Back at the car finally, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum beckoned - what better way to spend a hot afternoon? We drove over, and I was excited before we even made it inside, having found a Great Purple Hairstreak in the parking lot.

One of the great things about the Desert Museum is that a lot of the vegetation is labeled, giving us an opportunity to put a name on some of the plants we saw earlier in the day. Desert animals come and go on the grounds, giving us further opportunity to see more of the local lizards. We saw more Utas and Tiger Whiptails, and added another new species, the Sonoran Spotted Whiptail, Aspidoceles sonorae.

Walking along one of the paths, we spotted a large lizard slowly crawling out of some thick brush. What in the world was this? Color, size, gait, stance, nothing matched the Arizona field guide pages whirling in our brains. This was a Mexican species, and an introduced one at that - a young Sonoran Spiny-Tailed Iguana, Ctenosaura macrolopha. This species was turned loose on the grounds of the museum over thirty years ago. While it has not spread beyond the grounds, C. macrolopha appears to be holding its own at the museum, snacking on invertebrates and other smaller lizards.

We saw captive specimens of the Vine Snake we had searched for the previous day, and Terrapene ornata luteola, the little Desert Box Tortoises with the beautiful copper-green heads. There were prairie dogs and coatis, mountain lions and bobcats, and a beautiful agave garden. The Desert Museum was a nice diversion for the afternoon, and I look forward to visiting it again some day.

We left the Museum in search of supper, as afternoon slipped into evening. Tonight was our last night, and we would be searching for Sidewinders in the low desert.