The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Trip

Last stop on our way south. Tomorrow we will be sleeping in San Carlos and getting ready to morph back into our water-people selves.

We have been busy, busy, busy finishing up that “to do” list in San Diego and here, in Tucson and I think we have finally reached the end of it. Although...Rosie just posted on Facebook that she was eating those mini Hershey bars on night watch and now I’m thinking that sounds like a great idea so I think we’ll pick some up before we leave here!

In between all the shopping and visiting, we did manage to get in a day of just plain touristy fun by taking in the Sonora Desert Museum here. It is an amazing place and, even with my snake phobia, I enjoyed walking around on the pathways through all the cacti and succulents and getting a chance to see some of the flora and fauna close up. They have quite a few animal exhibits there and we took most in but as the day wore on (and got hotter) we decided to return again another time to see the Javelinas rather than walk another long and winding road to their enclosures.

First thing…right off the bat…of course…Chris had to take me to see the snakes-behind-glass. Eww. I HATE snakes!! I dutifully looked at them all and then decided that, in addition to the run-of-the-mill rattlers I now had to worry about walking under bushes where a vine snake might be waiting to drop onto me. Sheesh. Well, just when I thought we were done with the snakes, we walked around the corner and there was a woman HOLDING a snake. My cue to exit the building, which I did. Chris insisted it was “just” a King Snake but, again, I have no interest in getting close to slithery reptiles.

Once out of that building we ran into a docent who told us all about the cute little Kangaroo Rat she had in a cage and then another that had a tiny Raptor on her hand. From there we wandered through the desert and just about the time I’d start to get tired of seeing cactus and watching for rattlesnakes we’d come upon an animal enclosure. The Bighorn Sheep were very stinky but the head guy in charge posed and I got a perfect shot of him. The Mexican Wolves were beautiful and appeared to be very well fed. We saw a Bobcat foot hanging down from a crevasse but the kitty himself was apparently snoozing. I love the little Prairie Dogs. They are so cute and they chirp almost like a bird. The Ocelot and the Coatimundi were hiding but the Desert Tortoise was stretching and enjoying the hot sun.

There are so many different kinds of cacti I can’t believe it but I think my favorites are the Saguaro and the Cholla (aka Jumping) Cactus. The Desert Museum is right in the middle of the Saguaro National Park so the drive there gives you the opportunity to see lots of them. I was surprised to find out that there are also a number of different kinds of Agave plants...one real stunner is the Queen Victoria's Agave. I also didn't know that the Century Plant is an Agave that only blooms once (at about 15 years of age) and when the bloom dies the entire plant goes with it.

The Museum has two walk-in aviaries which were great fun…especially the one that is specifically for Hummingbirds. I must have taken 50 pictures but those little devils are so fast that I could only catch them when they were sitting still…which they actually do more often than I’d have thought. There was a Parrot in the general aviary that was just sitting in a tree muttering to himself the whole time we were there. I wonder if he was someone's pet at one time and now misses the conversation.

One of the very cool things they do is they have a Raptor Free Flight twice a day where they release several breeds of birds of prey and give a talk about each bird’s characteristics while the audience gets to see them hunting in the wild. Chris & I were watching from a viewing station on top of a small building and a Gray Hawk landed on the roof in front of us. It was a beautiful bird and just as I snapped a picture of it, it went tip toeing across the roof and the photo shows that. Whoo hoo!

As we walked past the River Otter enclosure we came upon a beautiful grouping of flowers that were alive with butterflies. I have no idea what species they were but they were all busy slurping up the nectar and didn't seem to mind having their pictures taken though, like the Hummingbirds, it was hard to catch them fully extended.

We went early and by 2:00 we were ready to head for lunch and a beer. Our old joints were beginning to talk pretty loudly to us. I do hope we get a chance to go back next year as there is still a lot to see. I recommend it if you are going through Tucson, but go in the morning before it gets cooking hot!