Sonoran Desert Museum

Picked up the Puppy and headed back into Tucson

Did the Sonoran Desert Museum

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden all in one! 

Paths wind through various desert plants 

Cactus Wren on a Saguaro Cactus 

Several native animals in their natural surroundings.

Bobcat 

Harris Hawks in flight 

a Javelina (not a pig - a peccary) 

Prairie dogs

Mountain Lions 

and wolves

We looked for the Coyotes and didn't see any.  I gave my best coyote howl and a head popped up briefly.  He was hidden in the  brush.

Does this jacket make my ears look big? 

They even have a realistic cave replica you can walk through 

and a Hummingbird Aviary 

We spent over 4 hours there and still didn't get to see it all, guess we'll just have to come back!

Till Later,

Meanwhile, we keep on Trek'n

Melissa, Gary and Tucson

Colossal Cave - Vail, AZ

We had so much fun at Kartchner Cave we decided to do Colossal Cave again as well.  Left SKP Saquaro Park after 12 days.  Tomorrow is snip snip day for the Puppy back at the animal shelter. 

Arrive at Colossal Cave Mountain Park

Path to the Cave

Cave entry

Some narrow pathways.  The cave is called dry or dormant which means that due to lack of water, the formations are not growing right now.

They have installed a museum below with artifacts.

The pathways were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corp

An old underground river bed

A cave "Fried Egg"

 

A silent waterfall

A group shot with Shirley

We stop in the Ranch before leaving so Tucson can meet the horses

On to the next adventure!

Till Later,

Meanwhile, we keep on Trek'n

Melissa, Gary & Tucson

Day Trip to Bisbee, AZ

Load the dogs in the car and Gary, Shirley and I head out for a drive.  We stop in Sierra Vista to do some puppy accessory shopping and decide to head to Bisbee for lunch.

The Bar at the Copper Queen Hotel has a patio so we opt to eat there since we have Tucson and Beethoven. 

A beautiful day and the food was very good. 

Bisbee was founded in 1880 and named after Judge DeWitt Bisbee a financial backer of the Copper Queen Mine.  It proved to be one of the Richest Mineral sites in the world.  Bisbee thrived until the mid 1970's when large scale mining was no longer profitable.   Today it is making a comeback as an artist and retirement community.

Till Later!

Meanwhile, we keep on Trek' n

Melissa Gary & Tucson

Kartchner Caverns

We finally went and did one of the tours at Kartchner Caverns.  When we passed through this area in 2000 it had only been open for a year and public tours did not start until November 2003 and there was a wait list of several months for tours.

They no longer allow picture taking on the tours so these pics came off the internet.  The Cave was discovered in 1974 and the 2 men who found it worked with the Kartchner Family and the State to have it become a State Park to preserve the Cave and let the public enjoy it.  It is one of the world's most pristine caves as 80% of the cave is untouched by human hands.

This bell canopy is in the Rotunda-Throne Room formed by water flowing over a bump on the wall, then dripping to create this beautiful formation

Kubla Khan is the tallest and most massive column in Arizona, at 58 feet. 

It also has one of the world's longest soda straw stalactites: 21 feet 3 inches

We did the Rotunda / Throne room.  We will save the Big Room tour for our next visit! 

After the cave tour we drove to the Cochise Stronghold.  This is where Cochise, leader of the Chiricahua Apache found shelter after the white settlers arrived in the area.  It is situated in the Dragoon Mountains with tall bluffs and strange rock formations that offered protection and shelter.  You are reminded of the old Westerns with cowboys hiding behind rocks and bullets ricocheting.

We follow the dirt road in and there is a campground at the end and a hiking trail. 

We take the .5 mile nature trail 

A very nice little hike.

Are you coming Mom??  We came across another trail head which was 1 mile to a Springs.  We thought we'd hike just a little ways down as the sun was going down and it was getting chilly.  We got about 50 feet down the path with Tucson leading the way when suddenly his ears went back, his tail went down and he turned around and hightailed it back out.  Over the years we've learned that Dogs have more common sense than people so we opted out of that section. 

Got home in time to do a walk under the full moon.  Tucson did not howl so I guess we won't be changing his name to Coyote!

 

Till Later!

Meanwhile, we keep on Trek'n

Melissa, Gary & Tucson