Children's Museum Oro Valley at Tohono Chul — Attraction in Oro Valley

“We can walk around Tohono Chul.” said the girl of my dreams. “I’m a member, so I can get us for free.” That was all I knew about this place before I visited. I have a strict policy of following TGOMD wherever she leads, so I didn’t need to know more. We picked early morning for our visit to avoid the heat. The woman at the ticket window said we were too early for the green house, but she could open it for us. We said that we would walk around a bit and see the green house when it was officially open. TGOMD had misplaced her guest pass, so we had to cough up $15 after all. I think it was worth it. The area has all sorts of trails twisting around islands of xeric plants. We had a map, but it was easy to get lost in the exhibits and the perfect company, so I had a hard time keeping track of where we were and how to find what we were interested in. The plants were not the kind of vegetation I am used to. It was very interesting to see all sorts of spiky plants. Occasionally we ran into volunteers who answered our questions and pointed out cool things to check out. There was a section that attracted butterflies that was especially interesting. Also, the tortoise entertained us. It was mid-September, but some people think that it is never too early to decorate for Halloween. All the trails were lined with artificial pumpkins carved creatively. I suppose that if you want your pumpkin to last more than a day in the heat, molded foam is the way to go. In addition to carvings, many of the pumpkins were painted. In some spectacular cases, multiple pumpkins were stacked and painted into Halloween themed sculptures. Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster and zombies were prominent. There were also tableaus of TV characters, animals, mermaids and more. We had fun discovering things. Neither of us has grandkids, and I missed getting to see things through a child’s eyes. I’m sure that this place is a delight for...

I took my 2yo here to play she loved it, it’s nice and small and my little one loved it except staff was rude the boy who sits at the desk took the little grocery cart away from my daughter who took it outside said it didn’t belong there ok understandable we were going to put it back. Also my daughter brought in balls from the outside the worker saw she had the balls and took them away from her hands and said they belonged out side.. that left her crying. It was extremely upsetting to have some one constantly behind us taking things away from my kid making her cry when at the end of the day they put everything back in it’s place anyways ?. Also my kid was playing with my friends kids running around laughing and screaming as what kids do this woman that works there proceeded to tell my kid including the others to “use there inside voice” and “shh’ed” them and told us that there was a park out back they can run and play in that this was her “QUIET TIME” . Sorry lady if you don’t want to hear kids play then I think the childrens museum is not a good place for you. This place was nice and small I liked it a lot just staff was super rude I probably will not go back there again. I went...

Cute little children’s museum! A much smaller space than your typical children’s museum and geared towards younger toddlers but quaint and enjoyable. Very friendly staff.

We came for the museum but also enjoyed walking through the gardens. Parents with young toddlers I’d recommend bringing a stroller cause the children’s museum is at the back of the property. It’s a beautiful walk but takes about a 10min to get to there. I unfortunately didn’t realize and carried my 1.5y old

A note for management, I would recommend changing the Google Map location. Currently if you follow Google Maps it takes you to the staff parking lot. I drove around for 10min confused about where the entrance was and almost left until I just happened to drive by the Tohono Chul entrance and realized. I’m from out of town so had no idea what Tohono Chul was or that the children’s museum was in there. Also the Google Maps phone number connects you to the Tucson Children’s Museum and they weren’t...