Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Wednesday, 19 December

Sprinty was off and running before 8am this morning.  After talking with our friend Mike from Tucson last night, he shared about how awesome the museum was, and while they had been there before, they would enjoy going again.  Reflecting on the smaller then usual attendance at various attractions over the last week, we decided to do the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, located in Tucson Mountain Park, adjacent to Saguaro National Park West, about 10 miles west of Tucson.  We thought it might be less crowded than at other times of the year.

We arrived just after they opened at 8:30, and were in the 9am tour.  Jacqueline took us through about 2/3rd of the exhibits before delivering us to the Raptor Free Flight At 10am.  

The Sonoran Desert is one of four major deserts in the United States, and saguaro cacti are only found in the Sonoran Desert.  

The saguaro cactus initially grow very slowly.  The cactus in the pot on the left is 10-20 years old, the tall one in the back is 20-25 years old

Photo of a 50 year old cactus:

The 10am Raptor Free Flight featured a Great Horned Owl, followed by a Ferruginous Hawk, then a Chihuahuan Raven training session.  Fascinating.  

The Raptor Free Flight is exactly that - real raptors who could fly away if they wanted to.  However, like boomerang kids, apparently they appreciate a good deal.  One raptor, years ago, did venture away for 5 nights and 6 days, but eventually came back.  Free food, safe place to sleep, and free medical care must be hard to pass up for having to make it in the real world.

One of the other people attending the Raptor Free Flight commented that it was the fewest people he had ever seen at a Flight show.  Maybe 25 people.

What we did not fully appreciate is the name of the place, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, is a bit mis-leading.  It is a museum, for sure.  It is also a zoo, a botanical garden, an aquarium, and much more.  After the 10am show, we did the desert trail and the other exhibits.  The hummingbird avery was also fascinating.  We got to see javalinas, wolves, coyotes, mountain lion, big horn sheep, and of course, lots and lots of saguaros.

We took a short break for lunch in Sprinty our in the parking lot, then reentered, making our way to the 2pm Raptor Free Flight which featured five Harris’s Hawks flying about.  There were about 150 people at the 2pm showing, and we were glad we got in line early.

All in all, we spent almost 5 hours at the museum and learned a lot, coming away with a much better understanding of the desert than before.  Even without doing both raptor shows, there was at least 3 hours of exhibits to enjoy.

Next we went 6 minutes down the road to the Saguaro National Park Visitor Center, arriving just in time for the 3pm video showing.  

After looking at the exhibits at the Visitor Center, we took Sprinty on the Bajada Loop Drive, a 5 mile loop of unpaved gravel road.  A bumpy road for sure - Sprinty was even able to get up to 13mph at one point.  We just chalk it up to practicing for Alaska.