Originally, I considered going south to Cochise County and visiting Fort Huachuca, Cochise stronghold, Tombstone, etc. But The Man With No Name also needs to make that trip so he can plant some boxes, so we've postponed the Cochise Expedition for now.
So Yesterday, Jess and I took advantage of the weekend to sleep in and then took AZ Route 77 North from Tucson to Oracle. Our first stop was actually to go to the Biosphere2 located just south of Oracle.
I had visited the Biosphere 2.5 years ago with my parents when we came to Tucson to visit UofA. But Jess hasn't been there before so I figured it would be fun.
For those who don't know, the Biosphere is a massive ecological dome built in the late 1980's with funding from one man. The original purpose was to test the feasibility of moon colonies, so the entire facility was designed to be completely isolated from the outside. Originally, it contained 5 biomes necessary for atmospheric stability, a half acre farm, living quarters, and a livestock area. The original intention was to have groups of 10 (later reduced to 8) sealed inside for a year at a time, with the first group being sealed in for 2 years. In 1992, the first group of 8 were sealed inside, and they served there 2 years. The result of there time was very beneficial to the scientific community, but as far as a moon colony, the trial proved to be negative. The eight people were responsible for maintaining the entire facility and all of its engineering complexity, harvesting and preparing food, and conducting research, among other things. This resulted in each person having a 66+ hour work week. Additionally, the farm did not produce nearly enough food for each person. As later said by one of the inhabitants, they were never deficit of nutrients, but they lacked calories, by almost 1000 each day.
After attempting this process one more time, and cutting it short, the management changed the focus of the biosphere to be more I the way of ecological studies, First with Columbia university, the. with the University of Arizona. Currently, If you visit, the University of Arizona is doing a lot of research in the way of water conservation, behavior, effects, etc.
Even if you're not all that much into ecology, the biosphere is still an incredible feat of engineering, and honestly just really cool. The tours take you first through the different biomes, then through the underground labyrinth of all the water collecting, cooling, and heating apparatus.
By far the coolest part are the lungs. Because the biosphere is able to be completely sealed off from the world, there must be a way to maintain pressure. Since it is encapsulated by 6600 panels of glass and located in the desert where temperature wil fluctuate through the year from 40* to 120*, if there is no way to maintain pressure, the entire building would either explode or implode. So they build two large "balloons" that are free to expand and contract as need be. These are the lungs.
After we finished at the Biosphere,Jess and I continued north on 77 to Oracle. Our first stop was to Peppersauce Canyon which is located part of the way up a service road to Mt. Lemmon. This means the road is dirt, narrow, and windy, with traffic coming both ways. Not the best. And once we arrived at The campground, we found it packed with a youth group or something.
I initially intended to hike around the canyon, because it really is beautiful, filled with massive sycamores, and maybe go and see the Peppersauce cave. But The shear number of adolescent boys running around changed my mind. We were going to grab the box and go. But, as luck would have it, the box was empty. We found the box and lid, but the contents were lost.
Dissappointed we went back down the mountain to a small butterfly garden with two boxes there both of which were in excellent condition. This brightened our spirits quite a bit so we headed home.
We had two more boxes we wanted to get in Oro Valley, just north of Tucson, in Honeybee canyon. It took a bit longer than anticipated to get these boxes, but we managed and saw some petroglyphs while we were at it.
We ended the day with some well deserved In-n-Out before finally going home.
Check out pictures on my wife's blog
savingtimeinabottle.blogspot.com
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