Out of Our Rut: Sonora Desert Museum and Mt Lemmon

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Even though Catalina State Park probably has enough hiking and geocaching to keep us busy for our stay here, there are other things to see and do while in the Tucson area. It has been a month since we have been in a city of any size. The last one being San Antonio Texas 30 days ago. One of the first things we did was a bit of shopping. My slippers had seen better days and were being held together by tape for several weeks now. Chris was unwilling to let me continue wearing them for fear some neighbor would come in and see the pathetic things. Fortunately there is a shopping center directly across the street from the park so this was remedied fairly quickly.

We had two potential 'touristy' things to do while here. Old Tucson Studios has been the location of hundreds of western movies and is a theme park up sorts with shows and re-enactments of shoot outs and other old time things. Just down the road from this is the Sonora Desert Museum. There are many gardens, exhibits and even desert animals like a mini zoo. Both venues are on the far western side of town and either would take the better part of the day to experience.

We decided to try the museum. Boy was this place crowded based on how far out in the parking lot we ended up. Once inside, the crowds never seemed too bad, only occasionally did some of the spots seem too crowded to enjoy. Being a warm day, many of the animals in the outdoor displays were trying to stay cool and were sleeping in the shade.

Overlooking the Sonora Desert

Chris Earns Her Wings

The mountain lion was quite active, pacing back and forth in front of its thick glass panel, eyeing the small children on our side. As we wandered past the other side of the enclosure, protected by both fence and moat, it came out explored the rest of the area before heading back to the window.

Mountain Lion on the Prowl

The four bighorn sheep, were also moving around a bit, almost posing for pictures from the group of people watching them. Their environment included some large boulders so they could show off their climbing abilities.

Bighorn Family

Look at My Horns

There was one loop that went through part of the desert and included a small group of javelina - sleeping of course. The coyote was also sleeping on top of a big rock, but was at least out in the open. The fox had also found a good sleeping spot. But the prairie dogs were very active.

A Few Sleeping Javelinas

Fox Sleeping in Sunny Nook

Prairie Dog Checking Us Out

There were quite a few birds on display as well. Some were in their individual cages like the parrots while others were in a large aviary. It was interesting to walk around and see so many different types of birds. There was also a hummingbird aviary with quite a few of them flying around and often perching here and there.

Bright Parrots

Feeding Bird

Of course there was the reptile and amphibian exhibit with many snakes and lizards.

Resting in Plain View

Uncomfortable Looking Spot

All Coiled Up

There were also many garden areas with a wide assortment of plants with many even in bloom. Quite a few of them were just odd looking to somebody from up north.

Blooming Cactus

More Cactus Blooms

No Caption Required!

Strange Cactus

After a long day at the museum, we stopped at one of the many pullouts that are trailheads within the Tucson Mountains County Park in order to keep our geocaching streak alive.

Our second day trip was to the top of Mt Lemmon. At over 9100 feet in elevation, it is the first thing one sees when they drive into the Tucson area. It is possible to just hike to the top right from our campground. It is about a 13 mile hike one way. We opt to drive even though it is a very long drive from the campgrounds to the summit at nearly 2 hours. The good news is there are dozens of pullouts all along the route to check out the views. The warm weather we have been experiencing down at the campground elevation has been warm enough to melt all the snow at least on the road. A cache we attempted near the top allowed us to experience a little bit of deeper snow. The last mile or so of the road was closed beyond the restaurant and ski slope, so we didn't see the very top.

Impressive View From a Geocache

Ski Slope at Mt Lemmon

View from Near Top of Mt Lemmon

At one of the pullouts we stopped at (Windy Point), we had a couple caches and earthcaches to attempt. In fact while we were out taking measurements of one of the rock formations, two guys walked up and asked if we happened to be geocachers. Yep and they were there for the same thing. From one of the viewing points, I turned around to face the parking area and noticed some guy with a large skateboard, full helmet and apparent padding walking to the middle of the road while his buddy got in a car and started to follow him downhill! When we later came back down the road, we never saw any indication of him splattered against a rock face so hopefully the fool made it down safely. We had seen dozens of people bicycling up the mountain and presumably going back down, but they have brakes.