Kartchner Caverns, a tour of Benson and a nice visit

Tuesday, November 19
The day started out nice but the forecast rain started about 1 PM. Yesterday I had made a reservation to take an cavern tour at Kartchner Caverns State Park. I got the early tour and was back home before the rain started.

You aren't allowed to take a camera or cell phone down into the Caverns so I don't have pictures of the underground tour.

Nice gardens at the Caverns

They had a display of some of the tools used to develop the Caverns.

The visitor entrance to the Caverns. You get to ride a tram up to the entrance.

Kartchner Caverns was discovered in 1974 by two amateur cavers, Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen. Not wanting the cave to be destroyed by treasure hunters and vandals they contacted the land owners, the Kartchners, and the group worked with the State to create the Kartchner Caverns State Park. The caves have been developed to allow visitors to access them yet preserve them for future generations.

There are various tours available to the public. The most common are the Big Room Tour and the Rotunda/Throne Room Tour. Each takes you to a different area of the caverns. I chose the Big Room Tour. Each tour is roughly an hour and a half in length and led by a Parks docent.

Inside the Visitor Center they have displays of the types of formations we saw in the caverns.

I hate to compare cavern tours and each is nature at her best. You should really visit Kartchner Caverns if you haven't. Too bad you can't take your time going through it and too bad you can't take photos.


Wednesday, November 20
We had some rain and thunderstorms overnight. It had slowed to just intermittent showers throughout the day today. We headed into downtown Benson. First up was an early lunch at Maley's Mexican Restaurant. It was a very good meal. They had some of the hottest salsa I've had at a restaurant!

Next was a stop at the Benson Visitor Center.

Lots of great displays here and a VERY good hostess that knew her stuff.

Cheryl at the controls of a locomotive. The monitor shows the view of the camera mounted on the front of the engine.

The model train that runs around the visitor center.

We even got a certificate to prove we could drive a locomotive!

Apache Powder Company products. They had a plant just outside of town.

This is called an Angel Cart. They filled this cart with nitroglycerin then rolled it down a pathway to the mixing tanks where it would be drained into the tank. I wonder if they drew straws to see who got this assignment??

Benson is a railway town so it was appropriate to have the heater from a caboose on display.

Lots of information on the Apache wars. 

Outside they had an old train 'RV'.......

......complete with slideout!

A local artist, Doug Quarles, has done a lot of work in various towns helping with beautification projects. His specialty is painting murals on walls. Benson has about 35 of his murals around town. One of the unique aspects of his paintings is that he hides pictures of small critters in his paintings. For $5 you can buy a book from the visitor center that describes each mural and the 'hidden' pictures buried in his murals. It's a fun way to spend an afternoon. We stopped at the majority of them.

Quarles would often hide little animals in his murals. There is a Canada Goose hidden in this one. I'll keep zooming in until we can find it.

Can you see it?

Now?

There it is!

There is a penguin hidden here. 

Can you see it?

There it is!

Lots of trains displayed in the various murals.

Kartchner Caverns mural.

One of his masterpieces is painted on the wall inside of the courthouse. While I was looking over the mural outside the courthouse a guard came up to me, no doubt after spotting me on their surveillance cameras. Anyway we had a nice chat about the murals and he asked if I wanted to see the one painted inside the courtroom. Well, of course I did! So in we went, through the metal detector (which beeped loudly when I went through). The guard just waved us through and in we went to the courtroom. What a beautiful painting! We were looking it over and this other fellow came out. Turns out he was the judge who proudly showed off the mural and all the hidden pictures within it. Apparently the judge allowed the artist, Doug Quarles, to paint his mural while court was in session. In fact he painted through a number of trials and depositions for nearly a month. Apparently no issues arose from the prosecution or defense!! As long as you are quiet you are allowed to visit the courtroom even while in session to take pictures of the mural. Sooooo cool!

The mural inside the courtroom. There are 36 animals and scores of hidden ones inside this mural. The judge found them all. Well, he might have missed a couple but who am I to correct a judge!

There is an eagle hidden in here as well as six ghostly trees. Can you spot them?

The original picture used to create the mural.

What a great way to spend an afternoon and learn about the town at the same time. It was still raining lightly when we got home and unfortunately not much of a sunset.

Thursday, November 21
So today was going to be a boring day of cleaning the trailer and waiting out the rain showers. When I checked our email today there was a message from Ray and Deb (Kyle's Journey) Turns out they were in Benson. So we reluctantly :-) set aside our cleaning and met them for lunch. We had a great chat and continued it over at their motor home. I think Freya (their beautiful dog) was happy to see us but likely disappointed we didn't have any cookies for her! (that's Dianne's job!)

Hopefully we'll catch up with the Kyle's in a few weeks as our schedules will again match up.

Back at our trailer I did actually get some cleaning done so the day was a great one!

.....and that was Our View From Here!