Saturday Nov 13
We got in the toad (our Ford Focus) and headed out to do some touristy things. First stop was Tombstone, the centre of the wild west in the late 1800s. Many western movies and TV programs drew their story lines from the history here. Remember “The Shoot-out at the OK Corral”? Wyatt Earp? Doc Holiday? Boot Hill Cemetery. It all happened here. Turns out the shoot-out wasn’t in the OK Corral but it did end up with 3 bad guys dead.
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| Bad guys from "Shoot-out" |
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| Modern "gunslingers" put on wild west show. |
We started at Boot Hill, the famous cemetery. It didn’t take long to find the three bad guys’ graves. And lots of others in the years of 1880 through 1882. Seems like there was a lot of violent deaths and no law and order. And how about poor George Johnson. They hung him for stealing a horse. Turns out he was found innocent after they had hung him. We moved on into town and walked around. The place is muchly a tourist trap with lots of stores selling their artistic goods at high prices. We were expecting more history lessons.
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| Poor George! |
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| Forgot his deodorant? |
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| Deep deep open pit mine. |
We moved on to Bisbee, several miles south and near the border with Mexico. The area was a large mining center for copper and silver, with both open pit and tunnel operations. We opted not to go on the mine tunnel tour but stopped and gawked at the very deep open pit.
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| Hole in rocks |
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| Column formations |
Next stop was the Chiricahua National Monument http://www.nps.gov/chir/index.htm (cheer ee caw wah). You may think Monument may imply some statue or memorial but this is not the case. The park contains spectacular rock formations of columns and balancing rocks, very scenic and photogenic. We arrived mid-afternoon and the light was failing so the photos didn’t do justice to the natural beauty. This is a true bargain for $5 each and the pass is good for a whole week. If time permits, we may return.
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| A whole field of rock columns |
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