Postmarked Tombstone

The one thing Jeff wanted to do on this trip was go into a mine... so we were up and out of Tuscon before the sun heading down Highway 80 to Tombstone.

You reach Boothill Graveyard before you reach the town - its free to walk through the graveyard but you are forced through a gift shop on your way in and out. In the graveyard head to the left for some old tombs with great rhyming epitaphs. Unfortunately, we were in such a hurry we forgot to charge the camera the night before - so no pictures of the "We're open! We know your dying to get in" sign on the gift shop door. This stop will take you 10min tops - it took us 5min because who wants to be wandering in a graveyard when its freezing.

Just down the road is Tombstone. The night before my friend told us about its cute and touristy attractions - unfortunately we arrived before anything was open. We parked and walked down the boardwalk, snapped a picture of the OK Corral with the cell phone and got back in the car and headed toward Bisbee.

We arrived in Bisbee just in time to make the 9am Queen Mine Tour. As it was the first week of January, we were the only people on the tour. So after being outfitted in hats, slickers and mining lights we were taken by train down into the mine. You stop a few times and get a chance to explore, with your guide, parts of the mine. Our tour guide was fantastic - a former mine worker himself he was able to tell us stories of both the Queen Mine and the open pit Lavender Mine located right next door. The tour lasts about an hour and is appropriate for all ages as long as they can make it up 40 or so stairs. Five tours are given daily and in the summer reservations are recommended and it costs $13.

After the tour head over to The Copper Queen Hotel for breakfast. Don't search around town for something else, because in the winter you won't find anyone else serving breakfast and if you look around for too long you'll miss breakfast time! The Bisbee breakfast is the real winner - eggs, hasbrowns, toast and bacon or ham. Keep a menu and read about the three ghosts that have taken up residence in the hotel while your breakfast is prepared.

As you leave town pull into the Lavender Pit Mine "scenic view" to take in the vastness of the Lavender Pit mine. Luckily we were able to charge the camera in the car - because you don't want to miss capturing the memories of your family donned in parkas looking for the surface!

Saguaro National Park

After leaving Biosphere 2 we headed across Tuscon to Saguaro National Park. I had lots of questions about the Giant Saguaro and figured the National Park was a good place to start.

The Giant Saguaro were almost brought to extinction by cattle ranching and invasive plant species. In fact the park is split into two parts because they feared preserving just one forest wouldn't be enough. They are much more pervasive now, thanks to protective state laws, but the state still requires each Giant Saguaro sold to be registered with the state.

From the moment you enter the park you are treated to sweeping vistas of Saguaro forest. When we visited in early January it was cold and getting dark so we did not venture down any of paths into the forest. We did stop into the visitors center where a Ranger handed us a book with all the facts about the Giant Saguaro that we could browse at our leisure. The movie focuses more on the native cultures that arose around the Saguaro forest, so if you want to learn about these giants ask the ranger for the Saguaro Binder.

In the wild the Giant Saguaro don't grow their first arm until they are between 80-100 years old, but after that can grow a new arm every few years. The bands in their trunks are evidence of frosts - which are the Giant Saguaro's greatest enemy. These cactus live to be about 200 years old, and then begin to decay leaving only their rigid interior structure behind. The visitors center has some wonderful examples of decaying cactus.

Each side of the park has a scenic driving tour you can take. We had just enough daylight to take the scenic drive on the west side of the park. The ranger told us it was passable to all vehicles, and the dirt road proved passable but very bumpy , so take it slow. We stopped a few times to venture out into the forest on short (.5 mile) walks to see other types of cactus and some petroglyphs.

With the sun setting, we headed back across town for 6pm Mass at Saint Francis de Sales and then back into downtown for dinner with a friend at El Charro Cafe in downtown. Turns out El Charro is the nation's oldest Mexican restaurant in continuous operation by the same family. Gourmet magazine named it one of the 21 legendary American restaurants you must visit. We found the food and service to be excellent. It was the perfect end to our busy Arizona day.

Biosphere 2

Biosphere 2 is out in the middle of nowhere Arizona - about 1 hour outside of Tuscon - but is worth the visit.
I guess I expected an actual sphere, but what you see in the picture is the glass enclosed mini-earth. The glass pyramid structure is home to the climatically different eco-zones. The white structure in the middle was the home to the "biospherians" for the two years they lived in the enclosure. The dome structure to the far right is one of the buildings two "lungs" that maintained consistent pressure in the whole structure - preventing it from collapsing in on itself.

The Biosphere is currently being used by the University of Arizona for research, but at the time of occupation had livestock, rice patties and even a Caribbean ocean. As you walk from zone to zone you won't believe that this was built for only 150 million.

The Public Guided Tour is a comprehensive, 45 min walking tour. It includes a video about the biosphere and its inhabitants, both plant and animal, and then a compound walk through. After the tour you can walk through the living quarters -which are 90's fabulous and wonder how the six individuals managed to eat only what they grew for two years. There is also an underwater viewing area you can explore on your own, although since cleaning the glass is against their "natural" policy there is not very much to see. Admission is a steep $20, but they do offer a military discount (along with several other discounts.) Jeff loved the engineering portions of the tour - and we can't stop talking about the lung design. I loved hearing about the drama surrounding the biospherians - including a pizza delivery to the compound and one of the woman leaving for a medical emergency. (Don't worry she was fine!)

I really cannot put into words how cool and weird this place is. You certainly don't need to come here more then once - and its starting to fall into a bit of disrepair - but if you remember reading about this at all in your science class, have some free time and find yourself just outside Tuscon it is worth checking out. Oh! Make sure to pack your lunch because although the Biospherians may have gotten Pizza delivered there are not many food options nearby.

Here is one final picture from inside the Biosphere:

Casa Grande

There is a lot to see between Phoenix and Tuscon so we took our time and hit as many of the landmarks (and National Parks) as we could. We lost an hour heading into Arizona so our start on Sunday was a bit delayed. Jeff would also add that we had to drive nearly 2 miles out of our way so that I could have some Starbucks - I say what's 2 miles when your headed all the way to Texas!

The Casa Grade Ruins National Monument is just off the 10 between Phoenix and Tuscon. Casa Grade is a 3 story Hohokam ritual house built from caliche. You can actually see it - or more specifically the large roof they have built over it - miles before you turn into the protected land. The video in the visitors center talks about the archeological digs they have been doing in the area, but will leave you with lots of questions about Case Grade and its large roof. Heading outside to see the building will give you a sense of how enormous it really is. but the interpretive signs never seem to address the house or its origin. Just when we were about to leave confused a park volunteer asked if she could show us her favorite artifact in the small museum - a paint pot with the original pigmentation still intact. Next thing we knew she had a binder of old pictures of Casa Grade and all of our questions were answered. They are actually finding so many artifacts out here that once they dig them up they put them back and fill it in with sterile gravel for preservation - there is nowhere else to put everything.

Casa Grade is definitely worth a stop and it will take you under 30min to see everything and you get an NPS Parks Passport Stamp. Plus when you leave you can debate if you think the roof looks more like an alien spacecraft or a large picnic tent.