From Big Bend to Saguaro National Park our days have filled us with so much beauty. We love the desert and all it's beauty. Four nights were spent in Tucson at the Catalina State Park. This is a very pretty setting with mountains all along the east side of the park. We took several day trips into town. Here are some pictures of our trips.

Saguaro National Park

Saguaro National Park has two districts. The Rincon Mountain District is located to the East of Tucson Arizona on one side of I-10 and the Tucson Mountain District is located to the West of Tucson on the other side of I-10. About 25 miles in between the two parks lies the city of Tucson. In 1933 Saguaro National Monument was created. The Saguaro Wilderness Area of 71,400 acres was added in 1975. Saguaro National Park was created from these areas in 1994 and currently encompasses 91,327 acres in its two districts. The Eastern Rincon Mountain District rises to over 8,000 feet and includes over 128 miles of trails.

Saguaro's grow slowly. In the most favorable conditions, it may take 35 years for a plant to reach 6 feet tall. More commonly it takes 47 to 67 years. Some can grow to 50 feet tall and are the largest member of the cactus family in the United States.

While the cause is not known, sometimes damage occurs to the growing tip of a saguaro, causing a fan like growth, crested, or cristate saguaros are thought to occur once in every 200,000 plants. The above pictures show one of these rare saguaros.

The Gila Woodpecker and Gilded Flickers make nest holes in the stems of saguaros.

Here are some picnic tables that they used old B-52 Bomber airplane doors to make shade structures.

Mission San Xavier

A National Historic Landmark, San Xavier Mission was founded as a Catholic mission by Father Eusebio Kino in 1692. Construction of the current church began in 1783 and was completed in 1797.

The oldest intact European structure in Arizona, the church's interior is filled with marvelous original statuary and mural paintings. It is a place where visitors can truly step back in time and enter an authentic 18th Century space.

The current church dates from the late 1700's, when Southern Arizona was part of New Spain. In 1783, Franciscan missionary Fr. Juan Bautista Velderrain was able to begin construction on the present structure using money borrowed from a Sonoran rancher. He hired an architect, Ignacio Gaona, and a large workforce of O'odham to create the present church.

Following Mexican independence in 1821, San Xavier became part of Mexico. The last resident Franciscan of the 19th Century departed in 1837. With the Gadsden Purchase of 1854, the Mission joined the United States. In 1859 San Xavier became part of the Diocese of Santa Fe. In 1866 Tucson became an incipient diocese and regular services were held at the Mission once again. Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet opened a school at the Mission in 1872. Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity now teach at the school and reside in the convent.

The Franciscans returned to the Mission in 1913. Recently, Mission San Xavier became a separate nonprofit entity. It remains a testament to the endurance of culture thought out our history.

Constructed of low-fire clay brick, stone and lime mortar, the entire structure is roofed with masonry vaults, making it unique among Spanish Colonial building's within U. S. borders. The architect, Ignacio Gaona, is credited with building another church in Caborca, Sonora Mexico.

Little is known about the people who decorated the interior. The artwork was probably commissioned by Fr. Velderrain's successor and most likely created by artists from Queretero in New Spain (now Mexico). The sculpture was created in guild workshops and carried by donkey through the Pimeria Alta to its destination at the Mission. Craftsmen created gessoed clothing once the sculpture was in place.

The church contains numerous references to the Franciscan cord both on the facade and throughout the church.

The shell, a symbol of pilgrimage after the patron saint of Spain, Santiago or James the Greater, is replicated all through the structure in window treatments, the sanctuary, the facade and other details within the interior.

The Baroque architecture style features playful dramatic elements such as theatrical curtain displays, faux doors, marbling, and overall sense of balance.

Biosphere 2

Biosphere 2 is a 3.14-acre structure originally built to be an artificial, materially-closed ecological system in Oracle, Arizona (US) by Space Biosphere Ventures, a joint venture whose principal officers were John P. Allen, inventor and Executive Director, and Margret Augustine, CEO. Constructed between 1987 and 1991, it was used to explore the complex web of interactions within life systems in a structure that included five areas based on biomes and an agricultural area and human living/working space to study the interactions between humans, farming and technology with the rest of nature.^[2] It also explored the possible use of closed biospheres in space colonization, and allowed the study and manipulation of a biosphere without harming Earth's. The name comes from Earth's biosphere, Biosphere 1. Earth's life system is the only biosphere currently known. Funding for the project came primarily from the joint ventures financial partner, Ed Bass' Decisions Investment, and cost $200 million from 1985 to 2007, including land, support research greenhouses, test module and staff facilities.