To Tombstone

January 28, 2020

It’s right at the freezing point when we check the weather this morning, but days warm up quickly here. By the time we leave our motel at 9 it’s nearing 50 already and quite comfortable biking in the full sun.

We can’t leave town quite yet though. The first order of business is to bike over to Walmart to hopefully find a suitable helmet to replace the one very slowly disintegrating in the desert out Casabel Road. Sadly none of the stegosaurus models fits my fat head, but I do find a very suitable but boring one. In fact, it’s the exact helmet as the one I left behind - same make, model, and color even.

Today’s short ride to Tombstone isn’t one of the more interesting of the tour. We’re on Highway 80 virtually the entire way, save for a mile and a half on a back road through Saint David, the only community we pass through on the way. Highway 80 is a fine ride as far as highway rides go: better than expected, with a good shoulder nearly the entire way and moderate traffic that gradually thins out the further from Benson we get. By the time we’re a mile or two past Saint David it really thins out.

Still though, it is a highway. It cuts a fairly wide swath through the desert, so you don’t see all that much from the road - no roadrunners today. Just a ride, really.

Highway 80 carries a bit of traffic as we leave Benson, but the shoulder is good enough.

We follow the course of the San Pedro River for much of the ride today, only leaving it a few miles from the end as we pull away and up Toward Tombstone.

On a quiet side road through Saint David - the most pleasant part of the day’s ride.

The view west toward the Whetstone Mountains. This is Sky Island country: isolated mountains separated by broad desert basins.

By the time we’re a few miles past Saint David traffic thins out significantly.

Our last look back north before cutting through a ridge and bending toward Tombstone. I’m not certain, but I think those are the Rincon Mountains in the distance, and Benson must lie between them, hidden in its basin.

Scenery beside the road is pretty modest, but this cut through a ridge is dramatic.

It looks like we’re coming to a summit of some sort, and we are. We’ll drop all of about 20 feet on the other side of this road cut, and then continue climbing the rest of the way to Tombstone.

Once through the road cut, the Dragoon Mountains come into view - the next sky island east of Tombstone.

We arrive in Tombstone right at one, with lunch on our minds. We bike right by our inn though, and just as we pass by the only other guest arrives and the manager drives up to let her in. The inn lists three as the check-in time, so we’re pleased when we find that we can have our room now. We drop off the bikes, quickly change clothes, and walk to a cafe for lunch.

Tombstone is of course the well known old west town, and the sight of the famous gunfight at the OK Corral. It’s a tourist draw, and almost completely given over to tourism now. Pretty kitschy really, but fairly quiet today. The big show, the daily reenactment of the famous gunfight, is due to start shortly. Wyatt Earp paces the dusty Allen Street puffing furiously on his smoke, keeping the peace and beckoning tourists to step into the bar, have a beer or two and get likkered up while they wait for the big showdown to begin.

Today’s Wyatt Wyatt Earp: a blend of peacekeeper and carnival barker.

Allen Street, Tombstone. About three or four blocks are a historical preservation district, with an unpaved pedestrianized street and wooden boardwalks.

Tombstone is a pretty tiny place, maybe ten blocks long. Still, if it’s too much of a walk you can hail an Uber.

We still have several hours of daylight left after lunch and today’s short ride hasn’t taken that much out of us, so we spend the afternoon taking separate walks. Rachael starts out right away after lunch and puts in her eight miles before returning to the room just in time for dinner.

A shot from Rachael’s walk: the Schieffelin Monument, about three miles south of town. This is the final resting place of Ed Schieffelin, the prospector whose discovery of silver here triggered the silver boom that founded Tombstone.

I start a bit later, thinking that if I’m out nearer sundown I’ll have a better chance at seeing some birdlife. I don’t see much though - it’s all very dry and empty, and the only birdlife other than an occasional dove or raven is a curve-billed thrasher about a block from our motel.

My walk, a loop north past Allen Street and past the cemetery and then doubling back on a dusty track through the creosote and cactus to its end at Charleston Road, isn’t one I can recommend to you. Nice enough in its quiet way, but unfortunately it’s partly through private property - a fact made known to me by a gent who walks up and politely asks what I’m about. I apologize when I hear it’s private, saying that the only sign I’d seen was on an open gate with a sign saying to please close the gate. He’s nice enough about it, fortunately, and I’m about off their land anyway.

Rachael, by the way came to the same gated spot in her walk, saw the no trespassing sign that I missed somehow, and went a different way.

The view east to the Dragoon Mountains. Tomorrow’s ride will be an empty road that heads straight at them. Should be great.

Note that this is just a ‘normal’ cemetery, not the famous Boot Hill. Nice framing of the Rincon Mountains though.

North of Tombstone, on a private road with a nice view of the conical hills that back the town.

The Tombstone Courthouse, the most prominent structure in town, is visible from a distance. This shot is zoomed in from out in the scrubland outside of town.

Always a favorite subject, nicely illuminated by the low late-day light.

Allen Street, nearly empty at the end of the day.

The magnificent bar at the Crystal Palace Saloon, where we ate dinner tonight.

Heart

Comment

Link

Ride stats today: 26 miles, 1,200’; for the tour: 1,412 miles, 70,100’

Today's ride: 26 miles (42 km)
Total: 1,412 miles (2,272 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	7
Comment on this entry	Comment	2

Bob DistelbergThe more I hear about this area, Tuscon and the surrounding region, the more I'm convinced I need to get out there some winter for some riding.
Bob
Reply to this comment
4 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Bob DistelbergI can sure recommend it. We would definitely like to come down here again, maybe for a longer stay. As another rider I was chatting with said, you come down here in the winter one or two times and pretty soon you’re looking at property.
Reply to this comment
4 years ago