Читать книгу RoadTrip America Arizona & New Mexico: 25 Scenic Side Trips - Rick Quinn - Страница 10

Scenic Side Trip 5

Willcox to Benson

via Fort Bowie, Chiricahua National Monument, Douglas, Bisbee, and Tombstone

211 miles, 5 hours 45 minutes for drive time, more for optional routes, stops, and sightseeing

A Copper Queen trumps a Silver King in the town too tough to die

From Willcox to Benson on Interstate 10 is a distance of just 35 miles: a short, flat stretch that can be easily driven in half an hour. If you’re not in too much of a hurry, consider this scenic alternative. It will cost you 150 extra miles, and anywhere from 5 hours to a full extra day, depending on how much time you spend enjoying the stops along the way.

If you’ve already driven some of the other routes in this book, this one will be a change of pace. There isn’t a single white-knuckle mountain road, just gentle, mostly empty highways, and the total distance is only about 200 miles. There’s wonderful scenery, especially the amazing “hoodoos” in Chiricahua National Monument, but the primary attractions this time around are historical, with the vast, open countryside serving as context. Hike to the ruins of Fort Bowie, tour an underground copper mine, or watch a gunfight at the O.K. Corral. This is the Old West at its best, with some good fun for the whole family.

The Chiricahuas

Leaving Willcox, take the first exit off Interstate 10, Haskell Avenue, and follow it 4.5 miles to East Maley Street. This is the beginning of AZ 186, which will lead you out of Willcox to the southeast. The mountains looming in the distance are the Chiricahuas, so called because they were the territory of the Chiricahua Apaches. This rugged range is part of southern Arizona’s archipelago of “Sky Islands,” isolated peaks that support remarkably diverse ecosystems (see sidebar, “Sky Islands”). Surrounded by semiarid desert for miles in every direction, the Chiricahuas have pine forests in their upper reaches and are home to a wide range of wildlife, including mountain lions, ocelots, bears, and even the occasional jaguar.

Back in the frontier days, the latter half of the 1800s, this area was the scene of some of the most vicious fighting in the Indian Wars. The Apaches were the last holdouts against western expansion, and they didn’t let go easily. The two best-remembered warriors of that era, Cochise and Geronimo, were both Chiricahua Apaches, and both spent much of their lives in these mountains.

AZ 186 is a purpose-built highway with a single destination, the Chiricahua National Monument, but you can also see the Fort Bowie National Historic Site if you don’t mind a slight detour along the way. Fort Bowie was the headquarters of the Army garrison charged with bringing the renegade Apaches to heel. The fort was well provisioned, well manned, and extremely well armed. Even so, it took the Army more than 20 years to accomplish its mission—strong testament to the cunning and persistence of the Apaches. Armies are adept at fighting other armies. But when the enemy is truly dug in, so at home they’re like part of the landscape? That’s another kind of fight altogether, and it was a tough one, for both sides.

To see the old fort, keep a sharp eye out for Mogul Road, about 20 miles out of Willcox. Turn left (east), and follow that unpaved road for about 7 miles, until it joins Apache Pass Road, where you’ll find the parking area for Fort Bowie. The hike to the fort from here is about 3 miles round-trip and is rated moderate; interpretive signs will guide you. The fort, which was abandoned in 1894, is a fascinating ruin of crumbling adobe walls and foundations spread over a large area. Also on the site are a small museum and the ruins of the Butterfield Stage Coach stop, the target of many Apache attacks and the site of several bloody battles. As you hike back out through Apache Pass, imagine how it must have felt for the young soldiers who were stationed here 150 years ago. They were in forbidding terrain, surrounded by hostile Indians, and if there was trouble they couldn’t handle, the closest reinforcements were too far away to save them.

