Desert Walking Area Enhancements

The large monument sign is located at the Desert Walking Area. In addition, there are plant exhibits here. The sketches below show planned improvements for this area. Many tour busses and individuals stop here. The objective of these improvements is to enhance their experience while disturbing the desert as little as possible.

Visitor Exhibit - Planned

This small exhibit will provide information on the history of the drive, plants and the foothills area. Note that there will be two displays. The monuments shown below are back-to-back. Susan Conway, a professional designer and member of Friends, spend many hours discussing exhibit design with the Desert Botanical Garden. The Desert Botanical Garden had studied exhibit design for two years before installing their current plant exhibits. The electrostatic plaques which will be mounted on these monuments are the same type used at the Gardens.

Plaque Similar to Those Used on Above Exhibit

The photometal plaque pictured here is larger than the ones mounted on the above exhibit but the color and font style and size is the same.  The plaque below is at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix.  Friends consulted with the Desert Botanical Gardens on the design of this exhibit. 

This is a copy of a fax illustrating the layout of one of the plaques for the Animal (Fauna) Exhibit. The final electrostatic plaque will be similar in appearance to the one displayed above. The plaque will be 6" by 9".

Ramada - Planned

We want to provide some shade and a place for visitors to sit. These are conceptual drawings of one of the designs under consideration. Friends of the Scenic Drive studied the ramadas and visitor seating at the Desert Botanical Garden, which is located at Papago Park in Phoenix. Susan Conway of Friends worked with Habitat to arrive at several alternative designs.

Parking and Landscaping Improvements - Planned

This area will be left in its natural state but we need to provide a larger area for busses to pull over. Our plan is to use very large rocks to delineate the parking areas.