We woke early so we could drive 15 minutes to get breakfast nearby for Michele on the way to Organ Pipe National Monument. Granny's Kitchen made excellent pancakes, eggs, and bacon.
Our route took us south on Highway 85, and we arrived at 8:45am at Organ Pipe. The park protects the largest naturally occurring populations of organ pipe cactus found in the U.S.
Rob wanted another picture of the car in front of the Organ Pipe Cactus sign. Can you find Auntie M in the picture?
The 21-mile scenic drive that Rob planned was unexpectedly a gravel road, despite the NPS map not indicating it was unpaved. We had downloaded the NPS app for the self-driving tour on Ajo Mountain drive and were looking forward to it. Instead, we walked through the garden path behind the Visitor Center until it opened.
The saguaro is the largest cacti in the US and can take up to 200 years to reach its full mature height at 40-50 feet. The Sonoran Desert is the only place in the world where it grows naturally. Saguaro tend to use nurse trees, or other tree species, to steal the water and nourishment from it. In this photo you can see the fate of that tree.
Inside the Visitor Center we learned about the Sonoran Desert that extends up into CA and AZ and south and west into Mexico and the Baja peninsula.
It was a bit after 10am at this point. Rob said we could take the rest of the other paved road in the park for 4 miles and see what we see. We got about 40 feet and it turned to gravel! With low profile car tires, gravel is risky, so we went back to the parking lot to figure out how to spend the rest of our day.
It was only about 2.5 hours to Tucson and we couldn’t check in to our B&B until 3pm. We had our picnic lunch ready that we bought at the Ajo grocery store last night, but it was too early to eat. The Monument was the only thing in the area for hours as it is very remote. What to do? Michele found the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum west of Tucson. It looked to be an interesting mix of a zoo and botanical garden, and it was on route to Tucson, so we routed ourselves there.
The drive took us east through very remote landscape on the Tohono O'Odham Nation Reservation on Highway 86 for two full hours. Along the way we listened to the park’s self-guided driving tour audio for the Ajo Mountain Road that we were not able to drive. We arrived at the museum hungry and ready to set up our picnic chairs. The parking lot was busy, but we found a shady parking spot to set up our chairs and table.
It was 70 degrees and mostly sunny. The museum is set up on a nature walk loop, mostly outside in the beautiful gardens with animal exhibits throughout.
Michele wanted to see the hummingbird aviary first. There were several, we are not sure of every species, even though they had pictures of them. We snapped pics of a Costa's taking a drink from a flower and a Rufus chilling out on a branch.
We were surprised to discover a very different type of animal also live here!
Other animals that live in the desert: A Gambel's Quail.
A Scotty Oriole hiding in a tree.
Big Horn Sheep taking a snooze in absolute stillness.
A beaver enjoying a swim.
A very pretty kitty that jumped up to say hello. This is the very rare Ocelot.
Michele's wingspan is not as wide as this big vulture.
This burrowing owl, one of a pair, rotated its head to peek at us.
One of several live rattlesnake species. Scary!
Michele saw a seahorse and it was twice as large as she was expecting it to be. This one had its tail wrapped around grass to keep it stationary.
There was a small arachnid exhibit including a fuzzy tarantula, but Michele skipped over that section and does not want to look at the pictures that Rob took. (Rob posted the picture when Michele wasn't looking). :-)
We left at 4:15pm and needed an hour to get across Tucson to our B&B on the east side. We arrived at 5:20pm with today's mileage at 203 miles.
Our B&B is a large Spanish-style house in a neighborhood of horse farms just outside the city limits, with very kind owners who live upstairs using a spiral staircase. We went to dinner at the Rincon Mountain Grill at a nearby country club and enjoyed chicken, rice and asparagus. We got a chocolate peanut butter pie to go.
Tomorrow morning, we have a scheduled tour at the Titan Missile Museum and need to do laundry.
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