To get to know UA and Tucson remotely, here's a great place to start: https://www.arizona.edu/student-life/virtual-visit. If you click on the red SEE ARIZONA button under VIRTUAL VISIT at the top of the page, you can access the UA Virtual Tour (see below). But scroll down first, to the video below the heading YOUR MAIN HUB. The first video is just a couple of minutes long, and is a nice introduction to Tucson.

You can also watch other videos on this UA page. Access the video playlist from the upper right corner of the video box. Check out the first 3 in particular.

Tucson is a great place to live!

Tucson has ...

• tons of great restaurants and breweries. https://tucson.cityofgastronomy.org/

• an impressive, funky, and eclectic arts and music scene

• awesome weather year-round (ok, yeah, summers are pretty hot)

• fun annual events, like Optical Science's Laser Fun Day (video from the first one and still going strong!), El Tour de Tucson 100-mile bike race around the city, the All Souls Precession, the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show (the largest, oldest, and most prestigious gem and mineral show in the world) and all of the satellite shows, the St Patrick's Day Parade (can you find our own Jen Garcia on the Gallery page?), and other fun local events

• access to the Great Outdoors: hiking, backpacking trailheads, city biking, mountain biking, great weather for outdoor sports

• Saguaro National Park East and West (2 separate units on either side of the city), Rincon Mountain Wilderness on the east side of town, Pusch Ridge Wilderness on the north side of town, and the Mt Wrightson Wilderness south of town.

• unbelievable sunsets and stunning flowers, and tons of other photography opportunities

• cultural diversity

• a long history, Tucson is said to be the oldest continuously occupied region in the United States

Outdoors

A (very) little bit of geology...

The Santa Catalina Mountains are the stunning wilderness accompaniment to the laid back city of Tucson. The 'Catalinas' reach an elevation over 9000' on Mt. Lemmon, rising from the northern edge of Tucson (elevation about 2500'). At the base of the Catalinas and about a 25-minute drive from UA campus is Sabino Canyon Natural Recreation Area, a beautiful canyon into the mountains with slopes of saguaro and other cacti, wildlife, hiking trails into the Pusch Ridge Wilderness, and a beautiful perennial creek. Beyond the turnoff to Sabino Canyon is the road to the top of Mt. Lemmon, with gorgeous views over Tucson and the surrounding landscape, and many more trails and access points into the Catalinas and the wilderness.

The upper elevations of the Catalinas are covered in pine forests, rock outcrops (a favorite of rock climbers), spring-fed creeks. There is also an observatory and a ski area - Mt Lemmon Ski Valley, the southernmost ski area in the US, which does in fact occasionally open.

You can spend 3 minutes with a birds-eye view over Mt Lemmon and the Catalina Highway here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbhLSfK8EJk

Tucson is surrounded by mountains

The Catalinas on the north side of Tucson, the shorter and drier Tucson Mountains are on the west (and home to Saguaro National Park West), the roadless wilderness of the Rincon Mountains are to the east (and home to Saguaro National Park East), and the roadless Mt Wrightson Wilderness and the Santa Rita Mountains (elev. 9456' on Mt Wrightson, a killer hike to the top!) are a bit further to the south. To get a bit of a sense of the relationship of Tucson to the surrounding mountains and landscape, check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E-4kBSvBFQ

Summer monsoons

Tucson has tons of sunshine, and there's always something to do outdoors. Winter is fantastic, and great for hiking in the lower elevations. Even in the summer, hiking up around 9000' on Mt Lemmon is great as long as there's not a storm underway. In the second half of summer, the monsoon season kicks in, and the dry heat gives way to more humidity and slightly lower temperatures (but yes, it's still hot). Weather can become pretty dramatic, with sudden heavy rains, lightning, and thunder. Sunsets during this season are phenomenal, plants start blooming again, and the mountains turn green with new grasses. For some (like yours truly), July is a favorite month and one of Tucson's best kept secrets, but admittedly that's not a widely held opinion. To get a sense of monsoon season across Arizona, check out this video (the opening sequence appears to be Tucson):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVrBH4v5HLM&list=RDCMUCopMlh9gz8P27dpHg-4GXeA&index=5

And if you still want more videos, here one with a bit of everything (including UA):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i65wOwKcNIQ