Distance from Tucson
25 miles north

Directions
Biosphere 2 is twenty miles north of the intersection of Ina and Oracle Rd. Drive north on Oracle Rd for 16 miles and then bear right at Oracle Junction onto highway 77. From here you drive 6 miles to the well marked turn-off on the right. Then it is just 2 more miles to the parking lot.

Biosphere 2 is an educational roadside attraction, and an environmental research facility. A huge, graceful greenhouse houses several carefully constructed ecosystems: tropical rainforest, savannah, marsh, 25-foot deep ocean, desert, and intensive agricultural area, and a human habitat. One ongoing experiment had been housing several scientists in the enclosed environments for years at a time.

Because this is a research facility, the Biosphere building is completely sealed off in order to maintain the air, water, nutrient, and waste environment. Visitors cannot enter this building, but you can walk around outside and look in. there is also an underwater viewing area in the ocean environment. The various ecosystems are reconstructed on a smaller scale in another building where visitors can take a guided tour. There is an orientation center and plenty of our guides to tell you about the current studies being done, and all about how Biosphere 2 works.

For the kids, there is a BioFair with numerous hands-on scientific demonstrations like a giant gyroscope and a walk through maze.

The entire tour, if you go all the way around the building, is a mile long. It will be hot in summer. The views out over the desert are great because the facility is built on a hilltop just north of the Santa Catalina Mountains.