Share Our World: Arizona- Sonora Desert Museum

A couple of weeks ago Jay, Jodi, Hive account@jarvie and I spent the weekend together in Tucson. We went to Kartchner Caverns, San Xavier, Saguaro National Park and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Here is a look at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

According to Wikipedia

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a 98-acre zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, natural history museum, publisher, and art gallery founded in 1952. Located just west of Tucson, Arizona, it features two miles of walking paths traversing 21 acres of desert landscape. 1

It really was as great as people said. The ratings for a designation were the highest I had ever noticed with a 4.8 and 5 rating and 4-8,000 reviews!

www.tripadvisor.com

Rating: 5 · ‎8,532 reviews

Facebook

Rating: 4.8 · ‎4,458 votes

Botanical Garden

If you know me you will know that I went for the plants. The other things were very cool. I especially liked the garden eels and rocks. The plants are my favorite!

The gardens have 21 acres with two miles of walking paths through different habitats, such as the cactus garden, mountain woodland, agave garden and the desert grasslands. 2

Zoo

There were many different animals through out museum. I loved seeing the cougar. It is so beautiful and that is the mascot for my alma mater- BYU.

Stingrays

The stingrays have their own special area in the park, and when it is not restricted due to COVID you can pet and feed them. You may wonder, like most people, why there are stingrays in a desert museum. I learned that the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) flows through the Sonoran Desert making it the "lushest desert on earth" and there are stingrays in the Gulf of California. 3

I really liked this mural on the wall by the stingrays.

Aquarium

In addition to the Sea of Cortez there are also many rivers that flow through the desert. There are freshwater and salt water exhibits.

The best part of the aquarium were the garden eels! Fascinating little creatures.

Here is Hive account@jarvie watching them go up and down in the sand.

Walk-in Aviary

This walk in aviary looks pretty unassuming at first glance. Then you stop, stand still or sit down and you can hear and see some of the 20 species of birds including my favorite QUAIL! They are the cutest how they waddle-run.

My awesome traveling partners in the aviary.

I got a couple of pictures of birds, not in the aviary but thought this was a good place to share.

This is also a very cool bronze of a heron.

Natural History Museum

Like I said I was very interested in going to this place to see the plants. I didn't realize I would like the rocks and minerals so much. They were very cool.

Wulfenite

Malacite
It was fascinating to me how these could all be malacite and have such unique shapes.

Ironwood Art Gallery

We went through the art gallery. There was a pastel exhibit happening. I didn't take any pictures.

Ocotillo Cafe and Bar

This cafe was amazing! I had a hard time deciding between the burger and steak. The server highly recommended the steak and I am so glad. I would drive to Tucson again for it. And then we had mango sorbet. A wonderful meal with great service!