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We have a few days left in Tucson before we head west to Yuma for the month of March. One of the events we heard about was the Asian Lantern Festival at the Reid Park Zoo. We had done a similar event at the Living Desert Museum in Palm Springs a couple years ago. Having enjoyed that one, we figured we could give this one a try as well. The zoo itself is rather small and since going to the zoo in the daylight hours doesn’t get you admission to the night show, we opt to just go for the light show. The entrance to the zoo has a rather elaborate Asian theme to it which is quite impressive after dark. The gates open a little before sunset, so there is some chance we may get to see some animals before it gets dark. They also have a few scheduled shows that run through the evening. We do a little bit of a walk looking for animals before the first show is to start.
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| Entrance to Reid Park Zoo |
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| Tiger |
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| Ruffed Lemur |
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| Crowned Crane |
We get a front row seat for the first show. Six performers have a variety of acts to wow the audience for about 45 minutes. The first one does a very impressive acrobatic act on wooden chairs that get stacked on top of one another. As he places the chairs carefully on top of one another and performs handstands, we all assume he is done but then another chair is brought out and he continues up. A total of 6 chairs are used and we are all holding our breath as he balances them in what appear to be precarious orientations. Fortunately, we didn’t witness a fall.
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| Handstand 14' Over Stage |
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| Balancing Act |
Other acts included a Chinese “face change” dance. A woman that can spin various items with her feet while laying on her back. This also included spinning the announcer in a large crock. Two performers that can juggle hats in rapid fire succession.
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| Face Change Dancer |
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| Table Dancer? |
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| Spinning Announcer |
The show ended with a hoop jump competition right in front of us. The four acrobats would run towards a large metal hoop and dive through it. The hoop was progressively moved higher and higher until the center was eight feet off the ground.
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| Back Flip Thru Hoop |
After the show was over, we started to walk around the zoo looking at the hundreds of lighted displays. The predominant theme of the artwork was that of animals - very appropriate for a zoo. The handful we had seen in Palm Springs were much less elaborately created than the ones here. It was almost mesmerizing to check them out. Numerous ones were animated in some fashion - a head turning, a tongue moving in and out or a mouth opening and closing.
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| Gator |
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| Chameleon |
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| Seahorses |
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| Fish |
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| Bear |
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| Elephants |
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| Baboons |
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| Lion |
Many of the displays were humongous- standing 20 feet tall and many dozens of feet long. It’s hard to imagine the effort and skill it takes to design and build these things.
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| Huge Peacock |
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| Butterfly Tree |
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| Dragon Overhead |
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| Hungry Hungry Hippo |
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| Zebras |
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| Giraffes |
Not everything had an animal theme to it. There were some with a fairy tale theme. And several what I would consider to be traditional Chinese lanterns. I even got Chris to pose with her wings.
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| Fairy Carriage |
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| Mermaid |
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| Unicorns |
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| Hanging Chinese Lanterns |
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| Chris Spreads Her Wings |
We were amazed at how large the place ended up being. At one point, we thought we had covered the full grounds and were starting to head for the exit when we spotted one full loop we had missed. We were even graced with the rhinoceros coming out in the dark to check out the lights. One section was dedicated to dinosaurs with T-Rex and several others.
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| Mama Kangaroo with Joey |
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| Light Show |
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| Rhino Comes Out for a Drink |
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| T-Rex |
We ended up spending nearly the full length of time the light show is open for. What a fun stop in Tucson.
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| Hummingbird |
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one drawback to the campground at Pima County Fairgrounds. There are a few raceways within a mile of our spot. We never wandered over to check them out, but at times the noise made us feel like we were right in the stands watching the events. Even though they would continue into the evening hours, they were always finished before bedtime.
