Carlsbad Caverns

Our next destination was Guadalupe Mountains National Park in northwest Texas so we jumped on Interstate 10 heading to El Paso.  Our introduction to Texas at El Paso did not go well, there was road construction on the interstate forcing all the traffic into one lane in the heart of the city.  We decided to get off the interstate and grab some lunch.  As it turns out, all the surface streets were also under construction and you must remember that we (I use that term very loosely) are driving a 30 foot motorhome through this mess. Let's just say the El Paso experience was not pretty.

We continued on our 200+ mile journey and arrived at the park at 5:30.  The visitor's center was closed and the parking lot campground with it's 20 primitive first come first serve rv parking camping spots were completely full.  Soooo, my passport stamp for Guadalupe Mountains was a complete fail. I guess we will have to return to Texas to visit the state's two national parks at a later date.

We headed down the road another 30 miles back into New Mexico to Carlsbad Caverns and camped just outside the main gate. In the morning we packed early and headed to the caverns for a tour.

We entered the Visitor's Center and showed my senior pass and we received tickets to enter the cavern on a self guided tour for free!

Bill all geared up to explore the cave.

I had a more minimalist approach to the cave.

The cave was first discovered in the 1800s by settlers who noticed hundreds of thousands of bats rising out of the natural entrance in the evening.

A young cowboy named Jim White became fascinated by the cave and spent years exploring it.  He was eager to share the beauty of the cavern with others and led tours that began with a 170-foot descent in a bucket once used to haul bat guano from the cave. When the cave became a national monument Jim White became the first chief ranger.  In 1930 the cave became a National Park and the National Geographic ran a series of illustrated articles and Carlsbad Caverns became world renowned.

This was a ladder the National Geographic team used in the 1930s

I will leave you with a few of the over 150 pictures we took in the caverns.

There is a snack bar and gift shop at the bottom of the cave.  You have to love commercialism.

Today's 3 Fun Facts:

1. In 1995 the caverns were designated a World Heritage Site.
2. In 1986 the Lechuquilla Cave was discovered which extends over 112 miles and holds a very fragile ecosystem.
3. I love my "ol' geezer pass"!!!

The Plans, They are a Changin’

We left Arizona and headed into New Mexico. I must say that the drive from Bisbee to Rockhound State Park near Deming New Mexico was very desolate. The area is mostly arid desert peppered with small cattle ranches. We stopped just twice on the 200 mile drive.  The first stop was a historical marker for the surrender of Geronimo.

 
The second stop was at a museum/gift shop standing by itself just north of Rodeo NM (population 101).  The museum had a wonderful native garden filled with cacti and other native plants.  There was also a large tortoise area which put our backyard tortoise preserve to shame. I am sorry that we did not get any pictures but we were just excited to stretch our legs.

We reached Rockhound State Park in the Little Florida Mountains about 4pm and quickly found our site and settled in.  Rockhound is a favorite spot for rockhounds due to the abundance of agate and quartz crystals found in the park.  Rockhound is one of the very few parks in the country which will let you collect and keep rocks (up to 15 pounds).

 
We hiked the prime rock area in the morning but did not find any precious stones or rocks.  Marley did pick up a cactus spine in the middle of his back as his souvenir.

The hike did provide lots of wildflowers along the trail.

There was also some wildlife.

 
After our hike we offloaded the motorcycle and headed to nearby Spring Canyon State Park in search of the Persian Ibex goats. In the 1970s the Iranian government gifted the United States with 27 Ibex goats. They were released in this area because of the geographic similarity to Iran. The goats now number between 300 and 500.

Picture taken from internet,  "Bezoarziege" by F. Spangenberg (Der Irbis, own photo) -

We hiked the Lover’s Leap trail for about 1 1/2 miles looking for the illusive goats.

We never did see any goats or find the lover's leap but it was a lovely hike anyway.

This caterpillar was as close as we got to a goat.

Getting ready to leap but I think I could survive this.

While at the park we Bill reevaluated our my travel itinerary. He decided that Big Bend National Park in Texas was thousands of miles out of the way (really it is only 236 miles from Guadalupe Mountains National Park, our next stop). I guess I will have to get my passport stamp some other time.

All in all it was a lovely stay at Rockhound and I will leave you with the spectacular sunset from our site.

