Tucson, located only 2 hours south of Phoenix has a lot to offer. Tucson is accesed by taking the EB 1-10. Along the way, you can't help but see a jagged peak that sticks out from the floor of the desert. This is Picacho Peak, home to the Picacho Peak. State Park. Picaho Peak where the largest (and possibly the only) battle/skirmish in Arizona. The parks itself is nice and includes an interesting visitors center. Trails lead to the peak which offer great views of the valley below. We were able to learn from the folks at the visitors center is that the battle actually took place on the other side of the freeway, near Newman peak (a.k.a. the Picacho Mountains). In Tucson, some good place to check out are the Pima Air and Space Museum, Davis Mothan AFB Boneyard, and San Xavier del bac just to name a few. The Pima Air and Space Museum holds over 200 planes including a B-36, B-52 and many others. This is where you can buy a pass to go across the street to the boneyard, where old retired planes are scrapped or stored. Due to Arizona's dry weather and low humidity, the Air Force thought that this was the perfect spot to store them. San Xavier del Bac, the White dove of the desert, is an old mission built back in the 1700's. The inside of the church is very interesting, the art work is half Franciscan and half Jesuit, signafying its heritage. A obvious clue of this is the Franciscan rope running through the middle of all the art. Just to the south of San Xavier is the Titan II Missile Museum. At this Cold war battle field, is the only Titan II Mssile silo left in the world. it is a very interesting museum that offers a varitey of tours. The best way to get a quick yet through tour is the one hour guided tour. In this tour you are shown around the 'topside' of the silo and then you get taken down to the control room where you get to simulate a launch. We would very much recommend this museum.
This trip could be done in a day depending on how ambitious you are. When we did this trip, we left out the Pima Air Museum and the boneyard.
An image of Picacho Peak (the battle happened on the road north of the freeway)
An image of the Titan II Missile Museum
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