Right down the road from our campsite at Gilbert Ray Campground in Tucson Mountain Park was the renowned Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We were told by many people we met along the way that we had to go to this museum. It is listed as the top attraction in the Tucson area, one of the top 10 museums in the world, and one of the top 10 U.S. Public Gardens.
We got an early start for what we thought would be a three hour visit. Six hours later we headed back home. This is a phenomenal museum, though I think a more exact name would be the Arizona-Sonora Desert Zoo because the content is outdoors and alive. It showcases the Sonoran Desert which is the lushest desert on earth. Located in the middle of the desert, it is on 21 acres with 2 miles of walking paths, and has 230 animal species, 1200 types of plants with 56,000 individual species. It is home to one of the world’s most comprehensive regional mineral collections. The museum has a zoo, botanical garden,
and art gallery, a natural history museum, an aquarium, and an aviary.
Our favorite part of the museum was the Raptor Free Flight where they released birds in the desert and they were trained to fly to trainers, usually close enough over our heads that we could feel the brush of air from their wings. One of them came close enough to brush the top of Bill’s hat. They had a morning and afternoon show, and we were so impressed with the morning show that we made a point to return for the afternoon performance since they were featuring different birds at each show.
We loved walking in the desert on a warm day and seeing all the beautiful animals and plants.
I would like to copy the mission statement of the museum because I feel this best describes our feelings about our 3 days camping in the desert: “The mission of the Sonora-Desert Museum is to inspire people to live in harmony with the natural world by fostering love, appreciation, and understanding of the Sonoran Desert.”
This visit ended our stay in the desert and in the Tucson area. We truly loved Tucson and vowed to return here again someday.