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expedition_retirement Our second hotel, the Hacienda del Sol, was even more luxurious than our stay in Tubac. The complex started out as a school, but has long been a luxury hotel, once frequented by the Hollywood stars that made the Westerns in the desert outside the city. The rooms were huge and comfortable, with great views of the desert and the nearby Catalina Mountains.'
After a good night's sleep here, we were shuttled, with our bikes, over Gates Pass, west of the city, to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Located just outside the western unit of the Saguaro National Park, we had about an hour to spend here before we began our ride, which really didn't give us enough time to do the complex justice. We chose to focus on the desert trail, with its focus on the ecology of the desert and its flora and fauna. There were excellent examples of a number of different flowering cacti, and we actually got to see a coyote (sleeping in the sun) and a number of javelinas (sleeping under bushes, so they were hard to see and even harder to photograph).
What we saw at the museum was impressive, but we barely scratched the surface. It is definitely something we will want to revisit and spend a LOT more time at if we ever get back to Tucson.
After a good night's sleep here, we were shuttled, with our bikes, over Gates Pass, west of the city, to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Located just outside the western unit of the Saguaro National Park, we had about an hour to spend here before we began our ride, which really didn't give us enough time to do the complex justice. We chose to focus on the desert trail, with its focus on the ecology of the desert and its flora and fauna. There were excellent examples of a number of different flowering cacti, and we actually got to see a coyote (sleeping in the sun) and a number of javelinas (sleeping under bushes, so they were hard to see and even harder to photograph).