Tucson and Tombstone, AZ 2002 at CanadianCowboy.com

Tucson & Tombstone, AZ
Jan 21-22 after the Phoenix 2002 rodeo

After the Rodeo in Phoenix, I decided to take a few side trips to see a bit of Arizona nature. First, my buddy David and I drove East of the City not quite knowing where we were going. We saw a mountain range and vaguely knew the Superstition mountains were in that direction. We ended up at the Lost Dutchman State park and the Tonto National Forest. I got some great sunset shots of the area as you'll see below....

Entrance to the Park	Bird on a cactus		Cactus
	Wide View of the area
Saguaro in the setting sun	Deeper into the sunset		A walk in the park
The Surrounds and subjects were so breath taking that I was running around trying to get all kinds of photos before the sun was gone. When light is perfect like that and you have a great subject, it's a prime opportunity. It is stunningly beautiful on such an evening in the desert.
Saguaro Sunset	Ray		David getting a couple of pics
The last light of the day		The beautiful pastels of a desert sunset over the Superstitions
	A great parting shot for the evening of David and I

We ended up grabbing dinner in what used to be a gold mining camp that's been converted into a hotel and old-town tourist attraction. It was actually pretty interesting, including the white Bison head that was hanging from the wall. There were a lot of locals there that evening which made it a little less touristy. Next day I burned it down to the area near Tucson to see the Sonoran Desert Museum and Old Tucson Studios.

Sonora Desert Museum ... click here for their website ...

The Saguaro Forest near Tucson	More Saguaro Forest		Self portrait in the forest
Saguaro and Mountain. All these areas were just a couple of miles from the Desert Museum. This museum is one of the best desert museums in the world, and I believe, the first of it's kind.
Coyotes sometimes hang around in the parking lots looking for handouts, which of course are strongly discouraged for obvious reasons. You can see here this fella wandering around the parking lot. After these shots he just lay down right there for a while.
Some of the lizards on exhibit in the live reptile section.	I think this was a Gilla monster or at least a lizard very similar to it. Poisonous claws.		A rattle snake, this was a large and seemingly aggressive one.
Another self-indulgent self-portrait.	A large Sempervivium		An artistic Saguaro shot
	An attractive flowering desert plant
If you read this you'll understand the picture to the right.		This Cholla did seem to just jump on me from nowhere and I'll just couldn't get it off. Luckily it had punctured my wallet rather than my flesh. It hooks in and is tough to get out.

So, the next stop was Old Tucson Studios..go on to Page 2 for Tucson Studios and Tombstone...

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