A week in the Tombstone desert

I have spent this past week boondocking not far out of Tombstone, Arizona. Even though I have been in this area multiple times in recent years, it has become something of a tradition to pop in here for at least one week when I am in Southern Arizona.

This year I had decided to hit a couple of the landmarks that I had missed in years past. Most prominent was my failure to visit the Coronado National Memorial which commemorates the first organized expedition into the Southwest by conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado. It was a quick visit to the park, stopping into the Visitor’s Center and driving up to the Montezuma Pass Overlook where there is one heck-of-a view…

I was going to hike into the Coronado Cave but the park map gave me the wrong place to start the hike and I was no longer in the mood to drive back to it’s proper location. Next time…

I woke early each of the next few days just to revisit some of the places I had visited in the recent past. Mainly these were just good reasons to wake up well before my work day and get outside. On one morning I hiked out to Brunckow’s Cabin which is purported to be the “bloodiest cabin in Arizona history”.

On another morning Moose and I adventured out to the ghost town of Charleston, AZ located on the west bank of the San Pedro River. I had visited here back in 2013, but even so I found a new area of the town that I had not explored before. Moose enjoyed the roughly 2 mile hike more than you could imagine. He has grown so much in the past year and a half, venturing further from me when off-leash then I am comfortable with. To prove his maturity he returns when I whistle each time with that big puppy  smile.

And as a grand finale, on the final night camping here I ventured into Tombstone, which I had visited in the past, for a night on the town. This means I had the choice of one of two bars open past sunset as the entire tourist town shutters up pretty early. I ate a mediocre burger at the Crystal Palace Saloon where karaoke was the entertainment choice of the night. It was sad unfortunately, with the dozen or so patrons just not making much of a “party” in the huge dining area. So I chose to mosey on over to Big Nose Kate’s Saloon which had a live band, scantily dressed waitresses (so did Crystal Palace to be honest) and a lot bigger crowd. A few drinks – and songs – later my night, and time in the Tombstone area, was complete.