Fall Road Trip 2023 - Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

An entire day and a bazillion photos later . . . 

After much debate with myself, I've narrowed things down to 30 photos. Not necessarily the "best" photos but a good variety of what we saw. 

We'd been to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (just outside of Tucson) many years ago with my dad and Elaine and knew we'd like to visit again. It doesn't really fit what what I think of as a "museum." It's a huge outdoor area with so many exhibits about almost everything desert related. A botanical garden, zoo, raptor show, hummingbird and butterfly exhibits, a small aquarium, art exhibits and more. They've also got a really nice gift shop (not junky like so many tourist places). 

Coming from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, we arrived mid afternoon. Not having had lunch yet, we had a quick bite to eat at one of the cafes onsite and then wandered until closing. We'd forgotten about it being a long weekend due to Veteran's Day and almost didn't get a spot at the nearby campground. After being told there was no vacancy, we were sitting in the van pondering alternative places to stay when the campground employee came out and advised one had suddenly become available because a big RV didn't fit into the site they'd chosen. Yay for us! :-) 

We were back at the museum first thing the next morning and ensured we saw everything we could. Hence, the bazillion photos! The raptor free-flight show was especially well set up so that regardless of where you were, you had an opportunity to get some reasonably close up shots of the birds. 

We were pretty tired by the end of the day but it was well worth it. Enjoy! 

Iguana

These frogs looked so cute all piled on top of each other

Harris's hawk

Great horned owl

Gila monster

Sea horse

Javalinas

Gila woodpecker

Coyote

Silky Flycatcher

Rufus Hummingbird

American kestrel

Gila woodpecker;
Humorously, it looks like it's sitting inside a hole at the top but it's just the angle of the photo. 

Bobcat -- but doesn't he look like a nice little house cat?  :-)

Prickly pear cactus

River otter

Some serious climbing moves by this little squirrel

Big horned sheep

 Cactus imitating a scarecrow

Pin cushion cactus

I can't remember the name of this flower but I like how it curls around the middle stem.