Pima Air & Space Museum: awesome!



Inside Hangar 3

A word of advice if you’re planning to visit the Pima Air and Space Museum in rural Tucson: go early. This isn’t a warning to go early to avoid the crowds. Rather, it is a warning to go early so you’ll have enough time to see this marvelous facility.

Some of the planes outside

We spent five hours at this 80-acre facility, and still didn’t see everything. The average visitor spends four to five hours, a ticket seller told us, noting visitors who are really fascinated with aviation usually buy a two-day pass. The museum is one of the largest aviation museums in the world, and the largest one that is privately funded.

In five hours, you’ll probably only be able to tour the space building and four hangers. Most of the planes, however, are outside and you’ll only see a small fraction of them as you walk between the buildings..

Believe me, this is not a place you’ll want to rush right through. The museum boasts more than 300 planes of every description and associated memorabilia. The planes are either on loan or were donated to the museum. For example, mostly military planes fill the four hangars; the military retains the ownership of the planes.

The main hangar is where visitors enter and leave the museum. It is chock-full of planes of all sizes. Two hangars are devoted to World War II planes. The space museum has a docking simulator, a portrait gallery of Arizonans who played active roles in this country’s aviation programs, and displays a moon rock. Another hangar/building is a stand-alone museum honoring the 390^th Air Force wing and starring a B-17 Flying Fortress from World War II.

 

Inside the main hangar

All facilities have interactive or hands-on exhibits, like sitting in a plane’s cockpit. There’s also ample opportunity for kids to have their pictures taken “flying” miniature wooden aircraft.

The museum charges admission; optional guided tours are an additional cost. It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Pima Air and Space Museum is located at 6000 E. Valencia Road. To get there, take Interstate 10 east toward El Paso, exiting at Valencia Road. Follow the signs from there.

The museum is handicapped accessible, with push wheelchairs and walkers that can be borrowed.  These work fine inside the buildings or on a few asphalt paths that connect some buildings, but are difficult to push elsewhere outside where gravel and dirt surfaces prevail.

A final word of advice: Take plenty of bottled water with you. Water fountains are available throughout the facility, but that water tastes highly chlorinated after drinking the bottled stuff.

More pictures of the air and space museum can be found on my Youtube channel.

A walk through the desert southwest

The Sonora Desert

The Sonora Desert Museum

Visiting Tucson without going to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum is like going to Yuma but not visiting the Territorial Museum or to China without visiting the Great Wall.  The Sonora Desert Museum is one of those must-sees, without which your trip to Tucson would be incomplete.

Located about 15 miles south and west of Tucson on a scenic winding road through the mountains, the museum is a wonderful introduction to the desert southwest. It’s a botanical garden, natural history museum and zoo, all rolled into one.

It has buildings that house special exhibits such as an aquarium, and reptile, cat and hummingbird houses. But it is the two-mile walk through the desert that will captivate you. The outdoor museum covers 21 acres, and is home to 250 animal species and 1,200 varieties of plants. The views across the valley to the mountains beyond are nothing short of spectacular.

 

Sonora cactus

The museum is considered an international role model for presenting and interpreting nature in realistic exhibits. It was founded in 1952.

The Sonora Desert stretches from southern California through southern Arizona and into Baja California, about 200,000 acres in all. Most of the desert lies in Mexico. The desert is surprisingly green in the Tucson area, possibly because of nightly rains in the summer.

The museum has a live mountain lion and bear behind barriers, but mostly any small wildlife you come across will be running free. Several species of lizards about as do butterflies in a special butterfly garden.  Summer visitors will want to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes, especially if they are stupid enough to go off the path, which is not allowed in the first place.

 

A path through desert greenery

The best way to see the museum is to walk at an easy pace. Summer visitors will want to carry bottled water with them. Don’t worry about running out if you drink too much. You can always refill the bottle with cold water at one of the numerous fountains located along the route. The museum also provides plenty of shaded seating areas where you can rest and enjoy the view.

The outdoor route is handicapped accessible, but be forewarned, most of the paths are dirt and gravel. Push wheelchairs are available on a first-come first serve basis; mobility scooters are available for rent.

Cacti grow tall in the desert

The museum is open 365 days a year. It is located at 2021 N. Kinney Road in Tucson. The easiest way to get there is to take the Speedway exit off Interstate 10 and follow the signs through the mountains.

Admission was approximately $20 per adult in 2014. Visitors who have a Tucson Visitor Center attractions passport, which cost $18 in 2014 and is good for dozens of attractions in the Tucson area, can get one free admission with one paid admission.