We know it's been a while since our last post, but we have just been so darned busy trying to take in all the sights before we have to leave the southwest. The weather has been very nice and the best part of that is that the sun shines every day!! We don't miss those cloudy, gloomy days in southeast Michigan.
One of the first excursions was to the Biosphere 2. This is the world's largest living science center dedicated to exploring the environment, the future and our planet. This is where eight people, 4 men and 4 women, spent two years enclosed in this space. They had to grow and prepare their own food and maintain the environment within the Biosphere with a variety of large and complicated equipment. That project was supposedly not successful because we were told that the eight folks just could not get along after a period of time. The University of Arizona is conducting new experiments at the Biosphere now. All in all, it was quite interesting.
Mel and Donna Spotts came by one day and took us to see a couple of old Spanish missions. The first one, Tumacacori, is located about 75 miles southwest of Tucson. This mission was founded in 1691 by the Jesuits for the Pima Indians. There were many encounters by the Apaches up to 1848, so there is definitely a lot of history here. From there we headed north to the San Xavier del Bac Mission. This is a beautiful mission that still holds masses mainly for the Tohono O'odham Indians. It sits on their reservation. This mission site was founded by Father Eusebio Kino in 1692. Contruction of the current mission began in 1783 and completed in 1797. It is a step back in time with all the original statuary and mural paintings on the wall and the ceilings. Many come to the statue of St. Francis which is lying in repose to touch it and pray to be healed. It's quite humbling to see these folks praying for a miracle.
Mel, Donna, Denie, Karen, Roy and myself got adventurous and went for a hike in Saguaro National Park East. It was about a two mile trek through the desert. We didn't see any wildlife, which is really okay because we're told the rattlesnakes make their appearance when the weather warms us. Didn't need to see any of those critters! Denie, Karen, Roy and I also walked the Saguaro National Park West. In the west park, we got to see petroglyphs that the Indians imprinted on rocks over 700 years ago! The two parks are separated by the city of Tucson which is quite spread out. It is a different experience walking in the desert and trying to remember the names of all the different cacti. Never knew there were so many species.
Our next excursion took us to Kartchner Caverns which is located in Benson about 50 miles east of Tucson. We took a cave tour which took us 1/2 mile underground. These are living caverns which means that the formations are still being formed by water. The formations began forming drop by drop 200,000 years ago. The humidity in the cave averages 99% and the temperature is 70 degrees year-round. To avoid contamination from visitors, we were in a small room where misters were turned on to get rid of dust and hair from our clothing. Part of the caverns serves as a nursery to bats. They come back to Kartchner Caverns each April where they give birth to one "pup" in late June. By mid-September they all leave to head further south to their winter hibernation roosts. Thankfully, we didn't have to encounter any bats or bat "guano".
One of the things that one shouldn't miss when in Tucson, according to some locals, is to hike in Sabino Canyon. Well, we just had to do accomplish this task. The Sabino Canyon is located in the Santa Catalina Mountains. We took the narrated shuttle 3.8 miles up to the top of the canyon. This is definitely more cameraworthy mountain scenery. The four of us felt pretty ambitious on this day, so we hiked all the way back down the canyon to the visitor center. Whew!!! By the time we got back, we all were quite tired, but glad that we were able to enjoy the scenery.
Denie & Karen had not been to Bisbee, so we made a trip back. This time we took the Queen Copper Mine tour. The Queen Copper Mine is the second largest mine in the world! We had to put on hardhats, mining lanterns and slickers for the trip deep into the mine. Our tour guide was a Mexican fellow who had spent 31 years working in the mines. He was quite informative and knew all the answers to our questions. The temperature outside was in the 80's and inside the mine it's a constant 47 degrees. There are nine levels in this mine and far to many subterranean tunnels to count. Just can't imagine what the miners had to go through each day.
We made the trek up Mt. Lemmon, the tallest in the Santa Catalina Mountain Range with elevation of 9000+ feet. It was a very nice winding, almost straight up 27 mile drive. At one of the scenic outlooks, we saw another car with Michigan plates. Turned out that the fellow had not only lived in our subdivision, but lived a few houses down on our street before moving to the Lansing area!!! Talk about a small world! We did get to see snow at the higher elevations and the temperature dropped about 25 degrees from the bottom of the mountain. Glad we had jackets! The ski lift was running, but we elected not to take that adventure. This area is all part of the Coronado National Forest and it is sure nice to see how well it is maintained for all visitors to enjoy.
Our next trip took us to the Titan Missile Museum which is southwest of Tucson. This is a tour that takes us back to the "Cold War" era. The Titan II Intercontinenal Ballistic Missile was the first liquid propellant missile that could be launched from underground. It was capable of reaching its target, more than half a world away, in less than 30 minutes. The last Titan II missile was deactivated in 1987, but until than time 54 missile sites across the United States stood "on alert" 24/7. The tour took us into the control room (complete with obsolete dial phones) and we got to experience a simulated launch. We got a great view of the 103-foot tall Titan II missile in its launch duct. We also got to see the 8-foot thick silo walls, the 3-ton blast doors and lots more. This was a very interesting and scary tour. It was a good look at the technology used by the U.S. to deter nuclear war. Just wonder what technology is out there today??!!
One evening we gave up our "happy hour" to experience a sunset at Gates Pass. This is in the Saguaro National Park with an exciting drive up into the Rincon Mountains. The evening we were there, the sunset wasn't as vivid as it usually is because of some cloud cover. But it was one more thing scratched off our "to do" list here in Tucson. The drive up the mountain was beautiful and glad we were down before it got too dark.
Lots more pictures for your viewing pleasure. Can't just seem to delete them. Our time here in Tucson is getting very short and we feel that we've done everything that was on our list. There may be a walk in Tohono Chul Park with hopes of seeing some of the spring wildflowers. It has been so very dry in this area, that the spring flowers may not bloom. Enjoy. Will post next from New Mexico.
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