The Mexican BorderIn the old days (not so very long ago), a day trip to a Mexican border town was no more complicated than a trip to the mall, and it had the same essential purpose: shopping! Bargains were everywhere—everything from kitschy souvenirs to handcrafted furniture and fine jewelry—and all the prices were negotiable. Throw in some mariachi music and cheap tequila and you had a sure-fire recipe for a good time. For decades, U.S. travelers crossed over the border by the millions each year.Sadly, times have changed. Between heightened security concerns on the American side of the border, and the rise of drug cartels on the Mexican side of the border, that carefree, fiesta, anything-goes atmosphere has been dampened. For a time, rival drug gangs and the Mexican military fought for control of the border country, and in cities like Juarez the violence was horrific. The immediate crisis has abated, but the U.S. Department of State continues to advise citizens to “defer non-essential travel” to the Mexican border states, to drive only on the main roads, and not to travel at night.Should you make that trip across the border? That’s up to you. Cautious travelers may wish to pass up the opportunity. Others may note that in Agua Prieta and Nogales, the two principal border towns accessible from Arizona, tourists have never been targets of cartel violence, not even during the worst of the troubles, and the border towns do have their charms. For a day trip, all you need is a valid passport. To keep things simple, leave your vehicle in a secure lot on the U.S. side of the border and walk across; that will speed your crossing, in both directions. (If you do drive across, be aware that travel by car in Mexico, anywhere beyond the border area, requires special permits, tourist cards, and Mexican auto insurance). If you do any shopping, purchases up to $800 per person are duty free; and patience is a virtue. The customs lines are often very slow.

Leaving the Fort Bowie parking area, head back west on Apache Pass Road; at the intersection with Mogul Road, stay left, and keep going until you rejoin AZ 186, just a bit south of where you left it. After 8.6 miles, AZ 186 intersects AZ 181. Turn left (east), and follow the signs into Chiricahua National Monument. The attraction here is the remarkable terrain: a wonderland of eroded pillars and spires called hoodoos, created by violent geological activity some 27 million years ago. Many of the hoodoos are capped by seemingly balanced rocks that look like they might come tumbling down at any moment. Bonita Canyon Scenic Drive takes in many of the monument’s most interesting features along its 8-mile paved route. (Note that the road is 16 miles round-trip; it is not a “loop” road as some guides suggest.) There are many pullouts and access to trailheads for those who want to explore the park’s interior more fully. The 12,000-acre wilderness area, which has been protected since 1924, was sacred to the Apache people, who called it “the land of standing-up rocks.”

Chiricahua National Monument

Chiricahuas Highlights

Fort Bowie National Historic Site3500 S. Apache Pass Road, Bowie, AZ 85605(520) 847-2500nps.gov/foboChiricahua National MonumentE. Bonita Canyon Road, Willcox, AZ 85643(520) 824-3560nps.gov/chir

Douglas and Bisbee

Leaving Chiricahua National Monument, follow AZ 181 out of the park. Stay on it as it turns south, and then west, before terminating at US 191 in the small farming community of Sunizona. Bear left, and drive due south on US 191 about 40 miles, through Elfrida and McNeal, until you come to the town of Douglas, on the Mexican border. Douglas was founded in 1902 as the smelter town for the copper mines at Bisbee. In the early 1980s, as the price of copper plummeted worldwide, a bitter mineworkers strike broke out, disrupting production in Bisbee’s Lavender Pit for nearly three years. That one-two punch was a knockout. The mines in Bisbee were closed, and with them the two smelters in Douglas.

Despite that blow to the local economy, Douglas still prospers, largely because of its proximity to Mexico. While you’re here, you might consider a visit to Agua Prieta, just over the border in the Mexican state of Sonora. This city of 80,000, while much bigger than neighboring Douglas, has a small-town feel and the unmistakable ambience of Old Mexico, and it is considered one of the safest of the Mexican border towns. There are bargains to be had in the shops, not to mention duty-free tequila (see sidebar “Mexican Border”).

