My Winter Vacation –The Arizona- Sonoran Desert Museum

Cutest Prarie Dog Saying Hello!
Remember when you had to write an essay about “My Summer Vacation”?  That is what came to mind when I decided to share my recent visit to Tucson’s ‘Sonoran Desert Museum’ www.desertmuseum.org .  Peter and I spent about 4 hours enjoying the landscape and animals and could have spent more time.  This is one place I visited often when I lived in Tucson; one place I miss and one place you should know about!
Hundreds of saguaro cacti line the mountains on the way to the museum.  Half the fun is driving on the winding mountain roads outside of Tucson, getting to the crest and looking over the desert floor.  It makes me feel small and full of wonder.
This place is a world renowned zoo, a natural history museum and a botanical garden.  Walking along the many paths, you see interpretive displays.  The plants and animals represent a large area of the southwest- Arizona, California and many states of Mexico.  There are more than 300 animal species and 1200 kinds of plants in 21 acres of incredible desert. 
The live animal exhibits of Big Horn sheep, Mexican Wolves, Bobcats and the Grey Fox, the Walk-in Aviary and the Hummingbird Aviary are just a few of my favorites. 
Check out the color!
The enclosures look real and blend into the landscape while they keep the animals ‘caged’ and safe.  I watched some of them being built with wire and concrete and paint. 
The Bighorn Sheep need lots of space to climb on large rocks and their home provides just that.

These are at the top of the enclosure basking in the sun.

This guy is BIG! Look closely at the bigger picture and you will see him at the bottom of the hills.

 Obviously I could go on and on and I have hundreds of pictures from this place.   I just had to share a few with you. If you want to see more, check out my flicker page http://www.flickr.com/photos/brittdesign
  Please don't miss this on your ‘places to visit’ list.
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  1. Truscale29January 19, 2012 at 3:36 PM

    I love the Desedt Museum! Thanks for the memory update. Love it!

    ReplyDelete

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