Tucson is surrounded by the Sonora desert. Just to the west of the city is the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and it is like no other museum you have ever seen. Most of your visit is spent walking out in the actual desert on paths (paved for ease of walking). They have done an excellent job of building and maintaining the desert areas to show you all of the different kinds of things you might expect to see if you were actually out in the desert. They claim to be "a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden all in one place." I would agree.
The zoo portion of the museum has big horn sheep, coyotes, wolves, javelina (boars), mountain lions, snakes and birds all displayed in their natural habitat to the point you would almost think they were free to roam at will. The numerous botanical gardens display every type of cactus or other type of desert plant in natural settings. A real highlight for me was the hummingbird aviary where you walk around with hundreds of hummingbirds flying around you. It was neat!
We had heard this museum was a true GEM and we didn't want to miss it so we got up at 6am and were at the museum before 8am in order to beat the heat while walking in th desert. It was the smart way to do it, although by the time we were done the temperature was almost up to 100 degrees and it was not quite 11am. A note......if you plan on visiting this area, do it in the winter! Remember, I told you that!
