Arizona Day 4 - Caves and Canyons

Once again, there was no sleeping in on this vacation! Then again, why sleep away your vacation - time is limited, may as well make the most of it!

We were up and on the road this morning with 3 destinations on the agenda - Colossal Cave, Sabino Canyon and the Butterfly house at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. It was about a 45 minute drive to the cave so we had more scenery to enjoy. We were at the cave shortly after they opened and only had a a short wait until the next tour started. This gave us some time to enjoy the breathtaking view from the visitor center, as well as wandering through the gift shop.

Of course John had to find something to stick his fingers into...

And to sit on....

The Cave tour itself is about 45 minutes long and is about 1/2 mile long - all underground. It was amazing to see all the different rock formations created over thousands of years! That, combined with the fact that it is always about 70 degree's in the cave, it is always a perfect day for a walk! The cavern was actually a CCC project back in the 30's and it was in the early 90's that the park was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It was hard to get many really good pictures in the cave, but we did manage at least a few.

Once we made it out of the cave, we headed back to the house to drop Michelle off since her asthma as really bothering her. Then John and I headed out with Richard to Sabino Canyon - again, about a 45 minute drive. We have come to the conclusion that everything is about 45 minutes away from Michelle and Richards house!

Since it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, we knew that it was going to be busy at the canyon, but we got lucky and actually found a parking spot right away! (Apparently Richard said is it not uncommon to have to drive around the parking lost for 15 minutes some days, just waiting for a spot!). There is a tram that runs up and down the canyon, leaving about every 30-40 minutes. If you opt to ride the tram, you get a 45 minute narrative along the 3.8 mile climb into the canyon. If you do not ride the tram, there is no fee to use the recreation area, with the exception of parking. Since we were limited on time, we decided to take the tram all the way up to the end and then walk part of the way back down.

Aside from the road that the tram follows, this area is virtually untouched. The strangest thing to see what that there was actually water in the river beds, ever though we were in the middle of the desert. That is only because it is January, and this tends to be the "rainy" season. Along the way, we were amazed by how many people we saw actually RUNNING through the Canyon. I guess if you live in the area, this is THE place to go to get in your workout. Granted I don't blame them. If I lived here, I would probably do the same thing!

After spending a few minutes taking pictures at the top of the massive Canyon walls, we decided to start walking down. We figured about what time we had to be at the bottom to make it to the Botanical Gardens on time and would base where we got back on the tram by that. Along the way, not only did we get some great pictures,

But we also had the chance to cool off by walking in the water that flowed over the road...

Took in some of the local scenery... (Yes, John too this picture, but they were flirting with Richard)

and got some exercise!

Of the 9 stops on the route, we walking all the way back down to stop 5 before catching a tram to head back down. We would have gladly walked all the way down, but finding dinner along the way to the Botanical Gardens would probably be a good idea!

Dinner at Quizno's again (this was the 2nd time in 3 days) on the way and we got the the Botanical Garden's about 15 minutes before the butterfly house closed. But this was the way we planned it. The guys were here to attend the after-hours butterfly photo shoot. They allow a limit of 5 people in to the Butterfly house after normal hours for the sole purpose of taking pitcures of the butterflies! You are allowed to bring in any equipment you want - tripods, flashes, lights... you carry it in and you can use it!

While they were in playing with the butterflies, I spend 2 hours just wandering through the gardens. It was really peaceful just wandering by myself. Since it was so late in the day, there were not many people there so it was really quiet. It seemed like every corner I went around, I found something interesting. Many of these I did try to capture in a photo, but some of the pictures just did not do justice to the peaceful scenery.

At one point, one of the staff of the gardens pointed out a Cooper's Hawk that was perched way up in one of the trees. If he would not have pointed him out, I would have NEVER seen the bird - he knew how to hide in those trees!

Meanwhile, John and Richard were getting up close and personal with the butterflies. Just how personal? How about nose to nose!

There was just too many awesome picture from today to try and narrow down just a few to post a few here. To see a better selection of the events from today, click here. This will take you to John's Flickr photo's, feel free to bookmark that site as new photo's are always uploaded there!