Still in Tucson. Drove 38 miles round trip to the Saguaro National Park West followed by the Arizona-Senora Desert Museum. Our hotel is on the west side of the city so we headed west into and over the mountains on a very narrow, steep, curvy road. As soon as we got to the foothills the amazing saguaro cacti started to appear all over the mountainside along with barrel cacti, cholla, palo verde and cats claw. We watched a great 15 min film at the park visitors center after which the screen lifted and exposed the natural vista of the cacti and mountains- very impressive. We strolled a half mile nature hike and saw only 2 other people. We also drove a 5 mi dirt loop that rattled our bones but was beautiful in this environment of desert plants and craggy volcanic mountains.
The museum turned out to be a combination zoo and botanical garden that we enjoyed after lunch in the restaurant there. The mountain lion hid from us but the large black bear came out for a quick look. We saw desert snakes, insects, birds, wolves, rocks etc. We walked 4.1 miles at both places. The weather is beautiful in the mid 70s.
Tomorrow we'll probably see some places in Tucson.