2006/02 Southwest USA trip (NM-AZ) - Tombstone |
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Just to the southwest of the Chiricahuan Mountains is the town of Tombstone, famous for the Earps and the OK Corral, so we just had to go and take a look. We drove down the Sulphur Springs valley, which is mainly Sonoran Desert but also wheat farms 
wherever there is enough water for irrigation. We bypassed another “interesting” road over the Dragoon Mountains because of our soft and suspect tyre. We took the next road and got to Tombstone, the “Town that refused to Die” in time for lunch and to view the really awesome sky, great streaks of cloud carried by a strong wind.
We spent a few hours in Tombstone’s historic district, which is mainly centered around one street, with a dirt surface and 
wooden sidewalks. There are stagecoaches and chuckwagons, and lots of people dressed in 1880s fashion. These are mostly locals, but also visitors who like to dress up as Wyatt Earp or just as cowboys or gunslingers. The town has saloons, shops selling western wear and souvenirs, and places that restage the gunfight at the OK Corral. 
Spectators are not allowed to take their own guns into these shows! Tombstone seemed to be a lot of harmless fun, but probably nothing like it really was back in the 1880s. I suspect that the Earps ambushed the Clantons and then told a more heroic story. The Clantons couldn’t argue as none of them survived.
After all this touristing, our schedule was shot again, and we weren’t going to make it to Saguaro in time to see anything much. So we did all our dumping and filling and headed towards a forest campground south of Tucson. We were now in the Sonoran Desert and starting to see some different plants, particularly the giant saguaro cactus and some teddy bear chollas.