We were now in Saguaro Nation Park and we stopped on the side of the road and had a little chat about the Sonora geology and life. We walked around the trail but had found it to restricting so we ventured into the desert in small groups. Sheila and I had been walking for maybe ten minutes and we found a jackrabbit. It was huge! There really weren't too many animals to see but we did see a Wilson's Warbler (so we think). After a while we all regrouped at the vans for some breakfast. Even though I keep whipped butter on my counter at home for weeks, the butter that I had kept out of the cooler was thrown out. I was pretty sad. I had nothing to eat on my bagel so I was angry and wouldn't eat but somehow, a miracle must have happened and a special someone brought be a bagel with butter.

After breakfast we headed out to Sonora Desert Museum. We sat in line and waited for Hyo Jung to return from where ever she was. Where were you Hyo Jung? Once she got back, we got our tickets and went into the museum/zoo. It was pretty cool inside. Not too long after we went in, we split up into smaller groups and started to explore. At first, it seemed like every other zoo I had ever been to. There was an insect room and some cages for coyotes, javelina, and an underground section for nighttime animals like a fox and glow-in-the-dark scorpions. The thing that really surprised me was that they had deer in the zoo. Ironically enough, they were directly across from the mountain lions, black bear, and Mexican wolves. We roamed the museum until 1:30pm when we met at the free flight aviary. There we saw four Harris Hawks and watched how they watched for food and hunt. In the background, we saw a small tornado called a dust devil swirling about.
After the show finished, we had more free time to roam around and I visited the walk-in aviary and saw so many birds. The funniest were the quails that would chase each other in one direction for about five feet and stop, turn around, then chase each other in the opposite direction. They would repeat that for about fifteen minutes and then do it again somewhere else. There were oriels, cardinals, Yankees... Well, maybe there weren't any Yankees, but it was still really cool. Before I left, I had to meet my long lost relative the Mr. Coati. A coati is a raccoon-like animal that is brown, has a longer nose, and a longer less furry tail. I took my picture with the coolest animal in the museum and met up with everyone again near the front.

Soon, we hopped into the vans and Dr. Holtz and Dr. Merck took us to a "secret location". I was kind of scared first. But then we got there and I was really scared. It was just the middle of the desert! I though for sure our money was going into their pockets and we were walking home, but then they explained what was going on. We got to roam some more of the desert and make our own path. Before we could do that, however, Christina had to get attacked my mutant cholla plants and walk back to the vans. We then took a hike around a neat mountain and down into a "river". It was one of those classic rivers in Arizona that had no water. We hiked around and found some bullets, pencil shale, and some old beer cans. We did our part and tried to clean up after the lazy bums who came before us. Then we hiked back to the vans. After a long day, we all went back to the hotel for a swim, dinner, and some sleep.

Day 6 Saguaro East and a road trip
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