Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Yesterday we toured the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum adjacent to Saguaro National Park.  The concept of the museum is to allow visitors to see the nature of the desert in a natural setting.  

The museum consists of several buildings that include live habitats for reptiles, butterflies, hummingbirds as well as a vast area of a desert zoo.  We headed to the reptile building and saw the local rattlesnakes (so we can identify them to the medics when we are attacked by one hiking), but quickly left because this building was also a Covid incubator!  We then went to the outdoor desert zoo.  Our first exhibit was a coyote sleeping on a rock…we then passed the mountain lion area (the cat was hiding so we moved on), the black bear (also hiding) then the white tail deer (see them all the time, not interested).  We then got to the Javelina area!  Now these were interesting.  We have been searching for these on every hike in this area, listening to Carol do “pig calls” without success.  One of the rangers at the National Park suggested we come to this museum to see them.  Well they are cute stubby pig like animals. https://www.desertmuseum.org/kids/oz/long-fact-sheets/Javelina.php   They look a bit lazy, and constantly eat bits of stuff from the dirt.  Of course we have an entire collection of photos of the Javelinas! We then went to the “cat cave” (all hiding).  Our next stop was the Cactus Garden and this was the highlight…so many different cacti it was amazing. Onward to the hummingbird building, we did see one bird, so that was a success…

We spent about 3 hours visiting the museum and we do recommend this venue.  It was disappointing that all of the animals were not posing for me to take beautiful portraits..but I had to remember the point of the museum was to have the exhibit seem real…it did because you rarely see these animals in the wild so why would you see them here! LOL. Kidding aside, the museum is very well done and is a great way to spend an afternoon.  https://www.desertmuseum.org/

Also: Check out the Gallery page in Arizona, Desert Museum Cacti!