2015 Tucson: Tohono Chul (5/17/2015)

Sunday, May 17, 2015 (continued)
After exploring the DeGrazia Gallery, Ginger drove us back to her place, and we took the rental car and headed back north of Tucson.
First we stopped at St Philip in the Hills Episcopal Church (1936), which was designed by Josias Joesler in Spanish Colonial Mission style, on land donated by John Murphey. Originally the main entrance to the Catalina Foothills Estates was located nearby. This exclusive residential neighborhood was developed by Murphey and Joesler, starting in the 1930s.

St Philip in the Hills Episcopal Church
at 4440 N Campbell Avenue

St Philip in the Hills plaza fountain

We then headed west to Tohono Chul Park. We had read that the magazine Travel+Leisure called it one of great botanical gardens in world. We should have researched when that was said (2010)! It was looking a little neglected today.

Our greeter: Sceloporus magister/Desert Spiny Lizard

Ice Plant

Adenium obesum/Desert Rose (KAH)

Pachycereus marginatus/Mexican Fence Post Cactus

Apartment house saguaro (KAH)

Regal Horned Lizard (1995) by Dave Stone

Grape arbor (KAH)

Grapes

Moorish Garden

Karen with a large Opuntia sp 

Acacia greggii/Catclaw Acacia?
with snapping pods

I was standing under this tree, and hearing a snap/crackle, then what sounded like rain. The pods were bursting and raining seeds.

Empty Nest (2004-2005) by Ira Wiesenfeld

Rain Catcher (one of many) by Jeffrey Dacosta

Native Bee Habitat (2013) by Tucson students

Fountain with mosaic channel in the Children's Garden

Arch to the Children's Garden

Vulture by Kioko Mwitiki of Kenya

Nolina sp

Mexican Fence Post Cactus Water Sculpture
by Dave Weinert

Fouquieria splendens/Ocotillo with leaves

More azurite (blue) and malachite (green)

Adromischus cristatus

Fenestraria rhopalophylla/Baby Toes

Boot bird house

Chile pepper wreath

Next: Tucson Sights.