Gilbert Ray is a popular campground about 15 miles west of Tucson, just on the other side of the Tucson Mountain Park. However, I am not allowed to drive through the mountain pass because my vehicle is too long and too heavy for the curving mountain road. There is a route south of the mountain park I am allowed to take and another from the north that is much longer.
There are a couple of reasons this county campground is so popular. The first is that it is so isolated in some of the prettiest desert around, and the second is that it costs only $20 per night for an electric hookup site. Sites are basic gravel, but well taken care of and there is a very nice water fill and dump station area. It is almost always full, so you are limited to only one 7-night stay per year, which is one of the most restrictive lengths I have experienced. It used to be first-come, first-served, and you could stay two weeks, but its popularity has caused the county to restrict usage. Most people staying here come from other states, however, and come back every year. I have been here almost every year I have traveled to Arizona!
I had a little trouble backing into my site because my backup camera is not working, but a couple walking by helped me out. I did not want to hit the beautiful saguaro cactus at the entrance or the cement picnic table at the back. As you can see from the photo below, sites are large and well-separated from neighbors.
The next few photos are from a walk I took yesterday.
This is a cactus wren sitting on a cactus. They dig holes in the saguaro cactus for their nests, but the hole quickly develops a hard crust around it, so it does not damage the cactus.
It is unusual to find so many saguaro growing so closely in a group like this one.
Today, I drove out to the nearby Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum. This is really more of a botanical garden and zoo combination than what we usually think of as a museum, however.
Part of the museum are left natural, while other parts are more landscaped with cactus and other plants being brought in from other locations. The natural area looks exactly like my campground because it is only a couple of miles away!!
The only animals in the "zoo" part of the museum are animals that are native to the Sonoran Desert. This is a prairie dog. I remember there being a lot more in this exhibit the last time I was here, but only saw two this time.
The photos following are of the part of the zoo where plants have been added to the natural plants and are labeled with signs identifying them.
Some of the plants here were brought in from the Sonoran Desert area of nearby Mexico.
I had never seen these cacti before, so took a photo of the sign.
There is a bird aviary and also a hummingbird aviary in the museum. This little guy is a rufus hummingbird.
On my way out of the museum, I took a photo of this set of three bronze statues. This is a mother javelina and her two babies. While they look a lot like pigs, javalina are actually collared peccaries, and they are native to this desert. They mostly eat agave, prickly pear, and other desert plants, with an occasional lizard or rodent thrown in. There is a famous children's book about them called "Don't call me pig!"
Another pair of bronze javelina.
I am here for only a couple more days, but am enjoying the incredible quiet of the desert here, punctuated only by the occasional sounds of coyotes yapping and howling at night.
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