West - Good nature photography near TUS (aside from Saguaro NP)?

I'm traveling to TUS this weekend, originally with the plan to visit Saguaro National Park and do some nature photography. Given the feds look increasingly likely to be shut down for the weekend, I'm scrambling to find some alternative places to go in the TUS area (still to do some photography) so the trip won't be totally spoiled.

Any advice?

There's always the state parks.

http://www.pr.state.az.us/Parks/BOTH/index.html

What about Old Tucson Studios?

http://www.oldtucson.com/

I would imagine the area around Mt. Lemmon might also be good.

Thanks--that's the kind of information I'm looking for! I had figured there must be some decent state parks in the area, but had to be honest not done much Googling yet and figured I could tap the FT resource pool. :cool:

The Bear trail at Sabino Canyon, or the Sonoran Desert Museum area?

The Bear trail at Sabino Canyon, or the Sonoran Desert Museum area?

The Sonoran Desert Museum area seems a good option from what I've read--I came across it last night when I remembered I have A Birding Guide to SE AZ sitting on my bookshelf. Catalina State Park also looks interesting from a quick browsing of the AZ state parks site.

Going to be interesting weather, not significantly different than what I have in WAS right now, from what I can tell. I seem to pick great short weekends to travel to places which otherwise don't get much rain. ;) Well, the skies might be that much better for some photography...

Old Tucson is surprisingly nice, especially if you're into old movies and TV.

Being that you're on FT, you might want to check out the Air Museum. Certainly one of the biggest and best.

And if you decide to do the Pima Air and Space Museum in south Tucson, you might as well keep going south to the Titan Missile Museum as well.

Well the good news is that the shutdown was averted.

If you don't mind doing a bit of driving, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) (http://www.nps.gov/orpi/) has some incredible cacti.

EmailKid

Well the good news is that the shutdown was averted.

If you don't mind doing a bit of driving, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) (http://www.nps.gov/orpi/) has some incredible cacti.

That's on my list for the next time... weather made photography a bit difficult Saturday, but Sunday was very nice (spent most of the time Sunday in the west unit; visited both on Saturday). All in all, a pleasant first trip to SE AZ!

There's always the state parks.

http://www.pr.state.az.us/Parks/BOTH/index.html

R u serious?? The park is 2 hours from Tucson! Happy driving!!