Return to Minnesota

After leaving Benson, AZ we began our journey back to Minnesota.  This year our return travels took us through Las Cruces, Alamogordo, Tularosa, Ruidoso, and Roswell, New Mexico.  Along that route Gene got more practice manuevering the motorhome up and down mountains.  We drove past White Sands National Monument on the way.
     We camped overnight near Alamogordo, then Amarillo, TX; on to Liberal, KS and the next day to Cheney State Park (just west of Wichita, KS).  We stayed there two days to visit relatives, then three more days waiting for the spring storm weather fronts to move on. There were threats of thunderstorms, hail, and strong winds, but further north was blowing snow and sleet!
      Once the storms were past we headed north to near Topeka, KS, then on to Osceola, IA and finally arrived in Shoreview. 


What a surprise...there was still snow, and more on the way!   Mother Nature had planned a real "Welcome Home" for us.

Touring the San Pedro River Valley

After leaving Casa Grande, we moved to southeastern Arizona for a few days of sightseeing.  We set up camp in Benson, AZ and spent 4 days touring various towns in the San Pedro River Valley.

First day was spent in Tombstone, where we watched a reenactment of the famous "Gunfight at the OK Corral"...a gunfight between the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Clayton gang in 1881. We wandered down main street, seeing the Bird Cage Theater, Crystal Palace, and Big Nose Kate's Saloon (all on the register of historic buildings).

 At the end of the day we stopped at Boot Hill Graveyard, just outside Tombstone, and saw where victims of the OK Corral shootout are buried.

Kartchner Caverns State Park was next on our list of places to visit. One of the few "wet caves" open to visitors, we followed a guide through the maze of trails, seeing such structures as soda straw stalactites, flowstones, and a super-sized calcite column named "Kubla Khan" which has been growing over hundreds of thousands of years.  This wet cave is still forming, as water from the surface drips, seeps, flows, and pools in the cave.  Special precautions are in place to keep the dry desert air out so structures can continue to grow.

A drive through the river valley to Sierra Vista took one afternoon.  Sierra Vista, at 4600 feet above sea level, has different scenery than the desert we had been in.  Huge cottonwood trees grow along the river valley; you can see a line of green snaking through the dry desert where the San Pedro River flows.  Sierra Vista is also close to Fort Huachuca, one of the longest operating military operations in the US.  The fort dates back to 1877 when the Buffalo Soldiers protected early settlers.

Bisbee was last on our places to visit.  An old copper mining town in the Mule Mountains, between 1877 and 1900 people flocked to the Queen of the Copper Camps.  Copper and other precious minerals were abundant.  Mining continued until 1975...now museums and shops line the streets.

Montezuma Well National Monument

Montezuma Well is located off I-17 north of Camp Verde, AZ.  This limestone sinkhole filled with water in the middle of the desert is a place like no other.  The Well is located in an area that receives barely 13 inches of rain per year, yet has maintained a constant supply of water for centuries. Coming from deep underground, water even overflows and exits the Well through a natural cave-like outlet, creating a free running stream. Ruins of homes that ancient cliff dwellers created around the well indicate it's importance to desert survival thousands of years ago.  The Hohokam may have moved here from the Salt River Valley. People of the Sinagua culture may have built small cliff dwellings here in the 1100's.
    Water from the Well contains arsenic, high levels of carbon dioxide, and little oxygen, making it uninhabitable for fish.   Unique species of water creatures...amphipods (tiny shrimp-like crustaceans), leeches and water scorpions...have evolved to survive there.  The water likely could not have been used for drinking, but may have helped irrigate crops. Today it remains a place of wonder and mystery, this large Well in the desert.

Prescott, Sedona, and Jerome, Arizona

Before leaving Arizona for the season, we drove by car to Prescott, AZ to visit relatives and do some sightseeing.  One day was spent on a road trip from Prescott on highways 69 and 169 through the Prescott National Forest and Verde Valley to Montezuma Well National Monument located off I-17; from there it was on to Sedona (known for it's red-rock buttes) for lunch; then we followed highway 89A to Jerome (a mile high copper mining ghost town), drove
across Mingus Mountain and back to Prescott.  The scenery along AZ 89A was wonderful...filled with pines, steep cliffs, deep valleys, and hairpin curves!






The next day was spent in Prescott, touring Sharlot Hall Museum, which documents local history in a park like setting.  Territorial buildings, including a govenor's mansion, one room school, military housing, and period homes complete with costumed volunteers who explain life in Prescott from mid-1800's through the early 1900's.