Tuesday was Elfrida's last day, so it was her choice. We went to Tohono Chul, a desert garden a few miles from our house. The spring flowers where just starting to bloom. April is probably the best month, we should come back for sure.
We walked through the garden and the desert trail, and then had lunch in the Tea Room.
After, we when back to the house to finish packing.
Ian stayed to work on his essay, while I drove Elfrida up to PHX. We took the scenic route up HWY 79 to Florence, then 187/287/387 to meet I-10 about 20 minutes from the airport. This is a very interesting route although I wouldn't recommend it after dark - cannot see the scenery, and apparently lots of animals on the road.
There is an interesting butte near Hwy 287 that looks like the core of an old volcano. The nearby town is called Magma. I think these facts might somehow be related.
Wednesday was a fine sunny morning. We started our overnight trip into Southeast Arizona. We took I-10 to scenic Highway 83, through Sonoita, to the Kartchner Cavern State Park. Most caves lose their humidity when opened to the public, causing the cave to stop growing and the ecology inside to collapse. This is an amazing living cave complex that took 8 years to prepare for opening; you go through airlocks to control humidity, get misted to suppress lint and dander; can only touch the designated seats and steel handrails, which are cleaned nightly, etc. See the great story about its discovery at http://azstateparks.com/parks/kaca/history.html
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| The Big Room |
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| Soda Straw stalactites - some grow sideways for unclear reasons |
Next stop was the town of Tombstone, AZ. Silver created the town; the infamous gunfight at the OK corral kept it alive.
True fact: The place was originally called Goose Flats. When the miner John Schaiffler told his friend in Bisbee he was going to try prospecting in Goose Flats, his friend told him that the only thing he would ever find there would be his tombstone. After striking it rich and becoming the big man in boomtown, he renamed it Tombstone.
If he hadn't, would anyone today be interested in the shootout at Goose Flats?
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| The main street |
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| A grave marker at the Boot Hill cemetery - too good to be true, methinks |
After an ice cream and watching a re-enactment of the shootout at the site of the original OK Corral, we headed off to Douglas, AZ for a night in the Hotel Gadsden, once the most opulent hotel between San Francisco and the east coast.
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This photo of Gadsden Hotel is courtesy of TripAdvisor
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