Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum January 10, 2014

                         Quintin walking on the grounds

Directions: The Arizona- Sonoran Desert Museum is located on western side of the Tucson Mountains. The most scenic route is to take the Speedway BLVD exit off I-10. Turn left onto Speedway traveling west. After a number of miles Speedway turns into Gates Pass Road. Follow Gates Pass Road over the Tucson Mountains. (This road is windy so take it slow). Turn right onto Kinney Road.

General Admission: Adults $19.50 Seniors $17.50 Youth $15.50 Children 4-12 $6.00 A year-long membership for families is $75. (Benefits include unlimited membership, guest passes, and discounts).

The museum's mission is to educate the general public to "live in harmony with the natural world" and to "appreciate and understand the Sonoran Desert." The museum accomplishes this through wildlife enclosures, plant gardens, and educational demonstrations. The zoo portion is organized by habitat. Animals seen in the Mountain Woodland and Desert Grassland are together. There is also a cat canyon, aviary, and hummingbird enclosure. The Sonoran Desert Museum is one of the top ten locations for public gardens in the United States. There are 1200 different species of plants with 56,000 individual plant specimens planted. Notable gardens include the Mountain Woodland, Desert Grassland and Cactus Garden. It is fun to sit on the benches, identify plants and watch native birds in their habitat.  Finally, throughout the day museum docents give visitors demonstration with some of the wildlife. (Information from the Arizona Sonoran Desert website).

                            Quintin playing with rattlesnake scales

                                 Prairie dogs

                           Wooden covered enclosure with surrounding desert

                             Cactus wren

                        Desert bighorn sheep

                              Quintin walking in one of the gardens

                               Cactus

                    Cacti on the grounds

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