Tuesday, January 15--Sightseeing

Tuesday we returned to the area southwest of Tucson to visit Sonora Desert Museum and West Saguaro National Monument.

We started the morning at Sonora Desert Museum. Just as we arrived, a tour started so we joined the tour. The docent was knowledgeable and very fast. He gave excellent information on the plants and animals of the Sonoran Desert as well as interesting facts about the museum. We were unable to take any pictures until the 1 1/2 hour tour was complete. The museum has two aviaries. The first houses birds native to the region. The second houses hummingbirds from the region. There was a group of students from an elementary school in the first aviary and the birds stayed up and out of sight because they were so noisy. We did see the field mice scurrying around. Due to the drought, the mice have made their way into the aviary for survival.

The hummingbird aviary was very active. You had to watch carefully not to walk into the path of a hummingbird! We only saw a few varieties, but if we had stayed longer we probably would have seen 10.

The desert loop trail was not included in the tour so Bob and I took off and walked it to see the javelinas and the coyotes. We were told the javelina tribe had a baby. As we walked around their habitat we saw three older javelinas resting in the sun. They were not disturbed by the gawkers trying to get them to move.

As we walked around the coyote enclosure, we didn't see any coyotes. So far on our trip we haven't seen any! Bob remembers seeing them all the time when he worked in the desert at Ft. Bliss.

Sonoran Desert Museum has everything you want to know about desert life. There is even a section on mining and Old Arizona. The gems and minerals on display from local mines were outstanding. We would like to get down to Bisbee to visit the old mines.

After visiting the museum we headed to West Saguaro National Monument, again.

Once again, we did not have much time to spend walking the trails. We did drive the Desert Bajada Loop Road through the saguaro forest.

We returned to our campground to make plans for Wednesday. The thing to remember about retirement is not to plan too much for one day--we can always stay longer if needed!