Sabino Canyon is in the Santa Catalina Mountains, at the northeastern edge of the city of Tucson. There’s a road up the canyon with bridges across the creek that was built during the 1930s. The road is closed to normal traffic, but it's used by sightseeing trams that carry visitors up and down the canyon.
Madera Canyon is in the Santa Rita Mountains, south of Tucson and close to Arizona's border with Mexico. The mountains are called “sky islands” because they reach up from the desert, forming cooler, wetter habitats than the surrounding hot, dry desert. The canyon has a small creek running along the bottom from the melting snow.
Picacho Peak State Park is about 40 miles north of Tucson. We were hoping to see California Poppies in bloom there, but the weather had been too warm, and most of them had finished blooming. There were still some poppies in gullies that were protected from the sun. We did see many other wildflowers – especially Brittlebush, which was in full bloom.
We just spent a week in Arizona, mostly helping Paul – my father-in-law – pack up his place so he could sell it.