A Walk in Sabino Canyon and Dinner at El Corral

Today we took a tram ride and a hike in Sabino Canyon.  

It was a beautiful day, with a light breeze and about 80 degrees.

Stop 9 on the tram ride, the top of the road.

I look happy and refreshed here, before my hike.

We got off at Stop 1 to hike to the dam and then to our car.

This is a prickly pear cactus, which we saw along the trail to the dam.

A dead saguaro, which is home still to many desert creatures.

Interesting how this saguaro continued to grow right through the branches of this mesquite tree.

This river bed was full of water in March when we were here.

You can see the little water that is left near the dam.

This is trail we walked on during our hike. We walked 1.64 miles.  Rounded up that's a 2 mile hike.

We celebrated after a nap with dinner at El Corral.

El Corral has been in continual operation for 60 years and has the memorabilia to prove it.

Chaps and rope adds to the decor.

After a great prime rib and tasty margarita's, we headed home.

A Walk in Sabino Canyon and Dinner at El Corral

Today we took a tram ride and a hike in Sabino Canyon.  

It was a beautiful day, with a light breeze and about 80 degrees.

Stop 9 on the tram ride, the top of the road.

I look happy and refreshed here, before my hike.

We got off at Stop 1 to hike to the dam and then to our car.

This is a prickly pear cactus, which we saw along the trail to the dam.

A dead saguaro, which is home still to many desert creatures.

Interesting how this saguaro continued to grow right through the branches of this mesquite tree.

This river bed was full of water in March when we were here.

You can see the little water that is left near the dam.

This is trail we walked on during our hike. We walked 1.64 miles.  Rounded up that's a 2 mile hike.

We celebrated after a nap with dinner at El Corral.

El Corral has been in continual operation for 60 years and has the memorabilia to prove it.

Chaps and rope adds to the decor.

After a great prime rib and tasty margarita's, we headed home.

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden, all in one place.  It was one of my mom and dad's favorite places. We have visited it often over the years.

As we entered the museum this volunteer was holding a barn owl.  Bob, of course, talked to the volunteer for awhile, but the owl was truly beautiful.  

They had a section called the Polination Garden.  Did you know that a third of our food and 90% of all wild plants depend on animal pollinators such as bees, butterflies, moths, bats and hummingbirds?  These are bee hives built by the museum for the bees, which do not sting.

This is a Gila Monster.  There was a presentation called Live and Almost on the Loose.

We also saw this rattlesnake.  We learned a lot about rattlesnakes in the desert.

Both the rattlesnake and the Gila monster were poisonous. Interesting presentation.  I hope this is the only way I met these creatures.

We had lunch at the Ironwood Terraces Restaurant and watched Monarch butterflies out the window while we ate.  We then headed to the raptor area.

There was a free flight demonstration.  This Harris Hawk flew to the trainer.  Harris Hawks live in families.  There were four hawks in this demonstration.

They were awesome to watch.

Close up and

in flight.

We visited the gray fox sleeping on his blankey.

Had ice cream with this river otter.

And enjoyed the climbing ability of the Mountain Goats.

Besides the birds and animals there were beautiful cactus gardens.

The Giant Saguaros.

The museum has lovely landscaping.  Many benches to allow you to sit and enjoy, even in the heat.

A love the desert plants.  I know some of you think I am crazy.

Tubac Revisited

Bob and I drove down to Tubac this morning.  We have been coming to this small town, about 1,000 people, for about 25 years.  Tubac is an art community.  The Art Colony of Tubac was established in 1752 as a Spanish presidio (fort).  Working artists' studios now surround the grounds which once served as home for a Spanish military garrison.  

Tubac Presidio State Historic Park is located in the village's Old Town, this is Arizona's First State Park.

This is St Ann's Church, still in use today.

We started out our day by having lunch at Shelby's Bistro.  This is our view.  Shelby's is over the bridge behind the Crow's Nest.  It used to be next to Karin Newby's Gallery but KNG has moved and is opening a new large gallery down the street.

This is the walkway over to Karin's new gallery.  It was not open yet.  Was scheduled to open November 5th, during the Fall Art Walk.

The front yard of the gallery had a large sculpture garden.  One of the sculptures was of my favorite animal in Tucson the Antelope Jackrabbit.  We see them nightly at Catalina State Park where we are staying.  I just love them!

Creative Coyote is my favorite store in Tubac.  Over the years, I have bought a lot of jewelry here.  It has been in two different locations. Moving it to it's own building in 1989.

This is La Paloma and another favorite.  It has lots of pots.

Some of the profits go to an orphanage in Central America.
I call this Tubac revisited because it has been several years since Bob and I have been down here.  It used to be a regular stop before the Christmas on visits to Moms.  Now that mom has passed away and we are in the process of selling her condo, I don't know if we will be back again.  Maybe I'm wrong but I wanted to document a few memories.