On the I-8 from Yuma to Gila Bend without any highlights. Dry stone dessert and sometimes a hundred people village. We saw few huge cattle farms and smelled them already many miles away. It is shocking to see thousands of cattles chained up without any changes to move. From where does the fodder come from in this dry area? If you see this you become vegetarien.

In Gila Bend we took Hwy 85 southewards to the Organ Pipe Cactus NM. Also here again border controls on the highway.

Named because they look like organ pipes. They grow up to 8m height and have multiple columns. We were reminded to old Western films.

This 330.000 acre sized park gives home to many other cacti: Saguaro-, Ocotillo-, Engelmann
prickly pear -, Teddybear cholla -, Senita- and Chainfruit cholla cactus. 

And many animals are living here: Gila monster, rattlesnake, Desert tortoise, Javelina, Scorpion, Mountain lion and Coyote. And many birds and bats.

This desert was inhabited since thousand of years by the native americans and they excellently adapted: living from the animals and the plants (mainly the cacti - flowers, fruits).  

During winter time less vegetation can be seen. On the other hand the temperatur is ideal for hiking and exploring. Rangers offered a 3 hours tour and showed beautiful places and explaned everything to a great extend.

We felt here the „real Wild West“. The desert with it´s cacti, at first glance inhospital and rough, volcanic rocks and steep mountains to the horizon.

The second day was totally different: the absolut quiteness, you totally calm down and you start seeing the nice small things.

The nights with bright stars everywhere - we didn´t know so many exist. Sometimes you hear the sound of a coyote or the whisper of the wind. We can only recommend this place.

And the rangers extremely friendly and knowledgable.

Campground: 

„Twin Peaks Campground“ near the „Kris Eagle Visitor Center“. An excellent place to stay - a lot of space and you feel like being alone. And „rangers“ and „host“ very friendly.

We made interesting hikes and visited the „Arizona - Sonora Desert Museum“ and „Old Tucson Studios".

Arizona - Sonora Desert Museum:
This is primarily an open air zoo which shows the local flora and fauna. It is considered of one of the 10 best zoo´s of the world. We can only say it is the best we have seen so far. Extrem informativ and you feel being in the wilderness (see pictures).

Old Tucson Studios:

West of Tucson (half way to the Sonora Desert Museum) are this film studios. It is more a village of the old wild west times and shows nicely how live was  150 years ago in this region.
But it was entirely built for the film industry: To produce mainly „western films“ like the famous „Rio Grande; Arizona; High Caparral; Bonanza“ and hundreds more. Famous actors like „John Wayne, Litle Joe, Clint Eastwood, Robert Mitchum, Kurt Russell, Paul Newman, Liz Taylor and many others are with you when you wander around.
Today „high noon“ shows (shootings, stunts, dance shows) are shown - quite good. Easily you can spent half a day and wander where the time has gone.

Hiking:

We hiked the „Kings Canyon trail“ which starts at the Sonora Desert Museum and leads up to the „Wasson Peak“ - with 4.687 feet the highest peak here. We didn´t make it to the top (but nearly). The hike is just beautiful with a lots of Saguaros.

The drive through the park is also very scenic - with approx. 10 miles dirt road.

Tucson itself is the second biggest city in Arizona (approx. 1 mio. People) and it is vastly spread (30 miles by 30 miles). It has not much of a centre. What we liked is the University town and especially the „4th Avenue“ with it´s „Hippie style“ boutiques, Cafes and houses (Adobe style and very colorful painted).

We bicycled 50 km all on bike roads. No other town in USA has so many bike roads. And the traffic is reasonable.

Very near to the Mexican border is the Patagonia Lake in between beautiful hills and mountains. An ideal spot for birders and to fish. Thousands of migrating birds are here - but you need a lot of patience to see them.
We had wonderful sun sets and full moon nights. And after long time a open fire and cooking on the fire.

Unfortunately there are only very very few hiking trials.

Campground:  A very nice place directly at the lake and reasonable price.

A quite sportive bike tour to this small town. After visiting this interesting and charming town and visiting galeries and a very good cafe we biked home. Again across the steep hills - good for the heart and the wine at home tasted even better. Patagonia is recommendable.

