Tombstone, Arizona to Bisbee.
Wow… it’s September, and this is Labor Day weekend, marking the unofficial end of the summer (boo). I’ve been gone a little over 5 weeks (it feels like a whole lot longer), and have traveled about 6,500 miles so far.
Before leaving Yuma, I headed back to the historic downtown area for a look in the daylight. Despite it’s old west credentials, Yuma doesn’t seem to be a town that preserves or plays on much of that past, and this downtown street seems the only vestige of the old west history of Yuma.
I headed out of Yuma, but not to Sedona… I changed my mind, and decided to go to Tombstone and Bisbee, as it made more sense travel-wise. I’m glad I did.
It was a good day, and I enjoyed the scenery heading east from Yuma to Tombstone, a little over 300 miles, and I enjoyed, in different ways, both Tombstone and Bisbee where I am at the moment. The scenery along route 8 was desolate, but again spectacular of course, heading through and across the Sonoran desert.
As I passed through Tucson and neared Tombstone, I could picture how things must have been in these harsh desert conditions back then, all the more amazing because after silver was discovered in Tombstone, the town became a thriving small and wealthy metropolis, with theaters, classy hotels, and opera house, bowling alleys, and even an oyster bar, with electricity and telephones in their early development. Who’da thunk it?
And then I arrived. After the silver rush ended, and massive amounts of silver had been extracted from the area, the town became a near ghost town, revised today pretty much as a tourist attraction. Unlike Yuma, Tombstone seems to be nothing but a tourist attraction, with the dusty main tourist streets, but also poorly paved and dusty back and residential streets. There isn’t too much here… but I was glad to be here.
And then it was time for the gunfight at the OK Corral. There were actual several enactments of this all over town around the same time, so I could hear gunshots all over the place. The gunfight actually took place on Fremont Street, just outside of the OK Corral, and the “gunfight” I saw was actually close to the original site.
And then off to Bisbee, a fabulous place, it turns out, about 25 miles, along some cloudy roads, with lightning in the massive clouds off in the distance. It had been another hot day, with over 100 degree weather at times (especially in the Sonoran desert), but started cooling off in Tombstone, and even rained a little.
Just before I drove into Bisbee, I took a little detour into Tombstone Canyon in the Mule mountains. Great views and some very rugged (and I do eman rugged) off roads up here, at over 6,000 feet, and the Continental Divide, to boot.
And then into the very wonderful town of Bisbee, where I spent the the night at the Bisbee Inn, also known as the La More Hotel, a hip little joint, much like the town of Bisbee itself, which is excellent. Bisbee is perhaps the best place, or certainly among the best, I’ve been on this trip, and I’ve been to some pretty good places. It may not be exactly one of a kind, but it’s close.
The town is surrounded by and tucked into the Mule mountains, and is filled with windy and twisty, uphill and downhill, streets, with old Victorian buildings and houses along the streets and tucked into the hills that surround and make up the town. The views are endlessly lovely, and the streets are filled with interesting stores, restaurants, and bars, and, in the evening, music, with corners, alleys, and steps leading up and down all over the place, with a mix of architecture.
Its twisty turns, streets, and alleys remind me of some English seaside towns, and even parts of London itself, with its hidden alleyways, as well as Ellicott City in Maryland, another great town with a similar feel. Except Bisbee stands in these vast mountains, surrounded with stunning views and homes dotted in the hills.
The town is a funkly, hip, interesting, young, eccentric place, good for young and aging hippies alike, and and a place I’d love to have stayed and worked for a while way back when. This is a town that Bev would most definitely have loved also. It sits in the middle of nowhere, although once upon a time it was well populated and wealthy, due to silver in the hills, and mining continued into the late 70s. Despite the difficulty getting here back then (which is why they built the Mule Pass tunnel in 1958), it was the seat of Cochise County for a while, before handing that title to Tombstone.
I stayed at the La More hotel, an old joint but in good shape and socially friendly. It is old, like the crappy Holly Suites Inn I stayed at in Holly, Colorado (where I found dried dog poop in my room), but unlike that place which was decrepit and in serious disrepair, the La More is well-kept, lively, social, and hip, like the town. It is on a one car-width lane (OK Road), going uphill, and parking is in town (unless you’re lucky and find a place on the narrow road), with free parking everywhere, with an uphill walk from the car to the hotel.
It’s a nice little hotel, but with no amenities, other than a sink, in the room, with communal toilets and showers in the hall, and no TV either, and a social gathering room downstairs by the lobby.
The La More is so hip, they even give you reasons not to stay here. 😊
Once I settled into my room (which didn’t take long), I happily headed into town, first walking up OK Road, where the hotel was located, which was a nice uphill walk with good views of the town below and homes nestled in the mountains. As I walked around town, dusk started to descend, offering a lovely accent to great and interesting views.
Then dusk started to settle, edging into the evening over Bisbee. As this is Labor Day weekend, the streets were especially busy for a Sunday evening (so I was told), with music everywhere, and I walked in and out of some interesting stores.
As dusk and evening come on, the streets of Bisbee seem even more welcoming, inviting, and magical.
