West Tucson Murals

February 6, 2025

I have come across a route that goes by 11 murals in 11 miles on the west side of downtown Tucson. That's just a small chunk of the mural scene here. There are well over 100 murals in the city, but it's handy to have a map of this many concentrated in an area west of I-10. We'll check it out today and add some miles for the exercise.

From Irvington Road we ride north on the Santa Cruz River path through El Paseo de los Árboles - The Pathway of the Trees. I've ridden this way many times with little understanding of what it is.

Looking it up, I learn that El Paseo is one of several commemorative tree parks on the Loop. The park is a way for people to support environmental restoration and reforestation by purchasing the trees to plant in honor of someone. Among the people with memorial trees here are Diana, Princess of Wales, and Juan Bautista de Anza, the Spanish officer who led an expedition through Tucson in 1775 to find an overland route to California.

Not quite a mural, still a nice opening scene for today's art tour.

A memorial tree in El Paseo de los Arboles

Coming up to the Ajo Way bridge. I like diving down these underpasses. You get a little work on the other side pedaling back up.

We exit the Loop at Silverlake and take it east over the Santa Cruz into South Tucson, on the hunt for a mural of Aretha Franklin. The route takes us on mostly quiet streets to the Hotel McCoy. A mid-century modern motor lodge, the hotel was built in the 1960s and reopened as the McCoy in 2018.

We talk to a guy in the lot who directs us inside to find Aretha. From the lobby we can walk out to the pool and patio, and there she is, looking fabulous.

Works by Local artists' adorn the walls of the lobby

As I will read later, there are more murals all over the motor lodge than we saw. Worth another visit whenever we're close to the Hotel McCoy.

From here we ride north to the Tuxon Hotel, passing more colorful art on the way. The Tuxon is another vintage motor lodge that has been renovated into a modern boutique hotel.

You too could have a mural on your walls in this town.

The Tuxon was renovated and reopened in 2020

Joe Pagac's colorful bull welcomes us to the Tuxon

Vibrant night scene from Jessica Gonzalez

Another by Jessica Gonzalez in the bright light of day

The pool scene is appealing on this warm day

Riding near Sentinel Peak we get various angles on the big A, none of them straight on.

From the Tuxon the map sends us to Mission Lane, indicating that it crosses west over the Santa Cruz, except there's no bridge here. Are we supposed to hike through the dry river bed? Surely not.

Instead we'll cross on the Cusibg Street bridge which I rode over on the way to Sentinel Peak two weeks ago. I wanted to come back here anyway after reading up on it. There's a lot of story in the shade fins overhead and the sidewalk etchings below.

Musical instruments in the shade fin over an etching of Mariachi dancers

The explorer Francisco Coronado, with the legend of how he stood on the banks of the parched Santa Cruz on June 24, 1540 and prayed to John the Baptist for rain.

Above Coronado, the rain that fell that day according to the story. Tucson's annual El Día de San Juan Fiesta on the 24th of June celebrates the legend and the beginning of monsoon season.

From here we go off script, riding up toBonita Park for a picnic lunch. In the process of finding our way back I make some navigation mistakes so we miss some of the murals on the map. A look at what we did see....

Our Lady of Guadalupe on the side of Menlo Home & Garden antique shop on Congress Street

At La Chaiteria, a work by Alejandra Trujillo. In an interview with Shoutout Arizona she describes herself and her art as "colorful, loud and all over the place."

One by Wagon Burner Arts at a cell phone repair shop on St. Mary's Road

This is all just a small piece of the amazing mural scene in Tucson. We've had our fill of riding the streets for today so we head back to the Loop and turn north for a while to get some exercise.

A visual palate-cleanser of nature's art during a pitstop at Christopher Columbus Park

Instead of our ride, I'm sharing a version of the route I found on RidewithGPS showing the mural locations. It's modified to get around the Mission Lane crossing that wasn't a crossing over the Santa Cruz river bed. Our ride was longer than this with all the wrong turns and the extra out-and-back at the end.

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Today's ride: 27 miles (43 km)
Total: 335 miles (539 km)

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Wendy BeaudoinReally interesting description of the murals, Janice. I will have to try out that route sometime. We enjoyed meeting you and Barry last night. Thanks for including us.
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1 week ago

Janice BranhamThanks Wendy! We enjoyed our time with you and Kurt. He has me thinking more about Mount Lemmon. Hope to see you both again.
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1 week ago

Rachael AndersonGreat post! I really love that Tucson has so many great murals.
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1 week ago

Janice BranhamTo Rachael AndersonI'll bet you've seen tons of them, especially since you stay downtown. I want to do another mural ride soon.
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1 week ago