Tag Archives: Arizona

Arizona Part V

Posted on by

So Bisbee is now a memory and we are off to our next stop.  We had heard great things about Kartchner Caverns State Park and decided to give it a go.  We had no idea how popular this spot turned out to be.  In keeping with my aversion/distaste/displeasure of retracing my route, we headed south then west on AZ 92.  This took us back to Sierra Vista/Ft. Huachuca and AZ 90.  I know I had to do some backtracking (about 10 miles).  We continued north to the caverns.  We knew they had camping but did not know if we were going to stay there or not.

We pulled into the park and went to the visitor’s center to see when the next tour was.  They had two different tours, one where you can walk up and get tickets and the other where you had to have reservations.  We got tickets for the walk up tour (Throne Room) but it was the last tour of the day.  So we decided to see if there was room in the campground for the night and there was.  We only had electricity and water but that was fine:

100_4380

As you can see the weather was changing.  The stormy cloudy weather was clearing and blue skies being revealed.  Unfortunately this meant it was going to warm up also.  We parked the trailer, waited a bit and went to the tour.

These caverns are amazing.  They were not discovered until the ’70s.  Then they were not publicized in any way.  Eventually the family that found them turned them over to the state of Arizona.  They took many years to get them ready for the public.  Since they were unknown until recently they have not been ransacked like most caverns we have been to.  No broken formations, with the exception of natural acts.  The state made the entire tour handicapped accessible, all ramps.  They have airlocks for entry and exit so there is not a continually open door to allow the moisture to escape to the desert.  The cave is surprisingly warm and moist, something we rarely feel in other caverns.  They don’t allow cameras as this could slow down the tour and flashes can be disruptive to the formations.  Coats must be rolled up tight and tied around your waist to keep the lint problems down.

The formations are pristine.  The historical story about the caverns is intriguing.  The engineering put in for the public’s enjoyment is impressive.  We thoroughly enjoyed the tour.  We wanted to see the other tour also, the Big Room.  We asked the ticket counter about getting tickets since they were sold out for the next day.  They told us we could come down the next AM and wait for any cancellations.  We went back to the trailer for a welcome rest.

The next day we went right down to the ticket booth.  Nothing initially.  We waited about 30 minutes and two tickets opened up!  But they were different times.  Sigh.  We weren’t going to split up like that.  We waited about 30 more minutes and finally two showed for the 11:15 tour.  We took them.  We had about 2 hours now and decided not to spend another night.  We hooked up and parked in the visitors parking lot and took the tour.

The Big Room tour was just as impressive but in a different way.  It was not the same as the previous but that was a good thing.  We felt very fortunate that we were able to just show up and see both tours.  But it was time to go.  Where to next?  See part VI.

Arizona Part IV

Posted on by

We called ahead to the Shady Dell to see if they had any space.  The alternative was the RV ‘park’ by the Queen mine.  Luckily they did have a spot.  We got there and were greeted by a young, friendly, eclectic couple.  They welcomed us and showed us our spot. It was the end spot on the row, but it didn’t matter since we weren’t there to spend all our time in the trailer.  I don’t have any shots of the Shady Dell or the trailers as many others have those and you can readily find them.  Naturally, being an Airstream fan, I would have liked to have seen more, or ALL, Airstreams.

We got up the next morning and decided to visit Bisbee.  We knew we wanted to take the Queen Mine tour and had made reservations already so we hit that the first thing.  This is an interesting tour as you sit astride a train, like the ones that were used, and you go about 1500′ into the mine horizontally.  This not like a roller coaster.  However it was a bit stressful on the knees in the position we rode.  We made about 3 stops at various points to see historical portions of the mine.  The picture below shows Roxie checking out the ‘restrooms’ they had down in the mine.  No coming out to use the toilet so they put the toilet where you were, on rails.  Must be fun when there was more than one with a need.

Roxie and the Queen Mine toilet

After the tour we heading to downtown Bisbee.  This is town has a lot of history and it’s livelihood is now tourism.  There are a few characters living around here.  See the photo down the page of a vehicle we saw.

We walked around, had lunch, went in stores, watched other people, generally did the tourist thing.  Since today was Valentine’s Day and a Saturday the town was pretty busy.  We went back to the trailer for a short rest in the afternoon.  We tried to find a restaurant but the holiday made that problematic.  I was able to sneak off and get a card and some flowers at the local Safeway before.  We ended up going to a Chinese restaurant south of town.  We agreed that it was not to our liking.  Bisbee is very close to the Mexican border and we drove down near it after dinner.  Unfortunately we did not bring our birth certificates so we could not go across, which was fine with me.

A car to represent Bisbee!

The next day we continued our touristy ways and did a day trip to Tombstone.  It was overcast so it was not very hot.  You can imagine what Tombstone would be like if you try real hard.  The historic streets are still dirt, luckily it did not rain.  The courthouse is a very interesting site to see.  They have a show that reenacts the OK Corral shootout.  We passed on that.  We walked around, got tired, had some lunch.  Here is a hearse from those times:

Tombstone Hearse

We also had to stop at the Boothill cemetery.  It was a bit disappointing because everything seemed new.  New rocks on the graves, new signs, etc.  I would think a cemetery from that time would be a bit older.  Here is one such example:

Tombstone Headstone

We headed back to Bisbee and I stopped to take a picture of the Lavender Pit open pit copper mine.  The picture does not do it justice.  It is HUGE!  The main road goes right by and around it.  You can see the tracks going down it.  Each of these is easily as wide as a two lane road.  Trying to give you some scale.

Lavender Pit

Our last morning in Bisbee we had breakfast at Dot’s Diner that they have restored at the Shady Dell.  The ambiance was very fun.  We left Bisbee enroute to our next stop, find out in the next installment.