It’s been a while since I’ve done much local investigation, but with my brother (Craig) visiting, I figured it was an apt time to head southward and see other parts of my state.
While I’d flown into the Tucson airport before, I didn’t do much in the actual city – and while I still can’t claim having checked out a vast swath of the area, I’m now allowed to put mental pushpins into two areas of my imagined map.
The first pin goes into the downtown area (keep reading a while for pin #2). On Sunday, we headed to meet Craig’s college friend for lunch at El Charro, the “nation’s oldest Mexican restaurant in continuous operation by the same family”. Well that’s a mouthful, but since they claim to be the “inventor of the chimichanga”, I was looking forward to a mouthful of their food. As the story goes, there was a mishap where a burrito fell into the frying pan and out came a calorie-laden, crunchy version that has lived on ever since.
After a delightful meal, we stopped to see this mural…
And, we were on our way to Bisbee – once the largest city in Arizona, known for their copper mining, which ended in the 1970’s. The town is now home to just under 5,000 residents, cute shops and houses dotting the landscape, as well as unexpected finds like the art in this alleyway.
Plus, there were “famous” steep steps that inspired a “1000 Stair Climb” race every October, across 4.6 miles of staircases built into the hills. We mistakenly got caught in our own ascension, thinking it would lead us to the next street over, but instead went up and up (and up), so back we went to find another route (p.s. down is easier). The trek was worth it to both burn some El Charro calories as well as come across this space outside someone’s abode.
On Monday morning, it was time for the Copper Queen Mine Tour. The guides provided equipment including a hard hat, light and safety vest. Attendees took a (very squeaky, ear-drum-pain inducing) ride into the mine.
The main guide provided personal stories of his experiences, having worked in the mines, and included details of innovations through the years. He also talked about their use of mules and painted a vivid picture of what it was like to toil underground.
One little girl asked if there were also emeralds in the copper mine. The guide had to crush her gem-filled dream, because – while I was surprised to learn (thanks google!) that some emeralds are mined in the U.S. – the nearest location is Nevada. But to find a spot where one can mine both copper and emeralds, her family would need to head to Zambia – ohhh the things you learn in my blog!
Later that day, we continued our tour through the Chihuahuan Desert to Tombstone, made famous by the discovery of silver, the gun fight at the O.K. Corral and the 1993 movie featuring a host of famous actors including Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott and Billy Bob Thornton… a movie I still haven’t seem but my brother watched on his flight from the ATL to be up on Hollywood’s version of the history.
The town is somewhat ‘if you blink, you might miss it’, boasting slightly more than 1,300 residents. We dropped our bags off at the cute Monument Ranch and Cattle Co., getting there via a semi-short bumpy-unpaved-road drive outside town – Sunny-the-Jeep loved it! The property had lots of character and a bunch of horsies that ambled over to us as we were taking pictures. We also spied a couple deer and at least one of the three ‘ranch cats’.
It was easy to find parking near the historic Tombstone district which included a few blocks of shops, the courthouse, the Bird Cage theater and the site of the shoot out’s reenactment.
For dinner, we took the advice of a local and ate at The Longhorn. The food was good but the decorations really added to the experience.
The original plan was to wander around Tombstone on Tuesday but as we’d already seen the sights, we decided to add the next push pin to the Tucson map and head to Mt. Lemmon. The path to the top had us winding around the 23ish miles, stopping in Summer Haven but continuing the remaining short climb to Ski Valley at 9,157 feet above sea level.
The ski area is actually closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays but they can’t close the views.
During the ride, there were cacti galore, which gave way to pine-oak territory, Ponderosa pine forest and at the top a mixed conifer forest. Don’t know what a conifer forest is? Here’s a handy link.
So, another trip in the books and another several examples as to why Arizona is amazing to explore!
Have you bopped through Bisbee, traversed Tombstone or meandered around Mt. Lemmon? Share your thoughts in the comment section!