During the hot summer days, they have a a wonderful program on Saturday nights where they allow the public to explore the zoo and museum until 10:00pm.
It's really the best time to visit because it's cooler and the animals are more active. Also the sunsets backlighting the saguaros and other cacti are spectacular!
I especially enjoyed the play of light on the twisting pathways, trees and vegetation. The feeling was so magical and intimate.
The kids and I also had fun exploring and climbing inside the maze of a cave under the ground. We literally had to shimmy and climb up and around the man made stalagamites and stalacmites and step over and around the streams and dripping water! It was such a unique and fun place!
We stayed until 10pm and still didn't see everything, but we did spend alot of time in the herpetology and insect museum. There were many fascinating displays of desert snakes, including a number of rattlers. And there were also some amazing displays of desert insects and the famed Gila Monster, too.
Which leads me to share the 'Scorpion Story'. During our zoo stroll, Jeremiah insisted on not wearing his flip flops and just going barefoot. We warned him about scorpions and desert spiders, but the zoo grounds had many people walking the paths, so Jeremiah felt that the scorpions would stay safely off the trail.
Even after he saw people walking around with little blacklight flashlights pointing them at the tiny bark scorpions seemingly on every stone wall and vertical surface, Jeremiah still felt confidant in his decision.
But all it took to change his mind was coming upon a park docent on the trail highlighting a single glowing bark scorpion, in the crack of the sidewalk (stinger poised upwards and all!), to cause Jeremiah to decide to slip his shoes back onto his grateful feet!
Along with all the glowing scorpions, we also saw some gorgeous mammals, too, including a couple of huge beavers, an impressive Mexican Wolf (Lobo), some river otters, a large geriatric black bear and many beautiful cats....(Check out our photos below)
For more info on the Sonoran Desert Museum and Zoo, click here.
A fat and happy prairie dog.
A shy and elusive ocelot. This is one of our most favorite cat species! This zoo also had a beautiful Margay, too!
Some javalenas!! And no they are not related to pigs! They are peccaries! We love them!
A desrt fox.
A majestic bighorn sheep.
There were two beautiful mountain lions. We couldn't get enough of watching them. Wow!
A handsome bobcat.
The glowing Bark Scorpion!
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