The Ups and Downs of I-17 North

Up early so we could get on the road before the predicted rains come this way. I was out the door to walk Sandy without looking at the eastern sky.  When I finally did notice the beautiful sunrise, I tried to hurry her to get my camera.  This was the picture I finally took but five minutes before this was taken, it was even more beautiful but, I think this is pretty as well.  We were too tired to load the car last night so that had to be done.  Finally, at 8:00 a.m. we pulled out of our campsite.  This is the earliest we have gotten on the road this whole trip.

Palm trees in Phoenix.

More saguaro.

At Phoenix we left I-25 and got on I-17. Not only did the interstate number change, but the road began to climb in elevation.

We did not expect the mountains and elevation change.  The motorhome plugged along in the slow right lane.  Sometimes we were going so slow that Carol had to turn on the flashers.  At times, I felt we weren't going to make it up but we always did.  Following up comes down and that was almost as bad.  Carol would shift down, flashers would go on and we would plug along in the slow right lane.  After one long up and down, there was a rest area.  We stopped to give us and the motorhome a break.  This picture and the one below was taken from an overlook at that rest area.

The picture shows the southbound lane.  Notice that all the cars are struggling just like we had.  We were so glad to finally reach the 6,000 feet altitude.  At that point we drove through forests and along the top of the mountains.  We made it to Flagstaff KOA a little after 2:00 p.m.  We are in site #183.  The KOA sits on a mountain and our site is in the last row at the top of the camp.  We don't like this spot.  We are close to both neighbors and it is not level so we had to work at getting it level.  As Carol says, "we are only here for three nights and then we move on"  That is true but we have reservations at this same KOA in two weeks when we head for California.  We are going to look at other sites and request a better site our next visit..  The campground is nearly full and this is a Sunday.  One positive is that it sits away from the interstate so no truck/car sounds.  It did rain some.  After we finally got set up, I made supper and then did laundry.  It is cool. We have shut most of the windows and may have to use extra blankets tonight.  That makes for a good night sleep!

Chiricahua National Monument

Another beautiful day greeted us this morning.  Our plans for the day included visiting Chiricahua National Monument and Tombstone. 

The drive to Chiricahua National Monument was beautiful.

These are the Chiricahua Mountains where the Apache Tribe lived with their leaders Geronimo and Chochise.  In 1886 after years of defending these mountains from the army and and the overwhelming tide of emigrants and miners, the Apaches surrendered and were relocated.

In 1888 Swedish immigrants Neil and Emma Erickson settled in the Bonita Valley in these mountains.  They called their ranch Faraway Ranch and had three children.  The last child, daughter Lillian lived in this house until 1975 and the land and house and its contents were sold to the National Park Service.    In 1888 only a small log cabin occupied this spot, but over the years, that cabin was enlarged to this current home.

I think this window is beautiful.

 

This picture and following are from the Monument.  The Erickson's were instrumental in getting the government to set aside this land as a park.  They called it Wonderland of Rocks.

We spent about three hours at the park.  This was taken on the road as we were driving to Bisbee.  

We drove from the Monument to within one mile of the U.S. and Mexican border.  This is a picture of the mountains in Mexico.  We saw two more check points, one we did not go through and the other we did.  

This was taken at Bisbee.

This is the Lavender Pit copper mine.  Open-pit mining at Bisbee in 1917 and ended in 1974.  This pit is 4,000 feet wide, 5,000 feet long and 850 feet deep.

From Bisbee we drove to Tombstone.  This is the view from the road.

This is the main street of Tombstone.  It contains the original buildings from the 1880's but now they are occupied by shops geared toward the tourist shopper. Two or three times a day the "Gunfight at the OK Corral" is reenacted.  We missed that reenacted.  On the way into town we were passed by a car with the license plate of "W Earp."  As we were walking the street we saw a man in black western attire and thought he must play the part of Wyatt Earp.  

Tombstone Court House which is a State Historic Site.

A final sunset in this part of Arizona.  Tomorrow we head north to Flagstaff.  We hope to be up early and on the road to avoid the forecasted rains and winds from Hurricane Rosa.  We hope this is one time the weather casters are wrong.

We have especially enjoyed driving the back roads off the interstate.  Today we saw fields of corn, cotton, and orchards of what we think were pistachios and pecans.  Past vacations in this part of Arizona we drove the interstate to the parks we wanted to visit and never experienced the land away from the interstate.