Early last week, Rachel suggested a road trip to go check out Kartchner Caverns. Having never been there myself, it seemed an excellent idea. So she called and made the reservations (yes, Kartchner suggests making reservations as it often does sell out...) and next thing I knew we were packing our stuff Friday night, after the obligitory viewing of Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban, a movie I highly recommend catching at your soonest leisure. We got up (relatively) early on Saturday, and hit the road towards Tuscon. A small bit of online searching the week before had provided a list of things to see along the way. The first of these side trips was the San Xavier del Bac Mission south of Tuscon. I won't force you to relive the fasciniating history of the place, however if you are interested, check the link above. I found that the description of the mission fell far short of the reality. It is currently under renovation, so many of my photos do not do it justice. This is a view from the front entrance of the mission as you can see the left tower is under renovation. The right tower was actually never completed and there is much speculation as to the reason for this.
The next two views of the mission (click on the thumbs for full size) are from the south, and show differing views of the exterior, as well as a bit more detail on the extent of the renovations being undertaken. The third is from the interior courtyard, looking east out over the valley.
This image is of a side entrance to the left of the main renovations, and includes the small chapel that sits to the north of the main mission. Obviously this building is beautiful and should definitely be viewed if given the opportunity. Out of respect for the people inside the mission, I chose not to take photographs with flash, and very few came out. You will have to take my word for the fact that it is easily as stunning as the outside.
After a bit of looking about, we decided it was time to push on towards Kartchner Caverns and the original purpose for the trip. We arrived without event a bit ahead of our reservation, and had a bit of a picnic lunch in the convenient picnic table areas in the parking lot. Now, there are not going to be any photos of Kartchner, as they do not allow photographic equipment of any kind inside the caverns (or much of anything aside from your body for that matter). So, I'll mainly leave you with my impressions of the caverns... WOW! If you have ever been to Carlsbad and said "Damn that is impressive!", you ain't seen nothing yet! These caverns were discovered, and subsequently kept secret for over 14 years while they were developed and eventually sold to the State of Arizona for preservation. The extents the rangers go to to protect these caves is commendable, and I highly recommend a trip. There are two tours: the Big Room which is only open part of the year (starting in October) due to the need to preserve the bat colony that lives here the rest of the year, and the Throne Room tour which is what we saw. Again I will simply state WOW!, and leave you with that, along with the one image that I did capture in the Hummingbird/Butterfly garden surrounding the main building.
The next stop on our trip through southern Arizona was Tombstone. I know, it is a tourist town. And now I REALLY know that it is a tourist town.
Now that is not to say that a visit to the town is not fun. There are some fascinating things to see and history to learn about. In particular the most interesting story we encountered was that of Nellie Cashman. We ate dinner at her restaurant Saturday night. It may well be the best place in town to eat, or at the very least the most interesting. We spent some time wandering about Tombstone, and went to The Birdcage Theater Museum first. This was really rather disappointing and brought home the truth of the tourist trap... it was 6 bucks a head to go through and might have been worth about 60 cents. I got a decent photo of some old pianos, but that was about it......
Oddly, in this same place we did encounter my buddy Will's twin brother (who apparently got all the hair), so it was not a total loss....
From the porch of the Birdhouse Theater, you can see the following buildings in old Tombstone, which really is fairly scenic and worth a stop through for that reason alone.
Another aspect of the trip that actually is worth attending is the re-enactment of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. This show takes place daily at 2PM and is really rather well done. The actors have put a great deal of effort into making this something entertaining for all, and have succeeded rather well. I suggest buying your tickets early, rather than at the last minute following a flying trip to Bisbee which I'll get to in a minute. But first a few photos from the Gunfight.
A bit of a warm up to the main event.
Wyatt Earp pays his respects.
Doc Holiday, Virgil Earp, Wyatt Earp and Morgan Earp prepare to mete out violent justice.......
As I mentioned before (however briefly), we actually saw the gunfight after a trip up to the mining town Bisbee. This town is actually south of Tombstone, but higher up in the mountains and makes an excellent half-day side trip. There are a lot of beautiful buildings in Bisbee, and alot of little artsy shops to wander through. As well as a bunch of rather odd sights to see. This is someone's front porch oddly enough.....
Just around the corner is an old mining train that I couldn't pass up.
And this image just struck me as I was walking down the main drag....
And so, after lunch at a charming little cafe, the name of which I simply cannot remember, we left this little backwater American town and headed back towards Tuscon via the Tombstone Shootout.
On the way back, driving along the highway to Benson, I saw the following sight and had to stop. I had read about a Benedictine Monastery(sorry about the music, I did not write the site) south of Tuscon, and when I saw this, I was fairly positive we had accidentally found it!
This is truly an impressive structure, for perspective the tops of the Lions' heads on either side of the gate are about 5ft high. This was definitely the site of the Monastery. It was very quiet and beatiful. The chapel up on the hill has paths that lead off to trails through a bit of a bird sanctuary they've built.
More views from the Chapel.... 
And a tree along the Bird walk..... this one reminds me of the tree in the movie Sleepy Hollow....
And now the pond along the Bird walk.... this is a particularly beatiful spot in my opinion.
And considering the rest of the trip was just an I-10 run back to Phoenix, ..... I'll leave you with this image and the recommendation that you also visit these sites when you have time.