Escaping Winter: Four Glorious Southwestern Arizona Days
The desert has always been special to me.
For many the desert seems desolate and barren, but to me it is the Phoenix of landscapes, rising each spring to celebrate the season with glorious, piercing color decorating its foliage. I love the architectural quality of saguaro, the skyward reach of the century plant’s singular stretch of blooms, the barrel cactus’s stunning flowers against its olive-green body.
For years, camping in remote areas of the Anza Borrego to see the spring wildflowers was a favorite event, and some years promises a “super bloom” when there’s been a lot of winter rain in California.
When I lived in Phoenix years ago, my appreciation of the desert expanded as I explored the Sonoran, which covers 100,000 square miles spread over California, Arizona, and northwestern Mexico.
I like a landscape that is not cluttered with civilization—areas, whether mountain, sea, desert, arctic or antarctic, where you can experience the grandeur of this planet and feel yourself a small but integral part of the life force. As Edward Abbey, a famous author and desert rat wrote in Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness:
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.
Abbey expressed so well what I feel about the desert when he went on to say, “The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom.” There’s a host of plutocrats in our capital who need to think about this.
Turning from philosophy and politics, I want to share with you four days three friends and I spent in southern Arizona that reminded me of all I love about the region. The good news is that we did a lot on our short visit (thanks in part to my savvy Tucson friend and freelance writer, Vera Badertscher, who lives in Tucson and made marvelous suggestions). My only regret is that we didn’t get as far out into nature as I might have liked. Here are the highlights in case you headed that way yourself.
We four converged on Phoenix midweek—I flew in from Colorado, Jane Sauer from St. Louis, and Jorden Nye and Richard Boyle drove in from Santa Fe. Our goals were to explore the art scene, eat good food, drink tequila, escape winter, and just have fun being together. It was our second annual February trip together.Upon arrival we wanted something quick, casual and close by for dinner. Jorden, our fabulous travel guide, took us to Haji-baba Restaurant & Market in Tempe. Mouthwatering Middle Eastern food served in large portions, deliciously prepared in a casual environment at one end of a market that carries every imaginable Middle Eastern food item and is interesting just to browse through.
Our first destination the next morning was the world-class Heard Museum (founded in 1929), a not-to-be-missed and beautifully presented collection of historic Native American art from the Southwest as well as an array of exciting contemporary works. The Heard is recognized internationally for the quality of its collections, its educational programming, and its festivals. They do a wonderful job with their traveling exhibitions and we spent hours there absorbing it all.
Looking for the Golden Sun, Karen Jilly
From there it was on to Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum to view their current exhibitions. I especially enjoyed the work of Karen Jilly's Looking for the Golden Sun before hitting the highway to Tucson.
Again with Jorden’s guidance, we discovered Teresa’s Mosaic Café—I had been longing for some authentic Mexican food and a first-rate margarita—we found both there and did our best to put a dent in the menu. Reservations recommended—it’s very popular. I get hungry again just thinking about it!
Our first day in Tucson included the delight of visiting Tucson Botanical Gardens to view their Frida Kahlo visiting exhibit, which I’d missed in New York, and to introduce my friends to the amazing varieties of succulents, cactus, and other desert plants.
There are many galleries to visit in Tucson, but the Etherton, owned by Terry Etherton, an internationally renowned dealer in world-class, 19th-, 20th-century, and contemporary photographs, is among the best. The gallery is a superb choice for those who appreciate this medium. Terry is an enthusiastic gallerist who happily shares his vast knowledge of ethnographic and Western American photography, including vintage works by Edward S. Curtis, Timothy O’Sullivan, William Henry Jackson, and others. I could write a whole post just on Terry and what we saw and learned during our visit with him. Many of you may know him from his appearances as an appraiser on Antiques Roadshow.
We rounded out our day by chowing down Tucson’s delicious invention, Sonoran hotdogs, at Daniel Contreras’s El Güero Canelo, which has been featured in the New York Times and Bon Apétit magazine as well as on TV. After roaming around downtown a bit to work off our hefty meal, we popped into the HUB Ice Cream Factory on Congress and Fifth Avenue. The best handcrafted ice cream I’ve ever eaten. The biggest challenge is choosing from among their dozens of selections. I settled for a scoop of banana cream pie and one of Toasted Coconut. Can you say “waddled out of there”?
We took a day trip out of Tucson to Tubac, Arizona, a presidio turned artists’ colony, only about half an hour north of the Mexican border town of Nogales, stopping on the way at Mission San Xavier del Bac on the Tohono O'odham San Xavier Indian Reservation. Beautifully restored and redolent of the region’s early Spanish history, the church is still active and we were treated to scenes of happy families celebrating baptisms and first communions.
In Tubac, we explored many of the shops and galleries. My favorite is the K.Newby Gallery & Sculpture Garden, featuring top-notch sculptors, painters, ceramists, and jewelry designers. The quality of art here never fails to amaze me and I often come away inspired by story ideas for my editors.
Probably the best dining experience of the many we indulged in on this trip, our late lunch/early dinner at Elvira’s in Tubac was top of the line! Chef Ruben Monroy has created perfection for everything from interior design to an exquisite menu replete with moles and an array of gourmet Mexican fusion dishes you’ll find nowhere else. And, of course, we gave due attention to the tasty tequila shots and margaritas!
Our final day in Tucson was low key but still simply delightful. A morning spent at its extensive farmers market where everyone purchased cacti for home gardens was followed by a visit to Tohono Chul Park to enjoy its gardens, short hikes along meandering paths, galleries, and bistro. It was a fitting wrap-up to our exploration of the nature, art, history and culture of the Sonoran Desert region—an adventure we’ll long remember!
