Off for an early start to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. On the way to this unique facility we passed beautiful desert scenery and through Gates Pass, with its breathtaking view of the valley and surrounding mountains.
The Desert Museum is not your typical museum as it is mostly outdoors. It consist of desert trails, gardens, animal habitats, aviaries, other animal displays, as well as two restaurants, an art gallery and outdoor theater . What an awesome place! Many of the cactus were in bloom, and we even got to see javelinas!
Definitely one of the highlights was the raptor bird show. We stood outdoors as many types of hawks, falcons and even a great horn owl, flew among us, landing on stations for viewing. The last group were the Harris hawks which hunt as a group, and put on quiet a show diving straight down from the air! Awesome.
We completed our tour of the Desert Museum, and decided to make our way to Saguaro National Park West. We decided to drive the Bajada Loop Drive. This six mile dirt road goes through a large grouping of the saguaro cactus with great Mountain views .
Returned to the condo to relax before watching a beautiful sunset from the pool. Gorgeous red and purple skies framed the mountains . Simply breathtaking!
Grilled some burgers for dinner, cards, then off to bed to get ready for Sabino Canyon and the seven falls hike.