The Tamesis
How is the atmosphere?
Sedona may be best known for its whirlpools, but Tucson’s Sonoran Desert home has a powerful energy of its own. That said, the atmosphere at Canyon Ranch is great. The desert environment is not only the backdrop but also the stage for activities such as walking meditation through a streamside maze, rock climbing, canyon hiking and biking. Even strolling between appointments means strolling among the kaleidoscope of cacti that dot the property. Each one has an identifying tag that you grow to love (mine is a barrel cactus, known for growing low and slow). The architecture and design were conceived to complement and blend with the surrounding desert landscape, which translates into soft-edged adobe and Spanish colonial-style structures and an earthy color palette and textures. These spaces are not luxurious, but they have an inviting warmth and ease, designed to provide a rejuvenating atmosphere and calm the nervous system; useful. “Just stay here, away from the outside world,” one therapist advised me as she offered me my choice of essential oils before a massage. Those words could serve as Canyon Ranch’s creed. The therapist is aptly named Bliss.
Photo: Courtesy of Tucson Canyon Ranch
history?
When Mel and Enid Zuckerman first stumbled across the property in the 1970s, it was a private ranch called The Double U. Mel, a successful real estate developer who had suffered from asthma since childhood and was battling a new set of health issues in midlife, decided to embark on a personal health journey west from his home in New Jersey. After correcting his own medical condition, he gradually developed a desire to help others. “I was lucky enough to have an experience that changed everything in my life, and it dawned on me that if I could make this happen to me, I could make it happen to someone else,” Mel said in a recording before his death in 2023. The couple opened Canyon Ranch in the late 1970s, promoting an approach to beauty and health that was not focused on poverty (not Michelin cooking, but the food was pretty good, and they wouldn’t refuse coffee or alcohol). This was groundbreaking at the time. A 1980 print ad exclaimed: Take your body to places it has never been! Following Tucson, Canyon Ranch opened in Lenox, Massachusetts, briefly opened a boutique in Woodside, California (which closed in 2025 because it was too small to fit its overall goals), and is expected to open a larger store in Austin later this year.
