Tucson, Mt Lemmon and Saguaro Nat Park

Sunday, November 24
Today we said adios to Cochise County and headed up I 10 toward Tucson. We are staying at Catalina State Park which is about a dozen miles north and east of Tucson near the community of Oro Valley.

Interstate 10 heading toward Tucson.

Downtown Tucson

Entrance to Catalina State Park

Our site!

The evening glow on the Santa Catalina mountains.

Nice sunset!

Monday, November 25
Today is supposed to be the warmest day of the week so we figured we'd try to get in a road trip up to Mt Lemmon. At just over 9,000 feet we knew it would be cold up there and we'd heard they had snow last week. It turns out the weather is definitely going to turn colder and Friday they are forecasting over two feet of snow up there.

Heading toward Mount Lemmon

We quickly gain elevation.

Rugged mountains rise above the desert floor.

Some interesting rock formations along the way.

A very twisty road and oh so beautiful.

I just had to include this photo of a sign along the way. Notice it state s the distance to Banff, BC. Sorry BC, you can't have it! We'll keep it in Alberta!

We keep getting higher.

We hit the end of the road. What is all that white stuff?

A good place for a ski hill!

We stopped for lunch at the ski hill. The temp kept getting colder. Only 41F on the way down the hill. It was about 70F back in Tucson.

They were doing some prescribed burns along the road. They were burning off some underbrush fuel to help minimize the effects from any forest fire that might flare up.

At one of the pullouts we spotted this Tarantula. That makes two now we've seen this year.

I call this one 'Man and Wife'.

Balanced rocks.

What a view!

A Red Tailed Hawk was flying on the thermals.

 

Thimble Rock

After getting down the to the desert floor we headed over south to the Saguaro National Park. There are two parts to this park. One in the East and one West of Tucson. We toured the East park today.

Lots of Saguaros!

Cholla cactus. They had all types of cactus in the Park.

Some huge Saguaros. These are quite old. Likely over 150 years to grow all those arms.

A Fish Hook Barrel cactus.

Many Saguaros started life growing in the shade of these trees. Over time the Saguaro takes over.

The Gila Woodpecker makes their home on the Saguaro.

Getting anywhere in Tucson takes time. The traffic isn't too bad but the distances are long and it seems you are always trying to cross the City to get anywhere. It took about an hour to get from the Saguaro Park to the Campground by Oro Valley.

Tuesday we explore west of Tucson.
....and that was Our View From Here!

Return to Tombstone and some more Benson

Friday, November 22
The rain quit overnight and we awoke to an eerie foggy morning. In fact you couldn't much of anything so we stayed put for a while until the fog lifted late morning.

Cheryl really wanted to go back to Tombstone for another visit. Not sure what she sees in that place. :-)

She found another one!

Now she has them all lined up!! Picking out one I guess.

We had already see some of the touristy stuff like the OK Corral shootout, so we concentrated on the lesser traveled areas of the town. We did have to stop in at Big Nose Kate's for a beer and lunch though!

The town of Tombstone. A busy town.

The old fire station

Cochise County Courthouse

Hop Town was the China Town of Tombstone. This is a biker bar today.

A tourist getting his due at Big Nose Kate's.

Great country entertainer at the bar.

Must be calling for an Uber.

Lots of old mines along the road toward Sierra Vista.

Heading west from Tombstone toward Sierra Vista.

Hard to see but there is snow on the top of the mountain. Snow level was about 7500 feet.

San Pedro River after a couple of days of rain. Kind of muddy.

Saturday, November 23
This is our last full day in Benson and we had a few things to see before we leave.
North of town is a movie set called Gammon's Gulch. Unfortunately the owner has been ill and tours have been cancelled unless there is a large group. We drove out anyway and saw what we could see. We had a great chat with the fellow that acts as security for the place on behalf of the family. He had some great stories of course. The one that got my attention was about the huge rattlesnake that lives here. He also showed us his guns loaded with snake shot in case he runs into one that is less than friendly.

Road north out of Benson

Parts of the Gammon's Gulch old west townsite where many movies have been made.

Back in town we stopped at Zearing's Mercantile. Established back in the 1880's this store still has stock from the day it opened. Well, maybe not quite but it had some interesting items. We bought some trinkets and some candy.

The candy wall. No modern Snickers bars here. All old style candy sold by the piece or pound.

More candy!

Some ancient toys.

We headed back to the campground to catch up on some laundry and take a dip in the heated pool. We were nearly done the laundry when we noticed it getting pretty wet in the parking lot. Upon a little investigation it turns out the fire hydrant had been hit by someone checking in. He decided not to follow the advice of the park staff by looping around to align himself with the driveway. Instead he backs up, makes a too-sharp turn and whacks the fire hydrant with the back of his huge toy hauler. So now the park is out of water until they can fix it. Thankfully we managed to put water in our on board tank so we 're fine until we lave in the morning.

One of the cleanest laundry rooms we have seen.

Nice pool.....and heated too!

Hot tub.

Office by the pool. 

Flooded parking lot.

Caused by a broken fire hydrant. This is going to be an expensive fix!

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