Day #8: From Space Colonization to Trees Turned to Stone
Pauly Shore ain’t got nothin on me! This morning, on our way out of Tucson, we decided to swing by the Biosphere 2 site. We hadn’t originally planned to take a tour of the facility, but it seemed to good to miss once we got there. Built in the late 1980s with $150 million in funding from Texas oil magnate Edward Bass, Biosphere 2 was designed as an airtight replica of Earth’s environment (Biosphere 1). The 7,200,000-cubic-foot sealed glass and space-frame structure sits on 250 acres of Sonoran Desert and contains 5 biomes, including a 900,000-gallon ocean, a rain forest, a desert, agricultural areas and a human habitat. Though the structure’s purpose has changed over time, some of the early designers and managers were interested in space travel and the possibility of colonizing the Moon or Mars. More recently, Columbia University managed the site, however this relationship ended in December, 2003. (And, yes, Pauly Shore locked himself into something similar in 1996.
Then, we headed towards Arizona’s Petrified Forrest. We drove thru both the Fort Apache and San Carlos Indian Reservation. This route also took us through Salt River Canyon. I was not expecting this part. It took us 45 mins to go down the mountain to the canyon and even longer to get back up the other side. My mom, who is ALWAYS level headed, was freakin out! It was really quite exhilarating. Though I was driving very slowly, each hairpin curve made us feel like we were going to drive off the cliff. Actually, part of the road was closed because someone had done just that! Nonetheless, the view was absolutely amazing! Mom didn’t say a word for more than an hour after we made it back up the mountain.
It is really something how abruptly the landscape changes here. We drove thru mountain after mountain, then we all of the sudden hit a desert again. It was the longest, straightest stretch of highway I’ve ever seen. I didn’t turn the steering wheel more than 1/8 inch for more than 15 miles.
We’re now in Holbrook, AZ. We plan to visit the Petrified Forrest National Park first thing tomorrow morning. We’ve already stopped by a local gift shop to pick up some rocks and snap some picts.
