Valley View Overlook

Valley View Overlook is a ridge-top viewpoint in Saguaro National Park's Tucson Mountain District, reached on the Valley View Overlook Nature Trail. The easy out-and-back is 0.8 mile round trip and ends at benches above Avra Valley. Choose it for an uncomplicated desert walk with a proper view at the end; it isn't a drive-up pullout.

The dirt path drops into and climbs out of two washes, then rises gradually to the ridge. Interpretive signs point out plants along the way. The overlook is about four-tenths of a mile from the trailhead, so you need to walk for the view.

From the ridge, Avra Valley opens west across the cactus-covered desert. Signal Hill looks like a small dark mound, and Picacho Peak's jagged ridge stands to the north. For a photo, keep a saguaro in the foreground with the valley and distant mountains behind it; that gives the open view a sense of scale.

The Civilian Conservation Corps built the trail in the 1930s. The short route still makes room for a bit of interpretation along with the viewpoint: signs introduce the plants of the Sonoran Desert.