Community Forums

smlranger · 01-24-2016, 07:26 AM

We are heading to AZ and should be there by early Feb and will have about 3 weeks to visit before we have to start back East. We will be on I-10 and plan to visit Tombstone area, Tucson and whatever else might trip our switch.

What are some must-see places in that part of the state?

ronjhall · 01-24-2016, 07:42 AM

Amerind Museum is one of our favorites.
Also visit the town of Bisbee.
I am sure others will have more places. Lots to see in area.

t55watson · 01-24-2016, 07:42 AM

Bisbee. Old mining town now a lot of artsy. Find Bisbee Breakfast Club. The best breakfast in the state. Order the biscuit with your meal and a side of gravy. The biscuit is as big as a saucer.
Chiricahua Mountains if you like to hike. The most hoodoos and balanced rocks in the area. It is a national park with a small campground.
Border town of Douglas for a border and fence view experience. Yes it is safe, they even have a Walmart.
The San Pedro River at Sierra Vista. Flows North from the Mexican border and the only river in S.E AZ that doesn't have a dam in it. Visit San Pedro House.

luckyd · 01-24-2016, 07:47 AM

Tucson.....The Desert Museum, Tucson Zoo, drive up to the ski hill,
Tombstone....see the monument to the person who started Tombstone.
It is a couple of miles out of town.

Geocritter · 01-24-2016, 08:34 AM

I’m wintering in the Sierra Vista area for the second time and love it here!

Things to do:

Bisbee, incorporated 1880, is worth seeing, pull off and look down into the huge open pit copper mine south of town. Lots of art and antique shops. Take a hike around Bisbee if you’re in decent shape, it becomes pretty vertical just off the main drag. They also have mine tours through some of the old shaft mines.

I visited the Chiricahua National Park last week and was told it’d be closed for repairs soon. Since the park is literally in the middle of nowhere you should call first. If it’s open it’s definitely worth visiting.

Pima Air & Space Museum is incredible; they also offer a tour of the adjoining aircraft “boneyard”.

South of Tucson is a former deactivated nuclear missile site that offers tours.

The Saguaro National Park in Tucson is well worth visiting.

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson is very popular and worth visiting.

The Old Tucson film set located adjacent to and west of Tucson is a film set where many early westerns were filmed.

Tombstone to me is very touristy but when I finally visited the town (got out of my car) I enjoyed myself. My daughter had dropped by for a visit and wanted to check it out. I believe there’s a mine tour in Tombstone as well.

Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista is an active US Army base and has the Buffalo Soldiers Museum and a recently reopened Military Intelligence (MI) Museum. If you want to visit, you’ll need to obtain a free base visitors pass at the base’s northmost Van Deman Gate entrance. When I got mine it took about 10 minutes.

Kartchner Caverns SP, I haven’t visited it yet, which is odd because I'm a professional geologist and I was a spelunker in college, but it’s supposed to be very nice.

Coronado National Monument, located south of Sierra Vista has some wonderful hiking and a cave tour as well. Just a few miles southwest of the CNM you can visit our porous US/Mex border.

Impressive isn’t it. The heavier short fence in the front is made of salvaged railroad track welded together. The actual border monument is in the rear behind the barb wire fence.

If you’re like me and enjoy hiking, the +9,400’ Huachuca (Wa-Choo-Ka) Mountains are crisscrossed with hiking trails including many smugglers trails.

The Huachuca Mountains located adjacent to and southwest of Sierra Vista.

Lots to see and do here in southern Arizona the land of sunny days, starry starry nights and ZZ Top Wannabe’s.

Steve

Ray,IN · 01-24-2016, 12:19 PM

The Organ Pipe National park is out of your way, but it and the small Mexican town of Ajo enroute to Organ Pipe are very interesting. Ajo still has it's old town plaza operating, there's an RV park there too. Ajo is a days drive West from Tuscon.

Cooperhawk · 01-24-2016, 12:32 PM

Pima Air & Space Museum : Tucson, Arizona

The Pima air and space museum is right in Tuscon alongside Davis Monthon Air Force Base. You can take the boneyard tour from there and see all of the military aircraft stored in the boneyard.

The Museum is exceptionally well done and is a private entity.

going_postal · 01-24-2016, 01:29 PM

Don't forget the Biosphere II, just north and east of Tucson, Oricle, Az. to be precise.
They offer tours of the facility.
biosphere2.org

coupevilleDF · 01-24-2016, 02:39 PM

Associated with the Pima Air Museum is the Titan 2 Museum south of Tucson on 19. Great tour. The highway markings do not do it justice.

Loved Tombstone and Old Tucson. San Xavier Mission is also a nice stop just south of Tucson.

My wife says to add Tubac - artsy with a historic mission, further south on 19.

Ramets · 01-25-2016, 04:32 AM

[QUOTE=Geocritter;2912912]I’m wintering in the Sierra Vista area for the second time and love it here!

Impressive isn’t it. The heavier short fence in the front is made of salvaged railroad track welded together. The actual border monument is in the rear behind the barb wire fence.

Thanks for the pic of our southern border. I'm certainly feeling safer now. How about you?

charles tuit · 01-25-2016, 06:21 AM

Gary
See if you can get into Catalina State Park located a few miles north of Tucson for a few days. Beautiful setting at the base of the Catalina Mountains.

richf · 01-25-2016, 03:26 PM

There's a nice little campground on the east edge of Bisbee's downtown that we enjoyed (near mine entrance). Bisbee very interesting. Would recommend Karchner Caverns, Cochise Stronghold, Chiricahua National Monument as nice side trips.
Rich