Biosphere 2 and Casa Grande

I guess because my 60 year old body is still running on Eastern Time, I awoke at 3 am.  Not surprising since that is 5 am at home and that is my normal time to awaken.  I caught up on some things, responded to some emails and watched a couple of episodes of I Love Lucy on the living room television.

When I heard Mary stirring I made breakfast of some of the fresh eggs and homemade bread that the property owner left for us.  After cleaning up and discussing plans for the day, we went to the nearby Fry’s Supermarket which is a partner with the Kroger chain.  Figuring that we would eat evening meals out, we picked up some things that we might need for breakfast and lunch on the road visiting local attractions.  We always like to have a case of water bottles in the car trunk, especially when travelling in remote desert regions.

Steve at Biosphere 2

After a quick stop at Copper Casa to unload groceries and pack our lunch, we headed northeast to Biosphere 2 Biosphere 2 near Oracle, Arizona.  The passport book that the property owner passed along to us gave us 2 for 1 admission to the Biosphere 2 tour.  That made it $20 for both of us.  Like many tours, we started with a short film that explained what Biosphere 2 was all about.  We then walked through the glass domed structure that encloses 3.14 acres.  When the facility opened in 1991 It was used as a closed system where 8 human subjects would live in a completely self-sustaining environment where nothing, not even air or water, would enter or leave.  Today, the focus of Biosphere 2 has completely changed.  It is now owned and operated by the University of Arizona as a research laboratory where conditions on Earth can be closely simulated.  

Artificial ocean in Biosphere 2

Biosphere is no longer a completely closed system and visitors, like us, are permitted to enter and leave through the airlock doors.  A number of things surprised us about Biosphere 2 including the fact that there was no Biosphere 1 structure.  Biosphere 1 is Earth!  The Biosphere 2 was intended to model conditions that may exist on a “replacement Earth” that could be built on another planet or following an environmental disaster.  We also learned that the human habitation project was not considered a failure as the press reported.  It is true that during the two years that the 8 people lived there, the oxygen levels dropped despite the number of plants growing in the facility.  During the experiment, supplemental oxygen needed to be added to the atmosphere on three occasions.  The current explanation is that the deep concrete pad on which Biosphere 2 is built continued to absorb oxygen for many years after construction causing the atmosphere is be deficient in the gas required by the people and animals living therein.  In addition, a medical emergency required one resident to be removed from the Biosphere 2 for a few hours when she cut the tip of her finger off while gardening.  Finally, when the Biospherians left following their two year stay they were only able to take in about 2000 Calories per day which was less than what they would require to sustain them.  That all being said, the whole project was an experiment intended to teach the researchers about the challenges of recreating Earth conditions. 

Biosphere 2

Today the facility has a number of areas where University of Arizona researchers and others can investigate a variety of environmental conditions.  We learning that the technical crew working on the movie, The Martian, came to Biosphere 2 to learn what would be involved in creating an autonomous life zone on another planet.  The last thing that we learned is that Biosphere 2 was constructed using only donated private money.  Even today the project depends on donations and fees paid by tours to supplement the grants that are used to operate and maintain the research facility.

Fish hook barrel cactus

We had lunch in the parking area of Biosphere 2 which was the cheese and bread that we purchased earlier at the supermarket.  We also had Envy apples followed by our usual peanut butter on Ritz crackers as we drove north toward Casa Grande Ruins.  Along the drive we stopped a few times to admire and photograph some of the interesting vegetation, especially the many cacti.  Of course, the saguaro are the most obvious and recognizable botanical feature of this part of the desert.  However, there were many types of prickly pear cacti and we especially liked the fish hook barrel cacti that are always slightly tilted toward south and have a ring of bright yellow fruits at the top this time of year. 

Steve at a marker where Tom Mix died.

We traveled up Route 79 and passed over Tom Mix Wash, a small dry river bed where cowboy actor, Tom Mix, crashed his yellow Cord automobile in 1940 after failing to notice a detour sign.  Mix was a pioneer in the Western movie genre and set the standard for television and film cowboys for many years.

We checked in at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument and bought an annual National Park pass to enter.  We have found for us that the annual pass is a much better deal than paying individual park entry since the pass will provide entry for the entire group.  Casa Grande was a very good stop for us.  We learned that the area was occupied by the Hohokam culture since about 300 BC.  These people lived in earthen structures using caliche mud along with cactus ribs and wood from the mountain area to construct their homes and other structures.  It is believed that the current structures on the 400+ acre area were constructed around 1350 and had over 2000 residents in four separate walled communities.  Each community had a seven foot tall packed mud wall encircling a number of single story dwellings, oval ball and game courts, cooking areas and many other aspects of daily life.  Casa Grande is unique by having a large three story building at the center of one of the walled communities.  It is not known the purpose for this large structure although there are several openings that are aligned to astronomical phenomena including one hole in the six foot thick outer wall that is aligned to the summer solstice.  Another one is set to observe the lunar standstill that occurs every 18.6 years. 

600 year old structure at Casa Grande

When Casa Grande was discovered by Spanish explorers in 1694 the area was long abandoned.  It is speculated that the Hohokam culture dispersed from Casa Grande around 1450.  It is believed that the culture formed or assimilated into many tribal nations that still exist in the region today.   Today, the area is protected as a National Monument and has a steel structure over the 700 year old mud building to protect against further degradation.  We had a nice tour with a small group that was very informative and interesting.  After the tour, we walked around on our own taking some snapshots and reading the interpretative signage along the paths and exhibits. 

We left Casa Grande to make a quick stop by the nearby Walmart to buy a cheap Styrofoam cooler to take lunch and drinks over the next week.  We saw that there was an Earthcache along a road leading from Casa Grande to I-10 so we decided to stop.  This cache was showing how much the land has subsided near an irrigation well.  As water was removed, the surrounding soil level has dropped over 24 inches.

Sunset in the desert

On our drive toward Phoenix us I-10 we could tell that the sunset was going to be beautiful.  We knew that we had a good bit of time before we had to pick Mark & Cindy up at the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix so we made a stop to take some snapshots.  As the sun set it changed from bright blue to include clouds with peach colored bottoms that eventually became bright red.  It was spectacular.  Although their flight wasn’t scheduled until 7 pm we arrived at the airport’s cell phone lot a little after 6 pm and enjoyed the evening.  We picked them up outside the baggage claim area and headed south toward our B&B in Tucson.  We stopped for a good and fun dinner at Buca de Beppo.  Mark & Cindy ordered baked rigatoni and we got my usual Italian choice, chicken parmesan.  Meals there are family style so we shared some of all and still had a large portion of rigatoni to bring back to the room. 

Mark & Cindy seemed to like Copper Casa and picked out their rooms before we all turned in for the night.