Tucson Museum of Art

    The museum isn’t large – it takes about two hours to see it all – but the amount and variety of art is quite impressive. From Pre-Columbian to contemporary, western art to folk art- there’s something for every visitor to enjoy.

                          

    The museum is accessible. A long ramp accesses each lower level. Once down to the lowest level take the elevator up to see additional exhibits in the older section of the museum.

   The museum has a small parking lot that is not suitable for RVs but there is parking on the streets and in the lot on Church Street - three blocks east and one block north. It's easier to get a parking spot on the street if you visit on the weekend plus there’s no charge for metered parking on the weekend.  The sidewalks and curb cuts are in good condition. Museum  32.22347, -110.97445

Arizona History Museum - Tucson

   Very nicely done exhibits and interesting artifacts including an actual stamp mill, a uniform that belonged to Santa Anna, and a Spanish Colonial silver chest, give details of ranching, mining, and other aspects of Arizona’s history. A small exhibit features Geronimo but Native American history is not well covered.
         
  The museum is accessible. An elevator up to the kids’ hands-on area is available on request.  We did not visit that area.

   Parking is validated if your vehicle can fit in the garage. If not, 2 hour, metered parking in available on the streets around the museum. We parked on 1st Street. The sidewalks and curb cuts are in good condition.  Museum  32.23313, -110.95749

The Thing

    Everyone traveling along I-10 is bombarded with billboards for The Thing – 247 in all! For years we’ve resisted the temptation to stop however our chosen highbrow museum of the day proved to be inaccessible and The Thing was just a few miles down the highway so….

   After reading reviews about the old museum with its three dusty, weird warehouses, I kind of wish we had stopped years ago but the new museum is weird enough on its own. The museum exhibits theorize that aliens have been living among us since the age of cavemen and dinosaurs - yes, they existed at the same time ;-).  Aliens are currently and have been involved in many world events while most earthlings remain blissfully unaware. The museum is just silly, goofy fun and the Thing itself is most likely a hoax.

   There’s also a huge giftshop, a Dairy Queen, and a gas station.

   The museum, Dairy Queen, and giftshop are accessible.

   There’s a section in the parking lot for trucks and RVs. Thing  32.08137, -110.04972

Wilcox Playa Wildlife Area

   The playa is one of the winter roosting grounds for large flocks of sandhill cranes so we were hoping to see them coming in for the evening or leaving in the morning. Somehow they snuck past us because we heard them but we never saw them. There’s a short trail but I don’t think it goes close to the roosting area. A zig-zag entrance to the trail blocks animal access and also blocks wheelchair access.

         

    Primitive camping is allowed in the parking area which is fairly large but has some rough spots with potholes. The traffic noise from Kansas Settlement Road dies down at night. Some reviewers are disturbed by a noisy pump at one end of the parking lot. We didn’t notice it but that may have been because we had all of our windows closed.  Playa  32.1419, -109.7569

                 

Chiricahua Regional Museum

   Both Geronimo and Cochise, as leaders of their tribal groups, were central figures in the early conflicts between the Apaches and Spanish settlers and later between the Apaches and the Anglo ranchers. Most of the fighting ended when Geronimo surrendered in 1886.

    Half of the museum, which is housed in a small storefront building, is dedicated to the Apaches. The other half has exhibits and artifacts about the history of the forts, ranches and farms in the area.

   The museum is accessible.

   Parking is available on the street. Museum    32.2524, -109.83193

Veterans Park

   Veterans Park covers a large area and has picnic tables under shelters, dumpsters, and a few water faucets. Upkeep seems to be minimal. Some of the tables are broken and everything is a little overgrown but it’s a nice place to camp especially since it’s free!

   The first section is flat with shelters lined up in two rows. The sites farther up the hill are randomly arranged and more private. We found several working water faucets in this area.

  Any RV can fit in the park. To avoid the arch turn on the road south of the main entrance.  Park   32.33112, -108.72087

Lordsburg-Hidalgo County Museum

   Small town museums often are repositories for all the treasures and junk collected by the local residents. This one is no exception and contains a bit of everything which is neatly grouped by era or usage. Little information is provided but the docent on the day we visited was very knowledgeable.

  The museum building was previously used by the National Guard and consists of a large warehouse type room with smaller office spaces that now house exhibit galleries. An exhibit about the  WWII interment camp near Lordsburg is very good although the printed leaflets with personal stories are missing and the audio is nonfunctioning. Japanese men were held there for about a year, Italian POWs for another year, and German POWs for last year of the war. Another exhibit room has wonderful black and white photographs of the area. The Avon bottle collection is mind boggling strange. :-D

                

   The museum is accessible.

   Small RVs will fit in the fenced parking lot. Larger RVs can be parked on the street. Museum  32.3472, -108.70106