Today's 3 Fun Facts:

1.  The Little Florida Mountains contains semi-precious gem stones including opals, jasper, geodes and black gemstone.
2. During the Christmas season the park is lit with over 1,000 paper bag luminaries.
3. Bill's limit traveling in the rv is about 2 weeks, we haven't found my limit yet.

Queen Mine

During our stay in Bisbee we stayed at the Queen Mine RV park which overlooked the Queen Mine. So of course we had to take a tour of the mine. In almost 100 years of continuous production before the Bisbee mines closed in 1975, the local mines produced metals valued at $6.1 billion (at 1975 price).  This is one of the largest production valuations of all the mining districts in the world.

We were outfitted for our tour with a coat, hardhat, and light.

We were loaded on a mining cart and headed into the mine.

Jim was our tour guide and worked in the mine for 27 years before it closed in 1975.  He was a wealth of information about the mine, the miners and the evolution of the tools used mining. 

He had many stories of practical jokes that the miners played on each other and the supervisors.  Whenever there was a problem or something was missing "Headless John" was the culprit.

Can you see Headless John in the rocks?

If you were a newbie or had an attitude you were given the job of cleaning the "honey pot" which was only cleaned about every 6 weeks.  That job changed your attitude really quickly.

The honey pot.

The tour lasted a little over an hour and was very enjoyable.

Today's 3 Fun Facts:

1. The mining area around Bisbee was discovered by Lt. Dunn in charge of a cavalry detail from Fort Huachuca.
2. The mine has had more than a million visitors from all 50 states and more than 30 foreigh countries.
3. The honey pot did not look very appealing.

Quirky Bisbee

I have been reading about Bisbee, Arizona, in various RV travel blogs for quite some time, so when planning this trip I had to include it on the itinerary.  Bisbee was founded during the 1880’s mining rush with the discovery of the Copper Queen Lode.  Bisbee mines have produced more than $2 billion in copper, gold, lead, silver and zinc. By 1900 Bisbee was the largest cosmopolitan center between St. Louis and San Francisco.  The town had several stock exchanges and was a major venue for rodeos, circus, vaudeville, theater and lectures.

This was the original stock exchange in Bisbee, now it is a bar.

By the early 1970s most of the mines had closed and the town was all but abandoned. The town was soon revitalized when artists and artisans arrived. Today the town is a blend of creativity, friendliness, and just plain fun.

Bill in front of the Inn at Castle Rock

While exploring the town we met a wonderful 93 year old woman who had lived in Bisbee all of her life.  Her husband had worked in the mine for 47 years and she was the town’s first woman mayor, nicknamed the “huggin’ mayor”.  She is Bisbee’s biggest fan and a wealth of town history. She was just adorable, I wish we had a taken a picture.

The museum

Not sure what business was advertising.

Every year in October the town sponsors a 5K race aptly named the “Bisbee 1000” because incorporated in the 5K course there are 1000 stairs. It is billed as the “5K that feels like a 10K”.

Throughout the town there are staircases labeled for the race, you find them everywhere.  Each staircase includes the number of steps.

The bottom of staircase #3, 181 steps

Another one of the staircases.

I decided I was going to hike at least one of the staircases, so I picked #5 with 151 steps. 

 
Bill said he would wait for me at the bottom.  I started up the staircase and was doing well; at about 50 steps I was slowing down; at 75 steps the air was getting thin (Bisbee is a mile high); at 100 steps my legs were burning; at 125 steps I was gasping for air, holding on to the railing and pulling myself up the stairs; and finally at 151 steps after I recovered from the trauma, I introduced myself to the lady who had watched me struggle up the steps.

See Bill at the bottom of the stairs?

She had lived in Bisbee for 40 years, came in “the second wave of hippies”.  She and her husband had raised 3 children here, one of whom had returned to Bisbee a couple of years ago.  She owned a couple of guest houses at the top of the stairs.  After chatting with her for a few minutes I explored the top and was rewarded with some awesome views of Bisbee and some quirky art.

Later in the day while exploring the town on the motorcycle Bill was rewarded with the same views without the pain.

Wandering Bisbee was great fun, there was always something unique and interesting around every corner.

Someone's living room?

 If you ever find yourself in southern Arizona, I highly recommend a visit to Bisbee.

Today's 3 Fun Facts:

1. John Wayne was a frequent visitor to Bisbee.
2. The town was named for Judge DeWitt Bisbee, a financial banker of the Copper Queen mine. Judge Bisbee never visited the town.
3. I will not be entering the Bisbee 1000.