Lobby with Tiffany, stained glass, Gadsden Hotel, Douglas, Arizona

While in Douglas, stop in at the Gadsden Hotel, one of 17 old Douglas buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and certainly the most opulent. Built in 1907, and rebuilt in 1929 after an extensive fire, the Gadsden is the ultimate in Old World luxury. The lobby features a massive white Italian marble staircase (the only part of the original hotel to survive the fire), as well as four marble columns trimmed with 14-karat-gold leaf. Above the staircase, an exquisite 42-foot Tiffany stained-glass mural depicts a Southwest scene. Douglas may seem an odd location for such a display of elegance, but in its heyday, the Gadsden was a meeting place for wealthy ranchers, mine executives, and international businessmen. In fact, in 1928, Douglas opened the nation’s first international airport (literally international, because the runway was bisected by the border). Douglas was an especially popular destination during Prohibition, because travelers could soak up the Arizona sunshine and then quench their thirst with some Mexican moonshine. It’s said that a tunnel from the basement of the hotel was used to keep guests surreptitiously supplied with their favorite beverages.

Bisbee, Arizona

Leaving Douglas, take AZ 80 west and then north into the Mule Mountains, where you’ll find the charming old mining town of Bisbee. More than any other town in Arizona, Bisbee retains its 19th-century frontier ambience. So many of the old buildings have been restored and refurbished that it’s almost like a movie set, its brightly painted storefronts climbing the sides of Tombstone Canyon, Moon Canyon, Miller Hill, and Brewery Gulch—all part of the original townsite laid out in 1880. The terrain is so steep in some places that Bisbee High School has a ground-floor entrance on each of its four levels.

Bisbee hung on as a copper town until the mid-20th century, but when the mines shut down, real estate values plummeted. The housing crash attracted a new wave of residents: artists, craftsmen, and counterculture types seeking camaraderie and a cheap place to live. Bisbee became nationally known as the “Best Historic Small Town in America,” among other accolades, prompting yet another influx, this time of retirees and investors, who took the restoring and refurbishing to a whole new level.

Today, Bisbee is beautiful to look at, and a very cool place to visit. You can spend a pleasant afternoon browsing in the shops and galleries, sampling the saloons in Brewery Gulch, and walking along the many public staircases and pedestrian walkways that were built in the 1930s, as a New Deal project of the Works Progress Administration. A favorite place to stay is the beautifully restored Copper Queen Hotel, which dates back to 1902. The small but quite interesting Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum is just across from the hotel. Serious mining enthusiasts can take a tour of the inactive Queen Mine outside town, where a small train takes visitors 1,500 feet into the underground tunnels.

Douglas and Bisbee Highlights

The Gadsden Hotel1046 G Ave., Douglas, AZ 85607(520) 364-4481thegadsdenhotel.comCopper Queen Hotel11 Howell Ave., Bisbee, AZ 85603(520) 432-2216copperqueen.comBisbee Mining & Historical Museum5 Copper Queen Plaza, Bisbee, AZ 85603(520) 432-7071bisbeemuseum.orgBisbee Queen Mine Tours478 Dart Road, Bisbee, AZ 85603(520) 432-2071queenminetour.com

Tombstone

Leaving Bisbee, head north on AZ 80. After about 23 miles, you’ll roll up on Tombstone, “The Town Too Tough to Die.” This place is an American original, a rough-and-tumble silver mining camp, founded in 1879, one of the last of the Wild West boomtowns. Tombstone was the stomping ground of Wyatt Earp and his brothers, their pal Doc Holliday, and Doc’s gal, Big Nose Kate, as well as the gang of no-good cattle rustlers that called themselves The Cowboys—Ike and Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers. These were the principals in the infamous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral; a bloody, 30-second shootout in the streets of Tombstone that still reverberates after more than 135 years. That brief portion of Tombstone’s history has been immortalized time and again in movies and on television, and is as much a part of American popular history as Paul Revere’s Ride or Custer’s Last Stand.

