Tucson

It's sunny here, and warm. I spent all day outside - in a T-shirt - exploring Saguaro National Park and the Arizona Desert Museum. Both are wonderful places and I took heaps of photos.

Saguaro National Park is a bizarre, mountainous area, covered in Saguaro cacti, and I do mean covered. This park is host to the densest copse of Saguaro anywhere and it's quite surreal to walk around between them, feeling dwarfed. The best thing, however, was that it was so quiet in there. I was sitting on a rock for a while and all I could hear was the wind gently moving the ocotillo trees and a bird playing around in a nearby Saguaro.

The Desert Museum is also a great place to spend an afternoon: part botanical garden, part zoo, its aim is to present the native plant and animal life of Arizona in as natural a way as possible. You can get quite close to the animals, and since it's an open desert area you'll also see some animals outside the habitats as well. When I was in the hummingbird area, a gopher snake came by to see if it could find a mid-afternoon snack but it was picked up by a staff member and taken somewhere else before it could find something.

I had the chance to play with a nice Arizona King snake for a bit - lovely animal. It likes to eat rattlesnakes, and is impervious to their venom. Handy snake to have around in an area like this ... Did I mention I love snakes? I love how they feel, all nice and dry and smooth, and I find them fascinating.

They also have a pretty good restaurant on-site with the usual Southwestern fare - fried or grilled - in humungous amounts. I've hardly managed to finish a meal since I've arrived here ... Where do the people put all that food? Many restaurants here, by the way, have a special "Seniors" section on the menu which offers smaller servings that the snowbirds can actually manage. And there are lots of them! I've come to appreciate the fact that many of them do volunteer work in the parks and museums, so you're always greeted by someone at the entrance, handed a map and a short introduction to get your visit started. There's almost always someone on hand to answer any questions you might have, too, which is great.

I'm spending the night in Tucson again but what I'll do tomorrow, I still don't know. Footloose and fancy-free, I guess. I wonder where I'll end up ...

Saguaro NP and Arizona Desert Museum

Plants










Animals

Mountain lion




Bobcat



Prairie dog



Wolf



Hummingbird




Gopher snake