Arizona, part one (March 2019)

Written by ceddammit

Hey! It’s that time of the week! Throwback Thursday – when I finally get around to sharing photos from not-too-recent trips. This week: part one of my March 2019 trip across Arizona. This state has a wealth of amazing scenery! It was definitely one of my favorite trips thus far, and I took so many pictures that I’ll probably split this trip into four separate posts.

For the first few days of this trip, I was shown around southeastern Arizona by a pair of old friends who are familiar with the area. They picked me up at the Phoenix (FEE-nicks) airport, and drove me to Tucson (TOO-sawn). As we drove across this flat expanse of desert, a big damn rock appeared right next to the Interstate. This big damn rock is Picacho Peak, the centerpiece of the very popular Picacho Peak State Park. (Not to be confused with Pokemon Prefecture Park’s Pikachu Peak – Japan’s most alliterative tourist attraction.) We stopped and did a little bit of impromptu hiking. Here’s some of what we saw…

View of Picacho Peak from parking area
Another view of Picacho Peak
View from Picacho Peak, looking at Newman Peak
View from the big damn rock, looking at a little damn rock
The arms of the saguaro cactus may be tiny and few…
…or huge and numerous.

After spending a night in Tucson, we wandered down to the town of Tombstone (TOOM-stoan) – probably the most notorious town of the Old West, site of the fabled shootout at the OK Corral. I didn’t take any pictures at Tombstone; just enjoyed the history. There’s quite a bit to see and/or do here, including the old county courthouse, which is a museum these days. Inside this museum, I learned (among other things) that Tombstone was the county seat until the mid-1930’s, when the county government was moved to the town of Bisbee. Now I knew nothing about Bisbee at this point, but my friends had already planned on taking me there for our next overnight stay. So now I’m thinking…if they moved the county seat…then they probably would have built a new county courthouse at the new location…and it was the 1930’s…so what sort of architecture might it have…? I began to get my hopes up.

We got into Bisbee that evening and checked into a quaint historic hotel (The Inn at Castle Rock) that I really should have photographed, but didn’t. I awoke early the next morning, went for a stroll, and found exactly what I had hoped to find…a gorgeous Art Deco courthouse!

Cochise County Courthouse in Bisbee, Arizona
Art deco lamp post outside Cochise County Courthouse in Bisbee, Arizona
Cochise County Courthouse in Bisbee, Arizona
Detail of Cochise County Courthouse in Bisbee, Arizona
Detail of Cochise County Courthouse in Bisbee, Arizona
Note the statue under the street light.
A copper statue…
…honoring copper miners. Virile ones, at that.

This courthouse still has its art deco goodness on the inside too, but they don’t allow flash photography. Sadly, I had only brought my Old Cheap-n-Crappy(TM) camera, which is useless indoors without a flash. So, now that we’ve seen the statue honoring copper miners, let’s see where they worked…

Abandoned open pit copper mine (Bisbee, Arizona)
Looking straight down into the pit
Industrial structure next to abandoned copper mine (Bisbee, Arizona)
The long and winding road that leads to mine floor

Having seen where the copper miners worked, now let’s see where they lived…

From the look of that water “tower”, I wouldn’t wanna live below it.

Back in Tucson, we headed over Gates Pass…

Gates Pass, just southwest of Tucson, Arizona

…to the Arizona – Sonora Desert Museum, which is sort of a combination botanical garden / zoo, focusing on plants and animals native to the Sonoran Desert. This is a very informative place! Among other things, I learned that the Mexican hognose snake will puke on itself in an attempt to deter predators. I did not get pictures of this, but I did get pictures of other things around the zoo / gardens…

Looking down into Peccary Pit, or maybe Javelina Javen.
Juvenile saguaros
Mature saguaros
In case ya didn’t know, saguaros are huge! They are the tree of cactus.
No really! Saguaros even have a trunk on the inside. Here’s a bundle of ’em.
I think these are known as teddy bear cholla (CHOY-uh).
That thing in the back appears to be a yucca supernova.

The following day, after having some yummy Sonoran Hot Dogs for lunch, it was time for me to strike out on my own. The remainder of this trip was done solo. Come back next week for part two!

Leave a comment