The Desert Museum

Not far off the road between Tucson and Kitt Peak (Ajo Way or Arizona State Highway 86) is the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. I first heard about the Desert Museum when I was a summer undergrad intern in Georgia and we had an observing run to Kitt Peak. My advisor wanted to take us to the museum, and when we arrived, we discovered that it was closed. The “summer hours” had not yet started, as it wasn’t “officially” summer. We decided it must have been because we hadn’t passed the summer solstice yet (the “first day of summer,” usually around June 21); my memory tells me we were there the day before or something. We were disappointed.

I’ve had several observing runs to Kitt Peak since then, and I often tell myself that I should go to the Desert Museum. I sometimes mean to, and even say optimistic things like, “I’ll leave the mountain at 8:00 am, go to the museum for a few hours, and make my 1:00 flight without any problems.” This has never worked. Instead I’m usually sleeping and then rushing to the airport, wondering why I ever booked a flight so early.

But I went today! In fact, I purposely booked a flight a bit later (well, 5:00; but hey, the museum closes at 5:00) so I could have time to go. I meant to leave the mountain at 9:30, but didn’t actually leave until closer to 11:30. Here are some pictures and random narration (by me) of some of the cool things I saw.

(Although it's first here, this was actually the last picture I took... But that's irrelevant.) I wanted a picture of me and the outside of the museum (this was the inside sign), but no one was around to take it. An old Hispanic man with a handlebar mustache took this picture. It took him a few moments to get the right angle at the right distance, so I just stood there smiling and waiting. I was glad when I realized that I didn't have to worry about blinking when he finally did take it because I was wearing sunglasses.

This was my first view of the museum. The museum is actually mostly outdoors, taking you along a path (sometimes dirt, sometimes paved) around the park, giving you lots of great views of the desert and teaching you lots of neat things, like why many cacti have an "accordion" shape to them. (Turns out it's so they can expand when there's water and contract when there's not. It's a survival technique. Amazing!)


They had this cave experience thing. I missed how it was related to the desert, but I didn't have time to go back and figure it out. (I was on a tight schedule.) It's probably related to how they were talking about how at one point tens of thousands of years ago, the desert was under water. Anyway, the "caving experience" lets you walk around this cave which was totally cool. (Even though I'm pretty sure it was fake.) It was also a nice escape from the heat.

Not only are there a lot of cacti and wide open views in the Desert Museum, there are animals! And the animals are real. I note that because when I first saw this mountain lion ("puma"), I thought it was fake. Nope, it's alive; just sitting on a rock not doing anything.


A prairie dog! How cute!


These are called teddy bear cholla (cactus) because they look so cute and cuddly. Aw! They do look cute and cuddly.


Javelina! (Wild hogs. They have these at McDonald Observatory too; once I almost hit a herd of about 5 once on my way up there. Good thing one of us moved. (I note that it wasn't them.)) There was a big exhibit about them and how to find them. And after awhile, I finally saw some. I saw about six. (Hint: look for them in the shade. Javelinas like to keep cool; who can blame them? The desert is ridiculously hot.)


This was by far the most awesome sign in the museum. It made me laugh.


Here are several random pictures of me and random cacti. (Note that with the exception of the upright photo, all were taken with the timer on my camera. Sometimes trickier than other times.)


I got a bit of a sun today, but it wasn't too bad. I should have stopped in the restroom sooner:


Talk about prepared.

So if you are ever in Tucson, you should go to the Desert Museum. It was cool, and I learned a lot of interesting things. (Don't even get me started on what I learned about how carpenter bees lay eggs!) (I had no idea what those giant black things flying around Kitt Peak were...then I went to the Desert Museum and learned more about them than I could have possibly imagined!)