Adventures in Arizona: the jewel that is the Desert Musem.
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| Mexican Wolf |
Driving around Tucson, I had been hearing promotional spots on the radio for the Desert Museum. Back when we lived in Tucson before, we were members of the museum, even if we only visited once a year or so. Every time I heard the the radio ad encouraging me not to wait until I have visitors to visit the museum, I thought, We should really go. It's an awesome museum. The kids will love it, and so will we.
A few weeks ago we finally made the drive, and we were not disappointed. It's a pretty good trek from mid-town Tucson - probably 40 minutes from where we live. But the drive is lovely, and once we got there all driving-related bordom was forgotten. The scenery is gorgeous - the museum is set right on the edge of the desert.
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| Cactus, mountains, and a ham. |
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| View into the desert |
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| More desert view with saguaro cactus and mountains |
I remembered that the museum was good for kids, but I forgot how great it really is that you get up close to desert animals...sometimes really close, like trying on vulture wings and having Harris hawks swoop right over your head.
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| Audrey the vulture |
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| Claire the vulture |
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| Harris hawks, hanging out before the hunting demo |
Not to mention a walk-in aviary with a posing hummingbird and a cooperative roadrunner.
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| Hummingbird waiting for photographers |
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| Is that a roadrunner? Meep-meep! |
Though I have been to the Desert Museum many times, on this visit I saw things I had never seen: like the Mexican wolf, pictured above, the beaver actually out and about, enjoying a snack of fruit, and of course those Harris hawks, doing a perfectly choreographed team hunting demonstration that wowed the Raptor Free Flight audience.
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| He's awake! And snacking! Not just sleeping in the den like always. |
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| Waiting for the Raptors to fly |
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| Prepared for the sun with mom's hat |
The Desert Musuem lives up to its reputation - a great museum in our backyard in Tucson. We captured prairie dogs communicating, a heron (or an egret, I always get them mixed up) surveying its surroundings, and a beautiful tiny blooming cactus.
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| Hello? |
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| Artsy bird photo by Audrey |
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| Cactus flower |
Before we left, we stopped by one of Mark Rossi's many sculptures out there, one that I think Paul even put together.
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| Mark Rossi sculpture with desert view |
We left the museum after we saw the Raptors flying, and of course after we got some ice cream (not pictured, but delicious).
Next time, we'll hunt for javalinas and maybe do an animal encounter. For this time, we just had to be satisfied with channeling our inner turtles.
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| Turtle practice with Audrey and Claire |
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