The old part of Tombstone is very walkable, and visitors are quickly immersed in its story. Actors in period costumes hang around the downtown area wearing six-shooters, long coats, and dusty boots. In the Crystal Palace Saloon, you’ll be greeted by comely dance-hall girls in bustiers and fishnet stockings. A re-enactment of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is staged daily, on Allen Street; the first show starts at noon. The original town newspaper, The Tombstone Epitaph (“Every Tombstone needs an Epitaph”), is still in operation; you can tour its offices and purchase souvenir editions. The Tombstone Courthouse is now a museum and historical park presenting many fascinating exhibits, including a set of well-used gallows out back of the building. The Bird Cage Theatre, once billed as “the wildest and wickedest night spot between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast,” is open for tours, including a nightly ghost tour whose participants seek contact from the wandering spirits of the many unfortunates who departed this world violently during Tombstone’s heyday.

OK Corral, Tombstone, Arizona

Today Tombstone is a caricature of its former self, but in a good way. All that stagecraft provides a window into a complicated historical event (it wasn’t all good guys and bad guys) in the very place where the whole thing happened, and with enough context to make it seem real. That’s a good trick, and if you like that sort of thing, it really is great fun.

“Here Lies Lester Moore…,” Boot Hill Grave Yard, Tombstone, Arizona

On your way out of town, stop by Boot Hill, the Tombstone graveyard from the earliest days of the town. It’s a real graveyard, deserving of dignity and respect, but some of the headstones are pretty wacky, like this one: Here lies George Johnson, hanged by mistake, 1882; He was right, we was wrong, but we strung him up, and now he’s gone. There are many others in a similar vein, more than 250 marked graves in all, all dating between 1878 and 1884. A short distance farther up the highway, atop a hill with a view of the distant Dragoon Mountains, is the Landmark Lookout Lodge, a nice hotel with all the essential amenities.

Tombstone Highlights
Crystal Palace Saloon436 E. Allen St., Tombstone, AZ 85638(520) 457-3611crystalpalacesaloon.comGunfight at the O.K. Corralok-corral.com	Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park223 E. Toughnut St., Tombstone, AZ 85638(520) 457-3311Bird Cage Theatre535 E. Allen St., Tombstone, AZ 85638(520) 457-3421tombstonebirdcage.com	Boot Hill Graveyard408 AZ 80, Tombstone, AZ 85638(520) 457-3300Landmark Lookout Lodge781 AZ 80, Tombstone, AZ 85638(520) 457-2223lookoutlodgeaz.com

St. David and Benson

Leaving Tombstone, continue on AZ 80. After about 16 miles you’ll pass through the small community of St. David, an oasis of green trees along the banks of the San Pedro River. There’s an unusual RV park here, on the grounds of the Holy Trinity Monastery, a Christian retreat founded in 1974 that is now home to a small community of Benedictine monks. Visitors are welcome on the grounds, as well as in the chapel, the library, museum, thrift shop, and bookstore. Most of the guests in the RV park are regulars who stay through the winter and volunteer their labor on the monastery grounds and in the adjacent pecan orchard; they are called the “Holy Hobos.” A 70-foot-tall Celtic cross commemorating the Irish Famine is just visible from the highway. Feel free to pull in if you’d like to take a closer look at it.

Seven miles beyond St. David you’ll reach the town of Benson and the intersection with I-10 that marks the end of this route.

70-foot-tall Celtic cross, Holy Trinity Monastery, St. David, Arizona

Benson and Beyond

If you’re in a hurry to get to Tucson, head west on 1-10 and you’ll be there in less than 45 minutes. If you’ve got some time and you’d like to see a bit more of this fascinating border region, consider Scenic Side Trip 6, which will take you from Benson to Tucson by way of a series of stupendously beautiful roads through the Huachuca Mountains.

St. David Highlights

Holy Trinity Monastery (and Rv Park)1605 S. St. Mary’s Way, St. David, AZ 85630(520) 720-4642holytrinitymonastery.org