We headed up to do some mountain biking about 7 miles north of camp. The place is called Fantasy Island Trails. There is a large dirt parking lot and only a few other cars here when we arrived. We headed for the trail named the Bunny Loop. Rated as an easy 5.5 mile loop, we figured it would fit well with our skills. It is generally flat desert scrub terrain with the occasional wash to navigate thru. There are several trails in the area so it isn’t always perfectly clear which way we are supposed to head. The good thing is there is a paved bicycle path adjacent to the mountain bike area so if you get tired or lost, heading west will get you to an easy ride back to the car. Besides the cute stuffed bunny rabbits positioned in cholla cacti, we spotted a real jack rabbit that stayed still long enough for a picture. At one point, we came across a younger couple out for a ride. We chatted a bit and then followed them for less than a quarter mile before we realized the trail they were on was a level or two above our skills. We ended up with a 7 mile ride and enjoyed most of it.
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| Along the Trail |
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| Stuffed Bunny Stuck in Cholla Cactus |
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| Real Jackrabbit |
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| Creative Trail Marker |
Our last full day had us head up Mt Lemmon for a hike. We have been up there once before and found it to be quite enjoyable. The mountain comes in at 9157 feet or about 6100 feet or so above the surrounding flatland. It’s a pretty drive leaving behind the cacti and desert for pine and oak trees. There are many dozens of hikes near the peak and all along the 25 miles of turning and twisting road to get to the top. Our goal for this hike is one named Marshall Gulch. Not all the way to the top, the trail starts around 7400 feet and in the 4.5 miles will gain just under 900 feet.
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| Trailhead Down Closed Road |
Unfortunately the road to the trailhead is closed for the winter. We only missed it opening by 2 days. Oh well that just adds another half mile each way and a couple hundred feet in elevation. There were a dozen cars parked above the trailhead but didn’t seem to run into many people. It is a big area with lots of other interconnected trails so maybe not too unexpected. Since the place wasn’t crowded, we headed for a geocache that was up the hills behind the picnic area. It was a tough climb especially at elevation but we found the cache and got a good view from the hiding spot.
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| Beautiful View from Geocache |
When we got back to the trailhead, we had the option of Marshall Gulch to the west or Aspen Trail #93 to the south. Being a loop, either way works but we prefer going up steep and down gradual than the other way around. This means we will head along the Aspen Trail and do the loop in the clockwise direction. The very first section of the trail was very icy and we were concerned that the bulk of the trail might be like that. Fortunately we found the majority of the trail was dry, with a few wet/muddy sections and only a couple of snowy sections.
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| Snow Covered Trail |
Although it was a generally overcast day, it was still a very pretty walk with numerous spots with great views of the valleys below and the other mountain peaks in the distance. Being early in the season, we didn’t run into many spots where a fallen tree blocked the path but there were several that made for interesting bypasses to get around them.
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| More Snow |
The trail is relatively easy to follow. At about 2.7 miles in, we come upon our first intersection. The signage does a pretty good job of which of the other four options we want to take. This is where the Marshall Gulch Trail starts. The next 1.7 miles is generally down hill and relatively easy. The spring runoff makes for a couple wet spots but nothing major. It was a fun and pretty hike but would have been better if we didn’t need to walk the half mile back up the hill to the car. On the drive back down, we stop at a few pullouts to check out the views. The clouds had parted just a bit to give us some blue skies. We even had a group of five javelinas run across the road during the drive down. We have not seen many of them in our travels although we know they live all over this area.
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| Another Section of Arizona Trail |
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| Why Did the Javelinas Cross the Road? |
Our next stop will be Yuma Arizona for the month of March. It’s about 250 miles drive so we split the drive in two and stop at the Elks Lodge in Gila Bend. They don’t have any services (no water, electric, or dump) but they do have a large gravel parking area adjacent to the lodge. There were five RVs already there and were spread out to give everyone space. One section of the lot was blocked off with cones and barricades. They were having a swap meet or yard sale and it was just closing up. We found the “iron ranger” near the entrance to the lodge to put our $5 donation in. This lodge permits non-members to stay as well. We picked out a popular Mexican place for dinner and had a rather relaxing evening.
