This was another beautiful day in the desert. We knew time was running out as the weather was looking to turn wet and cold. So we headed out to the west of Tucson to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We knew it would be a long day so what better way to start out than a nice breakfast at Teresa's Mosaic Cafe.
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| This little guy was warming himself in the sun on the side of my tire. |
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| Teresa's Mosaic Cafe |
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| Nicely decorated |
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| Mosaic tables |
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| A popular restaurant |
We drove out on the Gates Pass road, a twisty and hilly narrow road. We stopped at the overlook and viewed the Avra Valley. In the distance we could see Old Tucson, a movie set. It is only open on the weekends but regardless we didn't really want to pay admission to look at some made-for the- movies old buildings.
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| The view from Gates Pass |
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| Mount Kidd in the distance. |
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| Old Tucson movie studios |
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum was very worthwhile. Although it is called a museum it really is a combination of artifacts from the desert and displays of animals, plants, minerals and the star of the place is the raptor free flight. They have some birds of prey that live here and put on a show for the visitors.
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| No desert museum would be complete without some live rattlesnakes. This is an Arizona Black Rattlesnake. |
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| Sidewinder Rattlesnake |
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| Diamond Back Rattlesnake. The most common in these parts. |
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| Black Widow Spider |
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| Bark Scorpions under the black light. |
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| Very nice mineral display. |
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| Mountain Lion |
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| Lots of cacti |
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| Agave |
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| Folks getting ready for the raptor show. |
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| Gray Hawk |
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| Barn Owl |
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| They had four Harris Hawks. This is Jerry. He's the youngest of the four. |
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| More animals in the zoo area. These are Bighorn Sheep. |
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| Joshua Tree |
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| The had a Hummingbird Aviary. These guys are so hard to get pictures of. Here are the best pics I could get. |
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| Crested Saguaro |
It was getting late in the afternoon when we headed a couple of miles over to the western portion of the Saguaro National Park. We drove through the east portion on Monday after our trip down from Mt Lemmon.
We took the Picture Rocks road back to Tucson and made it home just as night fell.
Wednesday I head over to the Pima Air Museum.
.......and that was Our View From Here!
