Friday morning at the San Diego airport. Watching the planes roll by through the window of our 737 as we wait for it to take off for Tucson, Arizona.

Airborne, leaving San Diego behind. I love flying.

Farms in the desert. I got the window seat on the way. My eyes were glued to the window for most of the hour and five minute flight.

We saw this copper mine as we neared Tucson.

Flying low over the mountains west of Tucson as we approach the airport.

On final approach as the edge of Tucson appears. Soon we will be on the ground.

We stayed at the Westward Look Resort. This was a really nice place and I would recommend it to anyone staying in the area

Had a nice room with a great view to the west.

The pool area, the jacuzzi felt good after our long hike.

I was surprised by how green the desert was in the Tucson area. A lot different than the California deserts.

One of the first things we did was check out Biosphere 2. This is the sign at it's entrance.

Our first view of the facility. This $150 million facility was built to see if they could operate it as a closed system to supply oxyen, food, water etc. There were two test, one lasting for two years the other only six months.

The structure on the left is the rain forest and the section on the right is the living quarters.

Closer look at the rain forest section.

The dome on the right is one of the two so called "lungs". They are used to stabilize the air pressure as the complex heats during the day and cools at night.

Looking into the rain forest, looks like it getting full in there.

Closer look at the living quarters.

This is their one million gallon saltwater ocean in the savannahs section. It was hot and humid in this section. We weren't allowed in the rain forest.

This is the desert section, it was really hot in here. I didn't like it at all. Need to get out of here quick. After this section we went into the tunnel that can be seen ahead of the group, it was nice and cool in there.

This tunnel lead to one of the lungs.

Almost to the lung.

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Inside one of the lungs. That pretty much finished the tour. After that we went shopping for food for tomorrow's hike.

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This sunset view is from our room's balcony.

Another sunset shot with flash to light up the ocotillo.

Saturday morning. Sooz, Joe(me), Shawn and Joyce. We will be hiking up the Tanque Verde Ridge Trail 9 miles to the summit of Tanque Verde Peak.

The best part of the hike were the saguaros. There were a lot of them at the lower elevations.

Sooz with a big one.

Hiking in this area was great, all this was new to me.

A back lit saguaro.

We were a little early for the prickly pear blooms, but there were a few of them out there. To bad, the area was covered with them. Should look great in a week or two.

There were a few of these blooming, think it's a hedgehog.

More saguaros, I love these things.

Rain starting to fall from a cumulus cloud to the west, a sign of things to come.

Hiking though an old burned section on the ridge.

Our first good view of Tanque Verde Peak, almost there.

Just starting into the rocky section as we near the summit.

Sooz with the register just below the summit. It was a short class 3 climb to the actual peak.

Sooz got to use one of her new Trailtrekker stickers on this hike.

Group shot on the summit of Tanque Verde Peak 6,750'. We started to hear thunder while on the peak. Time to get down.

A view of Rincon Peak to the southeast.

This is the view about a mile from the peak. A lot of rain falling up ahead.

It's raining here, but what was worrying me a little was the lightning. One stike was within a mile of us.

Some nice looking saguaros near the end of the hike. The lightning and the little rain we got made it a fun hike. Now it's time for dinner. After dinner we soaked in the jacuzzi.

Sunday, our last day here. Stopped at Gates Pass to check out the view on our way to the Sonora Desert Museum.

At the entrance to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. This photo was taken as we were leaving as you can tell by Sooz's bag of goodies from the gift shop. Forgot to take one on the way in.

We checked out the animal exhibits first. This wolf was relaxing and watching the people. This museum had nice habitats built for the animals.

Mountain loin. This window was on the back side of it's den so we clould see him. Most of the animals were in there dens.

This parrot flew up to us as we approached the cage. Made it easy to get a photo of it.