Mountains and Stars

I can't believe it's been two weeks! Better finish this set of blogs about our vacation already.

So ... on Tuesday, we decided to take it easy and go for a hike in Sabino Canyon. After a great breakfast of course!!


Sabino Canyon is in the northwest part of Tucson and is well known for it's amazing hiking trails. So well known that we got to the park, paid $5 to get in, and THEN we were told that the lot was full and it could be a while before we found a parking spot. Uh, thanks. Luckily it did not take too long (10 minutes maybe) before we scored a spot.

It was 10:30 and already it was really really warm out - maybe low 80s. We brought two bottles of water each (well, we brought four bottles of water, but RDJr. carried them all cause he's awesome) and a bag of Chomps for a two hour hike. We didn't know it would be two hours, but it was just so amazing, we couldn't stop climbing up and up and up!! The views were spectacular!

What do you wear when you go for a hike? RDJr. wears his racing flats...

... and I brought my purse!

See that little red arrow at the top of the mountain? Yeah, we went up there.

After the hike we headed back to home base for lunch and bike maintenance. RDJr.'s front derailleur broke at some point during our ride on Monday, so he rode it over to the LBS while I picked up lunch. We tooks showers and naps and then got ready to head up Kitt Peak.

We made reservations to the national observatory, Kitt Peak, about the same time we booked our flights - back in November. Neither of us are astronomy buffs, but this was one thing, next to climbing Mt. Lemmon, that I was really looking forward to.

It did not disappoint! It was REALLY cool and if you have the opportunity, I highly suggest it!!

Kitt Peak is about 36 miles southwest of Tucson. Funny thing, we actually saw one of the telescopes from over 30 miles away because it is at the top of the mountain and with the sun setting, it made this unusual shape. We weren't sure until we were about 15 miles away, but funny how far the human eye can really see!!

See that little white "nub" at the top? That is what we saw from miles away.

So up, and up, and up we went! Up this crazy steep mountain (in the car) with only a little guard rail to keep us from going over the edge. I am not afraid of heights, but this drive honestly made me a little dizzy at times. I mean, I'm looking out my window and there is NO SHOULDER!! Just a 5,000,000 foot drop!!

We finally get up to the observatory and it was a little cooler - about 65. They had told us to dress warm because part of the program was outside (duh. that's where the stars are). Part of the program included a boxed meal, so we ate our delicious turkey sandwiches while looking over the mountain, then we started the program.

One of the telescopes.

Kitt Peak is does not have the largest telescope, but it has the most. Some of the best universities run them - together, as in share, as in it's really expensive to operate one. We all walked out to view the sun setting, then we watched as Mercury and Venus rose in the sky. We went back inside, learned about star charts and how to use them, got to look at stars through night-time viewing binoculars, and got to look at some pretty cool stuff through the telescope - like a small galaxy, a binary star, a dying star, and even SATURN! Saturn wasn't that cool because the telescope we were looking through wasn't the best one they have, but it was still pretty neat. You could see the rings, but it was small and white and there wasn't any color.

Another telescope.

Anyway ... NERD ALERT! The most interesting thing about being at Kitt Peak at night was that the researchers can't have any sort of white light outside on the mountain because it interferes with their work and our night vision as human beings, so ... when we went to leave at 10 pm that night, we had to drive down the mountain WITHOUT OUR HEADLIGHTS ON!!!

It's not that bad. We still had our parking lights on and there was a slightly full moon and we only had to do that for like a mile, so it wasn't bad. We were sooo exhausted by the time we got back to the B&B. I never slept so soundly in all my life.