virtual Programming 7:00 a.m. & 3:00 p.m. 🌵

--→ Discover the Desert | 7:00 a.m.
What makes a desert a desert? Celebrate World Desert Day as we compare the planet’s drylands and meet some of the diverse plants and animals that make the Sonoran Desert unique! We will explore the amazing adaptations that desert dwellers have to survive and thrive.

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84057493968?pwd=G9vQyRKvFp7WAPWc3wsnQu4X8uXqbw.1
Meeting ID: 840 5749 3968
Passcode: world

--→ Biomimicry: How to Be a Desert Dweller | 3:00 p.m.
Desert plants and animals have a lot to teach us! Celebrate World Desert Day by meeting some Sonoran Desert dwellers and exploring how their survival strategies can inspire human innovation. How might their examples help us live better in the desert?

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81909321688?pwd=JEafGqj8bA95aqerFbgXpskRTA1Jo9.1
Meeting ID: 819 0932 1688
Passcode: world


🌵 Hands-on Activities 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. 🌵

--→ Water Catchers | Riparian Corridor | 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
Explore how desert plants capture the rain and how we can harvest rainwater, too!

--→ Wonderful Watersheds and Amazing Aquifers | Mountain Woodland | 10 a.m. -2:00 p.m.
Where does all rainwater flow in the Tucson Basin? How are groundwater and surface water connected?

--→ The Buzz on Native Bees | Pollination Garden
The Sonoran Desert is a native bee hotspot. Discover their unbeelievable diversity and ways that we can protect them.


🌵 Extra On-Grounds 🌵

--→ National Parks Conservation Association will share their work on wildlife corridors and roadkill prevention

--→ Docent Tours and Demonstrations
Make the most of your visit with a tour or interpretive demonstration from a docent, who will introduce you to the wonders of the Sonoran Desert region. Docent Tours are weather/temperature dependent and may be canceled due to extreme weather conditions or heat.
Bird Walk: 8:30 a.m.
Desert Discovery Tours: 9:00 a.m. & 10:30 a.m.

--→ Visit the Ironwood Gallery for Artists for Conservation | 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
The Artists for Conservation (AFC) annual juried exhibition features over 50 works by leading contemporary nature artists dedicated to celebrating and protecting our natural world. This curated selection is drawn from the AFC Exhibit of Nature in Art—an international juried exhibition presented annually in Vancouver as the centerpiece of AFC’s programming.

Just in geologic time: Rockin’ Minerals turns thirty-two! You're invited to dig into the rockin' world of minerals on Saturday and Sunday, January 17 & 18 from 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. to celebrate the thirty second anniversary of this popular event.

You will lava our mineral sale! Enjoy fun, hands-on activities for families. Visit geology and fossil activity stations where children can collect rocks, minerals, and fossils in their own egg carton collection box. This year, we will have a focus on zinc minerals and will giveaway beautiful Hemimorphite from a local mine. Shop for your own mineral and fossil treasures at rock-bottom prices!

You'll see a great variety of minerals and fossils from around the world, including:
- Rare Minerals
- Rock Sculptures including small animal replicas
- Gemstones & Jewelry
- Wire wrapping
- Plant & Rock Combos
- Lapidary Rock & Fluorescent minerals
- Mineral-mining tools
- Special new collection of micromounts and thumbnails sized minerals
-Rock Readings (bring your own rock and our experts can tell you about it)

May the quartz be with you on your rock/mineral journey! This event is included with Museum admission.

Join the Desert Museum for an incredible 5 day excursion across the border. Our voyage of discovery includes the Seri Museum in Nuevo Bahía Kino, a visit to the Prescott College Research Station, a panga ride to the mangroves of Isla Tiburón, birding in the estuary of Laguna de la Cruz, a walk in a cardón forest, and of course, meetings with the Seri people themselves with a very special opportunity to participate in the Indigenous Language Day Festival. Our guide, retired ASDM cultural conservationist Jesús García, enthusiastically shares the culture of this desert people as well as the natural and geological history of the Central Gulf Coast subdivision of the Sonoran Desert. Our adventure also includes time on the beach of Kino Bay with its intensely blue water, as well as daily helpings of fresh seafood and opportunities to support the Seri with purchases of their handcrafted goods.

Note: You will need a valid passport book to take this trip. Your passport book must be valid for at least 6 months after our travel dates.

For details on pricing, registration, and the full trip itinerary, click learn more and scroll down.

Join the Desert Museum on an unforgettable trip through Baja California, packed with lessons in Ecology, Geology, Birding, Whale Watching, Cowboys and Ethnobotany! Led by the incomparable Jesús García and geologist/raconteur, Fred Nials, we travel by motorcoach down the entire length of the Peninsula, traversing desert chaparral, a fertile valley of grape and olive orchards to the captivating Cataviña desert with its forests of boojum, elephant trees and cardón. At Ojo de Liebre Lagoon, one of the few places in the world with up-close Grey Whale watching opportunities, three days of off-the-grid “glamping” await. Surrounded by a lush date palm oasis, our stay in San Ignacío includes a day trip to see pictographs of remote Baja. Our time in Loreto Bay includes snorkeling with tropical marine life at Isla Coronado. Experience the charming mining communities and the artists’ haven of Todos Santos as we travel to San José del Cabo, and the famous Los Arcos rock formation at the southern tip of Baja. Our return is by air.

Note: You will need a valid passport book to take this trip. Your passport book must be valid for at least 6 months after our travel dates.

For details on pricing, registration, and the full trip itinerary, click learn more and scroll down.

Junior Girl Scouts pre-register for this special event through the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona. The event includes a live animal presentation, dinner and breakfast, and an evening of fun in and around the Packrat Playhouse.