Sonora Desert Museum-February 12, 2013

I can't tell you how many museums we have visited and we've enjoyed each one. Today's visit to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum was tops in our book. Usually you walk into a building, get a map and drive through the sights. This time we walked through the gate and our walking tour started. We walked rock paths, paved paths, up and down hills, into living exhibits, around rocks, past fenced areas and on and on. We had to have walked well over 2 miles over that roung terrain. But it was so worth it. The displays were animals and plants that are native to this desert. It goes without saying the cacti were spectacular. They are starting to grow on me. Pardon the pun. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

A shady part of the walk. There were a few of these spots which would be critical in the heat

of the summer. They had benches all along the way for people to stop and rest.

 

Saguaro cacti. They are quite prolific in this area. The red rocks were the bottom of a

muddy swamp millions of years ago.

 

This native wild turkey is very lucky to be surrounded by color instead of just brown.

 

A really healthy and good looking wolf.

 

A desert Roadrunner. Meep meep. Yes, they are real!! He was new to this exhibit and he was very nervous. We have had two of these to run across the road in front of us on this trip.

One was in Texas and the other in Nebraska.

 

Javelinas. These run wild in this park as they have in several other parks we've visited.

They look like pigs but they are in the peccary family. We have always wanted to see these creatures roaming at night, but never have. We had to see them at a museum.

 

I'll put pictures of the cacti in a separate blog.