Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

The weather where I live is bouncing back and forth between almost-spring and still-winter. So for today’s site, here’s something a bit warmer — the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It’s a zoo! it’s a botanical garden! it’s a natural history museum! and much more. (It’s also just down the road from one section of the Saguaro National Park but the latter will have to wait for another post.)

The bookstore alone is one good reason to visit — lots of wonderful, interesting texts about the region’s history, natural history, and more.

The museum is, of course, mostly outside and occasionally underground. Here are two attractions, one dead and one living.

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I took a lot of photos during one of my visits (I spent a number of years close enough to visit Tucson and the museum on several occasions). I’m restraining myself rather than overwhelm visitors with images, but here are three showcasing vistas (those are not merely mountains but sky islands in the distance), cacti, and flowers.

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The raptor free flights are one of the museum’s many attractions. They’re seasonal–the birds aren’t flown free during the hottest months–and definitely make for a fine show. Here are two samples from my visits.