Tuesday, August 20
We took Interstate 10 West from El Paso to get to Tucson. On the West side of town the road bends South and gets very near the border. From the car we would easily see the Rio Grande River and the border fence.
We quickly passed through New Mexico and when we were about 30 miles into Arizona a very strange thing happened. The road narrowed and we were forced to go through a Border Control Point manned by Immigration and Customers Enforcement (ICE). Had we made a proverbial wrong turn at Albuquerque? We came to a complete stop and rolled down our window while a drug sniffing dog checked out our car. The agent in the booth said, “You can go”. I asked, “Are we about to cross a border?”. He laughed and said, “No sir” and we continued on our way.
The roadblock was a permanent structure and was at least 30 miles North of the border. Anyone with nefarious intentions would know it was there and could easily avoid it. It’s not clear how effective this type of policing could be.
With less than an hour until we reached Tucson we started seeing signs to Tombstone, AZ. The billboards indicated that there were things to see and do so we decided to check it out for ourselves.
We traveled about 40 minutes on local roads before we reached Tombstone. Just outside of the city we found another checkpoint run by ICE. It was stopping all cars coming out of Tombstone.
We parked and entered Cochise County Courthouse, an old courthouse that was now run by the State as a museum. Cost of entry was $7.00 per person. Credit cards are accepted.
The courthouse had many interesting artifacts from the old west period including an extensive analysis of the famous fight at the OK corral and its participants. A block away was the the main street; it looked exactly what you’d expect an old western town to appear.
All of the stores had been converted into convenience stores, restaurants or places selling tourist trinkets. A booth was selling tickets to a tour of the town on a horse drawn stage coach. Another was selling tickets to a reenactment of the famous gunfight. We bought tickets for that. It was rather amusing and we learned that the gunfight actually took place next to the OK corral – not in it. We had a snack at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon (Big Nose Kate was Doc Holiday’s long time paramour).
(Gunfight Actors)
Before leaving town we stopped at Boot Hill – the historical town’s cemetery. Cost of entry was $3.00 per person; cash only. Upon entry you receive a pamphlet providing information about and location of the people who are buried there. Many of the tombstone had interesting epitaphs such as, “Two Chinamen” and “Rook Shot by a Chinaman”. The McClaurys and Billy Clanton are buried there too.
(Boot Hill)
Back near Tucson we headed directly for Saguaro National Park East. The park is actually divided into two parts – one on each side of Tucson. We stopped at the visitor center and a very helpful volunteer gave us a map and some very interesting information about the park. We paid $20.00 for the car and proceeded to the nine mile loop that would bring us back to the visitor center.
The park is filled with various kinds of wildlife and many kinds of cactus. Of course it features the Saguaro Cactus. There are many thousands of them everywhere. They are only found in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. Of course they are immediately recognizable as the ones you often see in old Road Runner cartoons. At 106 degrees it was way too hot to walk any of the trails but we got out of the car in many spots to see the plants up close and to take photographs. It was very interesting and quite different from other parks we’d seen. On the way back to our hotel we saw a real-life road runner crossing the street in the middle of town.
(A Saguaro Cactus)
Wednesday, August 21
This morning we had an early breakfast at the hotel and headed to Saguaro National Park West. This park has a six mile loop on a gravel road. The National Park Service says that even non-SUVs can traverse this road. It was a little rocky and sandy in places but our car made it without any problems.
We stopped in Kingman, AZ for a quick lunch and were back in Las Vegas just after 3:00 pm. After eight hours in the car it had been a long day.
When we got home I found a box containing my newly refurbished camera. I am looking forward to ditching my iPhone camera and taking some decent pictures.