Oracle, Arizona: Biosphere 2

Biosphere 2 is now owned by a new corporation. We went on a school field trip -- this is my 3rd visit and I was very happy to see that the tour now includes going into the Biosphere 2. We were able to go into the human habitat, the desert and savanna. Also we got a tour of the inside of one of the lungs. This was a very cool trip. I really enjoyed getting to go in.

We were in Florence Arizona for the night and realized we were going to drive past Biosphere II (Biosphere I is the earth). We went there, it was deserted but open. The ticket booth showed admission as $12.95, we balked and the price dropped to $6.00 each. We took the bait and really enjoyed the tour. A very cool place. The grounds are very nice, pack a lunch and spend at least half a day there.

Smiler Dean Jeffrey told us he was Tucson-bound from Phoenix; we suggested a detour to Oracle to observe the latest activities at Biosphere 2.

We also hinted about our need for a self-contained, hermetically sealed souvenir of the self-contained, hermetically sealed scientific habitat. Still, we were surprised when this Biosphere 2 Center snow globe showed up in our mail. No way to smuggle snacks into this one.

Thanks Dean!

Since 1996, Biosphere II has been "managed" by Columbia University, and most of the facility is given over to sealed environment experiments. In addition to the "Walking Tour," which primarily covers the outside grounds and will set you back $12.95, you can now also take the "Under the Glass" Interior Tour, which lets you in to many of the indoor areas and experiments for an additional $10.

The woman we talked to made it very clear that if you wanted to ask about the original Biosphere experiments (and whether the participants had sex with each other) then you needed to take the Walking Tour. If you were interested in the current research going on, you needed to take the Under the Glass tour. The guide for the Under the Glass tour would be glad to answer questions, we were told, but NOT any questions that had anything to do with the original inhabitants of Biosphere.

This was supposed to be the highlight of our trip to Oracle, however we went just to photograph the outside of the building. You can't see it from the road or the parking lot and have to pay 29.00 for the tour. There is no walking tour for just the grounds... and we could not talk the entrance person into letting us walk in for one photo. We didn't go in.