The main reason for going to Tucson was for the biking but Tucson also has a lot of interesting attractions. Since we were in Tucson for a week we did have time to check out some of the more interesting things Tucson has to offer.
When I was up in Catilina I took the morning to checkout Biosphere 2.
If you remember, Biosphere was started as an experiment to see if a closed system could be created that would be self contained and support 8 people for two years without any intervention. Although the goal wasn't fully achieved a lot was learned about creating a closed system. You can read the full story here.
Today Biosphere 2 is managed the University of Arizona and is used to simulate and research different biospheres and how different environmental factors affect the environment. For example they have a ocean part where they have coral and can change the temperature of the ocean and see how it affects the coral. As part of their research they are learning how to mitigate some of the affects of global warming.
Tucson has one of the largest air museums in the country. The Pima Air & Space Museum has 5 hangers of aircraft's indoors spanning airplanes from the Wright brothers to the moderate jets. They also have 80 acres and 360 different aircraft's outside. They not only have most US military and commercial planes but a lot of planes from other countries including Russia. They also have some very rare prototypes that I have never seem before.
Sunday we took a day off the bike so I decided to check out the
Tucson Botanical Gardens. It was a small but well designed garden. Since this garden is in the desert it mainly featured desert plants like cactus and mesquite and other desert plants. There is actually quite a diverse set of plants that can grow in the desert. This is the bloom season for some of the cactus so I got a few pictures of those
They also had some other area featuring non desert plants and had a butterfly garden as well as some art galleries.
It was definitely worth the trip.
During the cold war just south of Tucson was one of the main areas where the US had nuclear missile silos. Today one of those silos is a
museum and you can actually go down into the silo and see a simulated launch of a missile
as well as the missile itself.
For me this was really cool for me because I use to work with a couple of ex air force people who actually manned the silos and told me a lot of interesting stories about their time in the the silo. Also the satellites I used to work on were launched using the titan missile so the scape suit and theodolite shown in the museum were more than relics as I actually had seen them in use.
The best attraction we saw in Tucson was definitely the
Sonora Desert Museum. This is a botanical garden, zoo, aquarium, hiking trail and playground all rolled up into one. I went there not only for the gardens but for the humming bird aviary. I got there early and had the place to my self for a little while. I did get a decent picture of a humming bird but the light wasn't great.
I did however get an amazing picture of a dragonfly. Click on the picture below to see the detail I was able to get.
We spent about 3 hours walking around and visiting all the exhibits. There was a lot to see. There are quite a few animals there include coyote's wolfs, Javalina (which looks like a pig but isn't), bear, mountain goats, sting rays and of course some iguanas just walking around. It was really a well run and interesting place that I would visit again if I was in the area.
So Tucson is more than just biking there are a lot of interesting things to do if you ever visit.
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