Deserts, Museums, and Western Movies

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Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Today we spent the day touring this wonderful facility. We arrived early in the morning to beat the heat. The animals are supposed to be more active earlier and later in the day, and less active during the hottest part of the day. We started with an orientation tour conducted by a docent. It gave us a lot of good information and helped us to figure out what we wanted to do later. The orientation tour lasted about an hour. Then we toured until lunch time and headed back to our campground a few miles away. It was convenient to go home for lunch and see our dogs, then return later in the afternoon to see more of the facility.

The brochure states “The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden, all in one place.” It is an awesome combination! There was something for everyone. Today was Sunday and there were lots of families with young children and lots that kept them occupied. Even though there were a lot of people visiting the desert museum, it wasn’t crowded. It covers 21 acres and has almost 2 miles of

paths, so people were well spread out throughout the grounds and buildings. There are 1200 kinds of plants and 300 animal species, so we had a lot to try and see. We enjoyed our time at the desert museum and there were plenty of docents throughout that were happy to share their knowledge and enthusiasm.

Their website is: www.desertmuseum.org

We had great luck seeing the various animals. The plants were lush and there were lots of blooms of vibrant colors. We were able to see plants form the various deserts such as Joshua Tree, Organ Pipe, Saguaro, and Agaves. This was a great place and we highly recommend it.

Gilbert Ray Campground

This is a nice county campground west of Tucson and the Tucson Mountains. We’re near the attractions that we want to see such as Old Tucson, Saguaro National Park and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It’s in a beautiful desert setting with mountains in the distance. We do have to be careful in what the dogs brush up against or where they walk. Lizzie sometimes must get the scent of “critters” in some of the thorny plants, so we have to insist that she

not investigate any closer.

Old Tucson Studios

The name Old Tucson Studios says a lot about what it is. The first buildings were erected in 1939 for the production of a western movie. Since that time there have been many additions as well as losses due to scripts or fire. Old Tucson’s era is 1860’s and over 400 movies, TV shows, commercials and even music videos have been filmed here. Some of Western classics that have been filmed here are “Rio Bravo” and “Tombstone.”

Besides touring the buildings and streets, there are shows and tours to enjoy. We went on the Old Tucson Historical Tour and our guide had an abundance of knowledge about the actors and productions that have occurred during the studio’s history. Of course there are gunfights and bank robberies to witness, as well as fun productions such as the Miracle Elixir sales pitch that amused the audiences. We also watched a short film entitled “Remembering John Wayne.”

I enjoyed our day at the Old Tucson Studios, even though a lot of the old westerns were unfamiliar to me. George connected more with the movies and TV shows that were filmed

here.

Their website is: www.oldtucson.com.

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Photos

Odd saguaro cactus
This was at the entrance to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Century plant in bloom
The white pole beside the plant had marks on it indicating how much the stalk grew between various dates. It was an amazing amount, once the stalk started growing.

View of tunnels and dens
This was a great way to see various snakes and animals in their underground homes. There is a snake in the lower tunnel.

View from Gilbert Ray Campground
Lots of flowers blooming.

View from Gilbert Ray Campground
We saw lots of whimsical shapes to the saguaro cactus.

Old Tucson Studios
The mountain in the background has been in a lot of westerns.