The Arizona - Sonoran Desert Museum

As I said in my last post.....   today was a busy day.

Since we will be leaving Tucson on Friday and this is an

extremely busy week for me work-wise, we tried to cram as much

in as possible today....   and we did.

Our first stop today was the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum.

The Museum, one of the most visited attractions in Tucson,  combines the

attributes of a Museum, Zoo, and Botanical Garden into

one facility.

It is a large - 98 acre park with several miles of walking paths.

To get there we first had to drive thru the Tucson Mountain Park,

a county park with one of the most magnificent Saguaro Forests in the world.

We climbed over the mountains, thru the Park on Gates Pass Road

This view below is actually on the way home.

Ahead you can see Tucson down below in the distance.

The museum is a mixture of indoor and outdoor exhibits and covers the

numerous life zones found in Arizona depending on altitude.

We concentrated on the outdoor venues.

In the Mountain Woodland section - generally around 4,000'

to 6,000' of elevation we saw Black Bear, Mountain Lion, 

Bobcats, & Wild Turkeys to name a few.

Here is the back of a Mountain Lion.

He did not want to turn around so that I could get his picture and

I did not think that poking him to do so would be a wise idea.

Here are Bobcats relaxing in the warm sun.

Some Wild Turkeys and foliage representative of the Woodland Mountain Section.

Walking thru the desert section the views were fantastic.

The trail wound a mile or two thru numerous exhibits.

Here is a Coyote in the Desert Section.

There is a pack of Coyotes that have made their home around our campground.

At dusk, at night, and at dawn you can hear them howling and yipping.

At first it got the Doodles undivided attention but now they have become used to it.

One of our favorite attractions was the Hummingbird Aviary.

There were dozens of the fast moving little buggers, darting to and fro.

It was hard to catch them in flight but here is one that I was able to capture.

Remember - if you don't click on the pictures to enlarge them - your'e not

going to see the detail and the hummingbirds are almost invisible.

Here is one sitting on a branch.

Notice how well they blend into their surroundings.

And of course -  our self portrait.

We could have spent several days here but time pressures made us breeze thru it

like Chevy Chase on Vacation.

Our next stop was the Old Tucson Film Studios...

But that is for another blog.