Arizona

After waking up to all that snow in New Mexico, we decided to head west to sunshine in Arizona. And today didn't disappoint us.

We drove to the National Historic Landmark city of Tombstone. This city sprang up around the mines in 1877. It has been dubbed "The Town Too Tough To Die". The town is famous for the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the 1881 incident involving Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and Doc Holliday. The demised from that gunfight, Clanton and McLaury brothers, are buried at Boothill Grave Yard, along with many other outlaws. They re-enact a gunfight everyday for tourist and many of the original buildings still exist. It is a real tourist town, actually, more people in town today than we have seen in a while. But it might be because the weather was nice, warm and sunny. Temperature maxing out at 72 degrees! Finally!! So many RVers and so many RV parks that are mostly full. It is not evident that there is a recession going on in this country with all these traveling big rigs.

Later in the afternoon, we drove to Saguaro National Park, where this plant is the symbol of the American Southwest. There are a variety of odd, all-too-human shape, giant cactus. The park is actually in the Sonoran Desert and fewer than 12 inches of rain falls in a typical year. There are 128 miles of trails through the desert and mountain country of Rincon Mountains. It is quite hilly and has an eight-mile scenic paved drive for cars and bikes. These cacti can grow up to 40 to 50 feet tall and every one is so different from the next.