Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Willcox, AZ

We left our BLM site and parked the motorhomes at the Elk's in Safford while we took the car up the Swift Trail road to Mt. Graham. We passed through 5 ecological zones. Down below is the road we were on when we went to Klondyke. It was a steady climb up to 9000'. Where we saw the snow up close. The road was closed until the 15th for the last dirt road part so down we came.

We then took off for Willcox and the Elk's Lodge there. Our Win President Sharon and her companion Dick were there and greeted us. We chose to park at a hookup site and we're next to Curt and Dottie.

The next day we headed to the Chiricahua National Monument. It is an uplifted mountainous volcanic area with many rock formations surrounded by grasslands. The guys called this the alligator tree. Click on it and look at the bark. After a beautiful drive to the top, a picnic lunch and a short hike we went to the parks Faraway Ranch for a tour.
It was a very interesting tour. Back in the 1800's it was a guest ranch and remained so until the 1970's. A guest paid about $7 a day and that included meals and a horse. At today's prices that would be over $500 a day. Back home Bob cooked a spaghetti dinner for the 4 of us.

Curt and Dottie headed for Karchner Caverns and we went geocaching. Found 5 of them. Saw some pretty sites along the way. Check out this squared off cliff.
Our wildlife sighting was on the road.
And we believe this is a bejeweled water tank.

Back home we went to historic downtown Willcox. Too late for the Rex Allen museum. Then we went to the lodge for hamburger's and played pegs and jokers.

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