Chiricahua National Monument: a wonderland of rocks

Chiricahua National Monument

The National Park Service calls Chiricahua National Monument in southeastern Arizona a “wonderland of rocks.” As you drive through the park, looking at fantastic rock formations, it is hard to dispute that moniker. The Apaches who roamed the area called it, “The land of standing-up rocks,” another nickname that is hard to argue with.

The monument is in the Chiricahua Mountains, an inactive volcano field that is 20 miles wide and 40 miles long. The monument itself is almost 12,000 acres.

Road to Massai Point

Noteworthy about this spot is that it’s where the Chiricahua, Rockies and Sierra Madre mountains meet the Sonoran and Chiricahuan deserts. This makes for great biodiversity, as trees from the different ecosystems live side by side.

 
There’s a small visitor center with exhibits that shows an eight-minute video about the monument. It’s narrated by the late Rex Allen, a local boy who hit the big time in Hollywood. Next up is the scenic drive to Massai Point. Some of the road lies under a canopy of trees, but the volcanic rock formations are still in the limelight.



View from Massai Point

Massai Point has a circular turnaround, an interpretive center and restrooms. Trails start here but some visitors found them too steep to walk. More trails can be found at Echo Canyon; in all, the monument has 17 miles of trails.

Motorists should note that RVs and trailers longer than 29 feet are long are not allowed beyond the visitor center.

Chiricahua National Monument is located 37 miles south of Willcox. Exit Interstate 10 at Willcox and head south on Highway 186. Turn left on Highway 181. The drive from Willcox takes about 45 minutes.

Bisbee, Arizona: historic copper mining town

Old mining equipment

Bisbee is a quaint town with narrow streets and Victorian homes perched on hillsides in southeastern Arizona. It was founded in 1880 at a time when mining was king, or, perhaps the term “ queen” should be used since the Copper Queen was the city’s pre-eminent mine. Gold and silver also were mined here.


Remnants of past mining operations are abundant in Bisbee. The Copper Queen mine was originally an underground mine, but switched to open pit mining when this method of extraction became popular in the 20^th century. The huge open pit stretches for a couple of miles on the west side of Highway 80; Bisbee is on the other side. In the early 20^th century, the Copper Queen was the most productive copper mine in Arizona, producing an extremely high grade of copper. The copper ore removed from it also contained gold and silver.

 

Remains of Bisbee's open pit copper mine

Mining equipment decorates the lawn at the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum, a National Landmark that once served as offices for Phelps Dodge, the company that operated the Copper Queen mine.

Today, Old Bisbee is a tourist attraction, as visitors flock to shop at art galleries, boutiques, book and antique shops, and view the quaint houses that fill the hillsides in the historic section of town. The houses have so many steps leading to them, the city sponsors a stair climb, in which runners go up and down more than 1,000 steps in a 5k run.

 

Downtown Old Bisbee

Bisbee: an historic town

Be forewarned, parking in Old Bisbee can be difficult to come by, especially on event weekends and one local said Bisbee has events almost every weekend. Streets are narrow, with sometimes not enough room for two vehicles to pass by each other, let alone allow for parking, even on one side.  On event weekends, visitors park on the shoulders of Highway 80 and then walk up or down the hill into town.

Bisbee is a popular locale used in movies and fiction books. J.A. Jance sets her Joanna Brady murder mystery novels in Bisbee and surrounding Cochise County. Parts of the movie 3:10 to Yuma (the original and the remake) were filmed in Bisbee.

Bisbee is just over 90 miles from Tucson. Take the Benson exit off Interstate 10 and follow the signs. Motorists will pass through Tombstone on the way.

Rural Arizona's Amerind Museum showcases Native American artifacts

Amerind Museum

It’s easy to whiz by the Amerind Museum as you drive from Tucson to Willcox, Arizona, in Interstate 10. But those who detour off the freeway can spend a few pleasant hours learning more about the Indians of the Americas as well as see some pretty cool Western art.

 

The Amerind Museum and Gallery lies on a serene 1,600 acres in Texas Canyon, so named because so many of the early settlers were from Texas. It’s located a mile or so off Exit 318, Dragoon Road, of the freeway. Turn left down a gravel road, past a small cemetery where early settlers are buried, and you’ll eventually reach a collection of buildings, two of which house the museum and art gallery. You’ll also see horse stables since the museum founder also raised prized horses.

 

The Amerind Museum houses the Native American artifacts collected by William Shirley Fulton. His collection is said to be one of the finest private collections in the world.

 

From Alaska to South America

 

A large room on the ground floor is devoted to artifacts used by Native Americans from the north of Alaska to the tip of South American. Another room is devoted to the history of Texas Canyon and its settlers.

 

Rooms on the second floor house artifacts, such as baby backboards, and weavings of the Arizona tribes. The collection of rugs and other wall hangings is impressive.

 

This is a serious, traditional museum, with almost everything lodged in glass cases. What is unfortunate about the objects’ presentations is that descriptions are set in type that is difficult to read because of its size. A majority of the museum visitors are senior citizens, and several commented they didn’t know what they were looking at because they couldn’t read the descriptions.

 

Art gallery contains Western works

 

Museum admission includes the Fulton-Hayden Art Gallery with works by well-known Western artists, including Frederic Remington. A small section of a room on the second floor contains William Fulton’s study, which was transplanted from his home in Connecticut.

 

The art gallery is wheel-chair accessible, but only the entrance to the museum is wheel-chair accessible. The gallery has a tiny elevator to take wheelchairs to the second floor.

 

The museum is closed on Mondays and major holidays.