Day Trips from Tucson

This former copper-mining town turned arts enclave spills down a canyon like a colorful fever dream. Victorian houses painted turquoise and tangerine cling to hillsides, while vintage neon signs buzz above galleries and coffee shops.

The Sky Island Scenic Byway climbs from desert scrub to alpine forest in 27 miles, delivering you to Summerhaven where log cabins sit among ponderosa pines and the temperature drops 20-30 degrees.

These living limestone caves stay 70 degrees year-round, featuring 200,000-year-old stalactites that look like melted candle wax and formations named for what they resemble (fried eggs, bacon strips).

Start at the haunting 18th-century mission ruins where adobe walls bake in the sun, then drive 10 minutes to Tubac's arts colony where galleries sit in historic buildings and the smell of mesquite fires drifts from restaurants.

The Rincon Mountain District offers dense saguaro forests where these well-known cacti stretch like silent sentinels, their arms raised in weird angles against an impossibly blue sky.

The red rocks here glow like ember coals at sunset, and the drive up through Oak Creek Canyon might be prettier than the destination itself, with sycamores turning gold in October.

The White Dove of the Desert gleams like a pearl against brown desert hills, its baroque facade decorated with carved saints and painted angels that survived Apache raids and centuries of sun.