Everyone who went to The Desert Museum told us to go there because it was an awesome place to visit. We went there on Tuesday the 25th of March and like everyone told us the museum was incredible.

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a 98-acre zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, natural history museum, publisher, and art gallery founded in 1952. Located just west of Tucson, Arizona, it features two miles of walking paths traversing 21 acres of desert landscape.

Their mission is to inspire people to live in harmony with the natural world by forwarding love, appreciation, and understanding of the Sonoran Desert. Visitors come from all over the world to walk its beautiful desert paths and explore naturally landscaped live animal exhibits.

The tool they use to take the fruit off the top of the Saguaro when it blooms.

Did you know that they had Parrots in the Desert? This is a The Thick-billed Parrot and it is one of only two parrot species native to the United States. These parrots live in the Sonora Desert. 

We took a tour called the “Discovery Tour.” Our guide pictured above was a very informative guy. He took us to various cactus and plants and told us many things about them. What you could use them for – eating, medicine, tea, healing, and other uses. Like with the prickly pear plant. The (jelly stuff) in the prickly pear pulp lowers levels of “bad” cholesterol while leaving “good” cholesterol levels unchanged. Another study found that the sticky stuff in the fruit may lowers diabetics’ need for insulin. He brought a sample of healing salve from a plant. And told about the mesquite tree that it is extremely effective in controlling blood sugar levels. He also had an oil that came from a plant that was used for lamp oil. The Indians used everything in a plant or cactus they didn’t waste a thing. What I want to know how did they know which plant was poison and how they went about discovering all of this? Trial and error I guess.

There is even Mountain Lions in the desert.

And even prehistoric bones!

One of the reasons we went to the museum was to see the wild flowers and we weren’t disappointed.

The Blue Weber Agave above, is used to make Tequila! What a great agave is that!

A few of the cactus were starting to bloom. It must look incredible when they all are in bloom.

A labyrinth is one line, meaning there is only one path to the center and back out. The path twists and turns back on itself many times before reaching the center. Once at the center, there is only one way back out. There is no set time for how long it takes to walk a labyrinth since each one is unique.

Patterns range from simple to complex, and sizes of labyrinths vary. Walking a labyrinth requires you to merely follow the pattern, with no puzzle to figure out. This lets your mind focus on your meditation or prayer.

The labyrinth symbolizes a journey to a predetermined destination (such as a pilgrimage to a holy site) or the journey through life from birth to spiritual awakening to death. Labyrinths can be made of stone, wood, plants (such as hedges), or other materials. They may even be painted on a floor. When you reach the middle you are to sit and chill, like we did, and then walk out. You can’t step over a line or you will have to start again.

Birds, Butterflies and Bees are in this area

They even have milkweeds in the desert.

The Bird House

We didn’t see any bees, but we could hear them.

We heard a lady who yelled snake, it went right in front of me! Dave was right in front of her and he didn’t see it. we went back to take this picture and there it was a poisonous snake. That’s why they have these signs all over.

Rattlers, their much safer in here.

We never knew all of these plants and creatures were in the desert. It’s amazing, we thought it was just dry and flat with tons of sand.

That ends our day at The Sonora Desert Museum. We’ll have to come back because we didn’t see half or more of it. It’d an awesome museum.