Mostly along the Mexican border (can be seen), using gravel roads, crossing the „Canelo Hills“ to Elgin. This is a wine producing area. It looks abslutely dry and we wonder how here can ever wine grow. But it tastes really good - unfortunately very expensive: > 20.-$ the bottle.

Founded around 1900 as a mining town (mainly copper and little gold). The copper has been processed directly in Bisbee and accordingly was the polution („only the hell can be worse“ was a saying in Bisbee). In 1910 Bisbee was one of the richest towns in USA (which can be seen even today). Owners of the mines were investors from the East who never lived in Bisbee. As Mr. „DeWitt Bisbee“ a judge after whom the town was named.

In 1970 the last mine was closed. Today visits to the „Copper Queen Mine“ is one the highlight of visiting Bisbee.

We fell in love with this town. It is worth to spent 2 - 3 days here. The town has his unique look: renovated victorian style houses, colourful painted wooden houses and all this in a relatively small and hilly area. Many of the houses are only reachable via long and steep stairs.

Because of this Bisbee has started a race called „1000 steps“ in fall and had last year 2.500 participants.

Besides this good restaurants and plenty of galeries, boutiques, and curios shops are existing. 

The people here are relaxed and very friendly and seem lucky in their „own world“.

Overnight: We can highly recommend the „Quenn Mine RV Park“ which is walking distance from the „Old Bsibee Center“.

Good restaurant:  

1.  "Poco" - a very good vegeterian restaurant (Mexican style)

2. "Santiago´s" - also excellent Mexican Food

The pictures say more than thousand words.

The pictures say more than thousand words.

Beautiful matching with the towns appearance is the night lighting - yellowish and diffuse - you feel like beeing in the beginning of 1900.

We spent 2 days hiking around Bisbee - beautiful landscape with excellent views. Unfortunately no maps and no markings. So the chance to miss the direction is high. It happened to us and after climbing a steep gorge (following a small trail) suddenly we were caught in thornes and bushes. So all the way back and another trial. Finally we found the way but this could have been easier.

It is a pitty that Bisbee is not promoting hiking in this wonderful enviroment. This would not harm but support the future of the town.

climate: sunshine, no clouds. Daytime: +18° C and nights:  - 2° C.

Whitewater Draw you find approx. 30 min. east of Bisbee. There is a lake in this „Sulphur Sprng Valley“ which uses around 25 to 30 thousand sandhill cranes as a winter migrating place. They come from Nothern Canada and Siberia. They all stay overnight at (in) the shallow lake und fly two times a day to their feeding places. 

This tremendous amount of birds with their load noice (k-a-r-r-r-o-o-o) is really amazing and to see them all take off is unreal.

Additonally to see the sunrise and sunset is not to discribe in words.

The pictures tell more than 1.000 words.

Overnight stay: directly at the visiting center (parking place) you can stay free of charge.

Climate: sunshine, day temp. +18°C and night - 2°C

Tombstone justified his name - many people lost their lifes in the streets in this turbulent city of the West.

Founded in 1880 it had in this decade 16.000 inhabitants and was during this time bigger than San Francisco.

But really world famous became Tombstone bcause of his legendary wildwest movie heros. Marshall „Wyatt Earp“ and „Doc Holiday“ had here the famous gun fight with the „Clanton brothers“ and other bandits like „Billy the Kid“.

Also the „Dalton band“ (known through the Comic „Lucky Luke“) placed the town and county in fear and made themselves rich.

The result of this period can be seen on the „Boothill Graveyard“.

Overnight Stay: Wells Fargo RV Park - right in the center of Tombstone (and very quite)

Climate: sunshine, day temp. 19°C and night 3°C

50 km southeast of Willcox. The highest mountain in this park is 2.978 m (9.764 ft) high.

This mountain island is full of „pinnacles“. The Apaches - Indians which lived here for thousand of years called this area „standing up rocks“. Their most famous chiefs „Cochise“ and „Geronimo“ lived here and the US armee had great difficulties to besieges them.

We made a nice bicycle and hiking tour to the top of „Mt. Sugar Loaf“ (2.300m).

Stay overnight: campground (primitive but nice and quite) 0,5 ml of the „Chiricahua NM Center“

Climate: sunshine, day temp. +17°C and nights -3° C

Please continue reading under heading:  "NEW MEXICO"