Travel Adventures in Arizona and New Mexico, Part 7: Tucson to Scottsdale

This is my seventh post about our adventures traveling through Arizona and New Mexico. I recommend starting with the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth posts. Because I blog about educational travel, I received media passes, discounts, and other benefits for several of the places we visited throughout the trip. Some of the attractions we toured are free to everyone; we paid full price for the rest. What I paid or didn't pay has no bearing on my reviews. Everything that I share is something I recommend without hesitation.

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Travel Adventures from Tucson to Phoenix

 

On Monday, April 13 we said a reluctant goodbye to Tucson and drove an hour north. Can you guess where we were headed? 

If you guessed Biosphere 2, you're right!

I've been wanting to visit Biosphere 2 since I first heard about it when I was in college. My dad went and told me all about it, so it was great to finally make it there myself, all these years later. In case you're not familiar with it, Biosphere 2 is the largest closed ecological system ever built, designed to better understand how our planet (the original biosphere) operates as a closed system. It is a 3.14 acre laboratory containing five different ecosystems. From 1991-1993, eight people lived and worked inside Biosphere 2. A different group of people spent six months inside in 1994. Both groups encountered unexpected problems, which is part of scientific exploration. Now the space serves as a research facility. Current studies involve coral, clams, coffee and cacao plants, among many others. 

This is the airlock where the Biospherians entered Biosphere 2. 

This was their kitchen. The eight people took turns cooking meals using the food they harvested. Their diet was almost entirely vegetarian and very low in calories and fat. They ate a lot of sweet potatoes. 

Meals were served communally in this dining area. The stairs lead to a library. 

Each Biospherian had their own small apartment, with a sitting room downstairs and a bedroom upstairs. They were able to decorate how they wished. 

Admission to Biosphere 2 includes an excellent self-guided audio tour. 

I loved learning about this fascinating facility as we walked through the five original biomes: a rainforest, an ocean, a mangrove wetlands, savannah grassland, and a fog desert. The desert area became more of a chaparral area over time, due to condensation.

It was all so interesting. 

 This is the ocean. 

We saw scientists at work during our tour. A docent told us that it currently rains on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but that they are headed into a scheduled drought for several new studies.

Am I concentrating on the material in the audio tour, trying to remember details, knowing I'd be writing about it now? Am I contemplating what it would be like to spend two years trapped with 7 other people, doing physical labor around the clock while living on a very limited diet and having tourists stare at me and tap on the glass? Or am I just watching a bird? I did all of those and more during the visit to Biosphere 2. 

There are several guided experiences you can add to enhance your visit. We did the Lung Tour. This behind-the-scenes experience helped us better understand the technology that runs the facility. 

Our guide told us to watch our heads at least a dozen times. At 5'2", I was smug, easily walking through every space where he said to duck, while the rest of the group was crouching. Until we got here. They weren't kidding about Low Access. 

The highlight of the Lung Tour is watching the "lungs" that regulated the air pressure inside the main glass enclosure. Since the temperatures in the sealed environment varied significantly, the shell would either explode or implode with changes in air pressure if not for the two lungs that account for the changes. They are enormous and it was really cool to experience them moving. 

We both loved our time at Biosphere 2. I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't. It is such an interesting place with a fascinating history. 

From Biosphere 2, we drove about an hour northwest to our next destination, Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. 

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument preserves the 'Great House' of ancestral Sonoran Desert people. It was built around 1350 by a society that built hundreds of miles of irrigation canals and was in use until around 1450. The visitor center has a lot of information about the native people, as well as an excellent introductory film. 

This is the Casa Grande. It is one of the largest prehistoric buildings ever erected in North America, but its purpose is unknown. 

The Casa Grande ruins was a popular tourist destination from the 1860's to the 1880's, due to a nearby railroad line and stagecoach route. The building was damaged significantly, which led to conversations about the preservation of the Casa Grande.

In 1892, the Casa Grande Ruins became the first prehistoric and cultural reserve established in the United States.

The steel shelter roof was added in 1932 to help preserve the structure. 

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is a really interesting place and well-worth a stop. Another destination you shouldn't miss? North Mountain Park, in the town of Casa Grande. It's labeled on Google Maps with The Tallest Saguaro so you know there's no way I'd skip that. Don't be alarmed when the route takes you through a neighborhood then turns into a dirt road, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. That's the right place. Pull up to a ramada and park. 

Head out on the Nature Trail. 

Or just walk directly toward the tallest saguaro you can see. It's easily visible. This may or may not be THE tallest living saguaro, but it is certainly one of them. (See Steve for scale.)

  

We enjoyed exploring this park. It's a beautiful place. 

Question for you: On a hot day, how far would you drive out of your way for the best frozen lemonade of your life? We had no problem adding 30 minutes to our drive in order to visit eegee's again! 

The lemon eegee is literally perfect, but I wanted to try another flavor. I had a sample of strawberry and it was just as delicious as the lemon. I was torn, but it turns out you can get two flavors in one cup. Steve stuck with lemon. I adored my strawberry-lemon combo.

We enjoyed our eegee's during the drive toward Phoenix. We checked into our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Phoenix North - Scottsdale. We had dinner at Thirsty Lion. Based in Scottsdale, Thirsty Lion has five locations in the Phoenix area, two locations each in Portland and Dallas, and one in Denver.  

We shared a duo of sliders and a giant pretzel that came with three incredible sauces: beer cheese, jalapeño jam & sweet mustard sauce. They were all fantastic, but the beer cheese was to die for. They could put it in a big bowl, serve it with a spoon, and I'd totally order that. 

Our first destination in the morning was a mile's drive from our hotel, and far less as the crow flies. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.