The first outing of the day was visiting Biosphere 2. Built in the late 1980’s it was created to study and research self-sustaining space-colonization. It’s planet earth’s largest closed ecological system. 1n 1991, 8 scientists lived in it for two years. They were sealed off from the outside world, grew their own food, nurtured different habitats to produce oxygen and ran a series of experiments. Even though they made it 2 years it was considered an epic financial and scientific failure. (That’s my editorial comment). It cost $150 million to build, encompasses 3.14 acres and included several biomes as well as the technosphere - which is the technology to make the whole thing work. 
We’ve done countless tours over the years, but our guide, Jason, was one of the best. He definitely knew his stuff. The University of Arizona now operates the biosphere. The tour was focused on the ecology, technology and current research in the biosphere and hardly anything was mentioned about the human part of the experiment. We toured the 5 biomes; rainforest, desert, savannah, ocean and mangrove. Hopefully the pics showcase each one of these biomes.
We also toured the belly of the beast and went underground to see all the technology it takes to run this baby including the air flow system, heating and cooling, water management and “lungs”. The lung part was definitely my favorite. “As the air inside the facility expanded it would flow through underground tunnels into the lungs. Each lung contained a large weight hanging from a rubber sheet; as the air expanded during the day the increased pressure would raise the weight into the air. In the evening, as the air cooled, the weight would pull the rubber sheet back down and push air back into the facility, thereby equalising any pressure difference as it appeared.” The rubber sheet weighs 10 tons and the weight is a large aluminum disc.
The tour took a good 2 hours. UofA is continuing to do some interesting experiments, mainly focused around microbes and climate change. I am most fascinated by the human side of the original experiment and definitely want to read more about the 8 scientists’ experience. My understanding is that there was a lot of fighting, it didn’t end well and some suffered from PTSD and depression. Oh, and for those wondering what Biosphere 1 is...it’s planet earth, where we currently reside.
After a picnic lunch in the van, we headed toward Saguaro (pronounced Sa-WAH-row) National Park East. Our plan was to bike the 8 mile loop. Best laid plans. We got there about 1ish and it was in the 90’s with the sun blazing down. The ranger discouraged us from biking the route so instead we drove it.
Honestly, I was underwhelmed. Almost all of the saguaro are gone. Pictures from 1936, when the Park was made into a National Monument, showed a much more abundant cacti forest. We saw more saguaro driving the backroads yesterday than at the National Park. I think Anza-Borrego State Park has a better showing of a cacti forest, albeit without any saguaro. So where have the saguaro gone? Turns out freezing temperatures for more than 20 hours kills them. There were several major freezes in the 1960’s.
I did enjoy learning specific things about the saguaro. Ned and I noticed yesterday birds nesting, with a hole, in a saguaro. Just like a bird house.We thought that was cool, but didn’t know if we were just imagining that. Turns out a woodpecker drills the initial hole, then other birds use it for nesting when the woodpecker is done. Also, who knew a saguaro had a skeleton of wooden ribs? They also live for over a hundred and fifty years. Here’s a really interesting display that shows the insides of a saguaro.
Tonight we are camped at Patagonia Lake State Park. We managed to grab a sweet spot right on the lake. First thing we did was cool off. Ned took the temperature of the water of this mountain lake. It was 67 degrees. We thought of it as training for the cold springs.
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