For ten days, starting April 9th, 2019, we are exploring the mountains and deserts of Southern Arizona, camping with our Boulder friends who have much experience here.
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Our adventure starts at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, just west and over a mountain, from Tucson. This museum is a unique combination of zoo, botanical garden, art gallery, natural history museum, and aquarium. It took us two full days to take its measure. This is a large, mostly outdoor living museum. Think of it as a botanic garden with so many cactus and cactus-like plants now in their period of spring blooming.
Think of it as a zoo with coyotes, javelinas, snakes (rattle and otherwise), Gila monsters, road runners, and raptors that are free to fly around. However, these latter birds almost always decide that home is where they really want to be after a morning period of soaring and zooming around to quickly eat bits and pieces that (sort-of-camouflaged) zoo workers place on random tree branches.
We stood with a group of a hundred or so visitors to watch various raptors fly free above us, and then swooping in close to our heads to eat little parts of mice that various trainers placed on desert branches.
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The Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum also has a small art gallery which featured ‘feather art’ on the day we were there. The artist used surgical tools to cut tiny cutouts from feathers and then arranged the feathers into various patterns. And, we throw in an arty javelina for good measure…..
Finally, before we head off to the various wild canyons to see some of this flora and fauna in the wilds of southeastern Arizona, we peek at the museum’s small aquarium. It showcases both freshwater and saltwater species of the region, from Tucson down through the Sea of Cortez.
With two days of introduction to these ecosystems, we are now off to roam the canyons and search for wild nature!
carol townsley
22 Apr 2019Having just visited Palm Springs and have visited Joshua Tree (where visitors took souvenirs of the ancient trees-so sad). I
loved your Arizona museum visit with deep appreciation for the fragile desert vegetation and bird /animal habitat.
Debby Levinson
22 Apr 2019‘Love that Desert Museum, Tucson and environs! Rick and I spent a full day at that wondrous museum (not two like you) about this time last year, followed by a few days of desert hiking. Your pics make that excursion come alive again. (I especially like the flying owl shot.) Enjoy…
Robin Donnelly
22 Apr 2019Once again, you open eyes to a unique experience and ecosystem. Wonderful photos and experience, and now we add the park on our destination list for next Spring. Thank you!
Lesley I Nilsson
22 Apr 2019I always enjoy your “reports” of amazing places. As Rick Steves says, “…keep on travelin'”
Shirley Paterson
23 Apr 2019Ahh, my favorite — bobcats!
(We took our truck camper to NM, and then Utah, last month. Have a FlyFrontier visit to Maia & family this month. Big agenda item is a large chunk of the summer driving/camping to AK/Denali. Mostly, I’m good staying around home, though:))
Hugs,
S.
Stormy
23 Apr 2019Wondrous desert life. The bird photos are FABULOUS. Hope to hear much more about this trip!
Eric Adelberger
23 Apr 2019As usual, you’ve got wonderful photos. We really enjoyed our time in northern New Mexico (visited Chaco Culturel National Historical Park (where spring had not yet hit) and then on to southern Arizona where it was in full bloom.
too bad that our paths didn’t cross.
Beth Carlson
24 Apr 2019We are so enjoying the desert at this time of year, through your blog. This is an area we’d like to visit—-we have been north of there, biking and hiking, but not in to this desert. We are sure you and the Kamperts had a fantastic camping experience!
Beth & Bob