It is my goal to see all of the National Parks before I die, but Lee think we should also try and see as many National Monuments as we can as well. So after Cochise Stronghold when he suggested going to Chirachua Monument I thought why not. My expectation was that it would be a statue of some kind but boy was I wrong. Instead we founnd a mini Bryce and it was absolutely amazing. Let me back up though.
It was an additional 40 minute drive to the monument and it was even more isolated than the stronghold. We followed the GPS though and made it with no issues tp a very nice visitors center. I was particulary interested to learn that the coatis had immigrated north to this area and although we didn’t see any Jack’s nose was once again going crazy.
There are multiple ways to get to the top of the park, but we drove up along a gorgeous bottom of a canyon. It was hard to capture in pictures, but it was beautiful.
At the top there is a parking lot with an awesome nature trail although again I would wear hiking boots because it was a bit on the rough side. There are numerous trails that lead all the way down to the ranger station, but we just circled the top. The rock formations were absolutely stunning and we spent tons of time up there. The elevation was high enough that there were patchs of snow in some shady places but it was a gorgeous day to hike.
Lichen on the rocks
The hike was absolutely amazing but Lee also really loved the homestead areas as well. As is often the case with National Monuments one man lobbied to have this area protected and he was it’s first custodian. The farm was owned and run by the family until it was finally donated back to the park and Lee loved walking around and exploring this area.
Beautiful place to grow up
As always our protected spaces never fail to impress, but I have to say this one really stood out and it’s a definite don’t miss if you are in the area. IT’s worth the drive!
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We love small, local museums and go to them whenever we can but I have to say the Miniature Museum in Tucson really stands out in that category. The experience starts right when you approach the entrance, with architectural elements that suggest you are getting smaller and smaller as you walk towards the doors. The door is massive, and the entire door can be opened if you have the strength to do it. Luckily, there’s a “regular” size door cut into it, so you can just open that smaller door if you’re not strong enough to open the big boy door. Super cool and the best entrance to any museum I have ever seen.
When you walk inside there is a nice service desk with a small gift shop and then you can go in multiple directions. We took tons of pictures (the best ones are Lee) but it would be impossible to truly show everything we saw. I will try and give you a flavor of the experience though and this is a must see if you are ever in Tucson so you can experience it for yourself. Frankly we both were worried it might be boring but it was the opposite of that!
My favorite room had a giant tree that had small vignettes in glass in its roots. It was also grouped by season with a large halloween section and an even larger Christmas section. Don’t forget to look at the trees face as you walk around because it changes with each season. VERY well done.
The winter sectionA village in glass in the floor. VERY neat
Along with the seasonal groupings they also had entire collections of miniatures including tiny dolls, Kewpies, and my favorite the Pocket Dragons. These collections were all grouped together in really cool ways and behind glass so they were protected. Most of the museum is behind glass so taking pictures was a little challenging for me, but Lee is really great at that and got some good shots.
I also loved the Raggedy Ann and Andy collection
Everywhere you looked there were tons of different kinds of miniatures including some examples from around the world. My big takeaway was miniatures are universal.
Noahs Ark
Throughout the exhibits they talked about the different artists who made the vignettes and we learned that there are specialists in different types of miniatures. Some people make mini dinner plates, pottery, glasswork etc. Makes sense as there are craftsmen who specialize in the large version of these items and I can tell you from my experience in trying pottery in the miniature it is not easier than the large version. The best examples of these different mediums were in the huge houses we saw and the detail was incredible. Again this is just a little taste. There was so much more than this to see. Couldn’t capture it all.
This gorgeous full size dresser had a doll house inside. Absolutely beautiful.Hand carved mini wood furnitureLee loved this crate of tiny toy soldiers, each of them is less than 1/4″ tall.
Along with the houses there were tiny shops, some that were reproductions of actual places. The level of detail in the goods on the shelves was extraordinary.
Every little book had an actual title on itThis apothecary shop was so cool. There were little pills in all the bottles
My favorites though of the entire museum were little vignettes inside something else. There were teapots, a walnut, a sewing machine and best of all a gorgeous violin that had a violin shop on the inside.
Loved, loved this
Probably the most impressive examples were carvings on the top of a pencil. So very tiny.
Finally they had a special exhibit of miniatures from movies and we saw some models from Beetlejuice. We also got to sit on the couch from Beetlejuice (fun but super hard) which was really great and capped off a lovely visit.
Total bargain for $15 and again its a don’t miss for me. Next up we get back to nature a bit as I have been missing green in all this desert.
We very much appreciate your support of our blog.
You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperbackversion on Amazonor buy the Apple version on Itune
The Saguaro National Park is a bit unusual because it is actually divided into two sections. I was pretty curious as to how this happened and after some research discovered that the west area was made into a National Monument in 1933 and was changed to a National Park in 1994. In 1994 the East section was added to the National Park through generous land donations.
Although you can see both in one day, we chose to visit them on separate days and that is how I will write the posts. We chose to visit the Rincon Mountain portion of the park first (for no better reason than it was closer to where we were staying) which is commonly referred to as the East section.
We decided to take Jack in the hope he could get some exercise and I was pleasantly surprised at how dog friendly this portion of the park is. As always we started with the visitors center and got a hiking map from the rangers. We are not big hikers in general but I always like to see the hikes available. The visitors center was on the small side but had a great gift shop and I really like the display about what the inside of a Saguaro looks like. Plus it’s amazing to see how old the tall ones are.
This park has a nice paved 8 mile road, which doesn’t sound like a lot but we drove slow and stopped along the way so it took us a couple of hours to complete. I also highly recommend going down any side roads you can in these smaller parks because those areas are more dog friendly and give additional opportunities to get out and walk around. Jack was on high alert every time we took a little walk and it was obvious he was smelling lots of critters.
Saguaros are frankly amazing and seeing a forest of them was really impressive, especially when you realize they only exist in the Sonoran desert, The Mexican state of Sonora, the Whipple Mountains, and Imperial County, CA. They are finicky growers and rarely go above 4,000 feet but also need water to grow. They don’t actually get their first arm until around 75 years old and commonly live to be 150. I absolutely love them and my personal favorite are the kids with arms around the middle. Every single one is completely unique though and it’s easy to see that in the National Park. Here are a couple of my favorites I saw.
My absolute favorite part of the whole park though is at the very end of the road. The javelina rocks are a gorgeous rock formation and there is a place to park and walk around. The combination of rocks and cacti is very beautiful to me and I really loved this area.
It was a really beautiful day and Jack didn’t get one sticker in his paw the entire time. And best of all although it was busy, it rarely felt crowded and we really got to commune with nature. Next up the West side.
We very much appreciate your support of our blog.
You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperbackversion on Amazonor buy the Apple version on Itune
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