Benson, Arizona

April 5, 2013

We left Tucson to move east to Benson AZ, about 45 minutes west of Tucson.  We booked into the San Pedro Resort to use as a base to visit the southeast portion of Arizona by car.  That afternoon we took an underground tour of the Queen Mine in Bisbee.  The tour guides are retired Phelps Dodge employees.  They led the group 1500 ft into the mine, recounting mining days, techniques, dangers and drama of working underground.  As they point out in their brochure "It is always a cool 47 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius) underground" .

mine entrance

the tour group riding down into the mine

we were each outfitted with a hard hat, miner’s lamp and a yellow slicker

a view of the rail line for the mine carts

It was interesting to learn how the drills have changed over the years and how they improved efficiency

A two-seater on wheels! Ya gotta go when ya gotta go.

John displays the miner's lamp we used to light our way

After the mine tour, we headed to Tombstone for dinner but unfortunately we didn't get to visit any of the boutiques in town as they had closed at 4 pm for the day.

The next day we visited the Amerind Museum in Dragoon.  It is nestled in a valley surrounded by amazing rock formations.  There were displays of American Indian artifacts of the various west coast tribes stretching from BC south to Peru.

Amerind Museum at Dragoon

We then carried on to the Chiricahua Monument where we followed an 8 mile drive through "a wonderland of rocks".  We stopped at Massai Point to visit the exhibit area and follow the hiking trail around that area. The elevation is 6,870 ft at Massai Point.  The following are views of the rock formations from the trail.

There were lots of rocks with rock caps.

John and Pat looking through the telescope at the observation point

a close up view of the rock formations seen in the photo below

We stop for a photo op of the scenery with John on our route down to the park entrance