The morning was incredibly windy, quickly dashing any hopes that Lisette had of doing some yoga outside alongside the RV. Instead, we made our way back to Tombstone, where we immediately were transported back to the 1880s, when the town was in its heyday. There’s one main street to wander around, and the buildings have been restored to their former glory. Walking along the street, there are men (sadly, no women), wearing clothes from that era promoting gunfight reenactments and other shows, while a man on a horse and carriage plods slowly through the gravel dirt road.
Gunfight at OK Corral
We chose OK Corral to see the gunfight reenactment, which occurred on October 26, 1881 between 8 men, which was an inevitable showdown after months of threats, romantic rivalries, stage robberies, pistol whippings and arrests. Police Chief Virgil Earp, his brothers Wyatt and Morgan Earp, and friend Doc Holliday had a showdown against several cowboys, with apparently nearly 30 shots in 30 seconds. Once the gun smoke cleared, Virgil and Morgan Earp were badly wounded, Doc Holliday suffered a superficial hip wound, and only Wyatt Earp walked away completely unscathed. The cowboys–Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury–all died, except for Ike Clanton who ran away from the fight. The gunfight reenactment is held several times daily, and it’s a bit of family fun–the audience is encouraged to boo whenever the “bad guys” walk in, and cheer loudly when the Earps and Doc Holliday come on stage. Plus the audience can take photos with the actors afterwards in their Wild West outfits.
A free museum to visit at Tombstone is the Tombstone Epitaph, a monthly publication that covers the history and culture of the Old West. Founded in January 1880, it is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Arizona. It’s interesting to see how the printing press worked back in the day, and some of the headlines about all the outlaws, lawmen, and Wild West happenings. You can even subscribe to the publication and receive the historical editions for free.
The Bird Cage Theatre is at the end of the street, and it was not only a theatre but a saloon, a brothel, and a gambling parlor. The walls are riddled with gunshot wounds, and 26 people have died here. There’s tours to see further in the Theatre (which we didn’t do), as well as a ghost tour in the evening (it’s known as one of the top haunted spots in the country). We spoke to one of the people working there and he said that everyone has a story, including him, of haunted encounters–there were too many for him to name, but there have been grizzly murders that make it fodder for plenty of paranormal activities.
Chiricahua National Monument
Just over an hour away from Tombstone is the Chiricahua National Monument. While we were driving, unfortunately our coffee machine tipped over (again), spilling water and pushing some of our other things onto the ground. This happened because we had to suddenly stop on the road when an emergency services car came blaring past with its sirens on. We recently learned that state laws are different–while in California drivers need to move to the side of the road, in Arizona cars have to stop wherever they are.
It’s probably a given that when traveling in an RV, there will be times when things will fall or even break, no matter if it’s bolted down or not! Our first casualty was a glass butter dish, which fell out when I opened the fridge door when we were on a slope (we now make do with a plastic container).
By the time we got to Chiricahua National Monument, Michael had a throbbing headache, so Sheila and I went on a short, dog-friendly hike together. Chiricahua National Monument is home to stunning rock pinnacles that loom over the road. The Chiricahua Apaches called these pinnacles “standing up rocks”, which originated 27 million years ago when the Turkey Creek Volcano spewed ash over 3,100 square kilometers (1,200 square miles). Besides the hiking trails, there are scenic drives to not only see the rock pinnacles, but also meadows dotted with cactus, mesquite, sycamore, juniper, oak, cypress, pine, and fir trees. Chiricahua was designated an International Dark Sky Park in 2021, so while we didn’t stay here for the night, we can only imagine how epic it would be to see the skies on a perfectly clear evening
The challenge with driving an RV at Chiricahua National Monument is that it’s a maximum of 24 feet to get into the Visitor Center, so oversized vehicles need to park at Faraway Ranch (called this because the daughter of the original owners thought it was so far away from everything), and dogs are not allowed on all but a few trails. Sheila and I walked from the Visitor Center back to the Ranch (as Michael had driven back to try and shake off his headache). On our hike, we saw deer! Well, Sheila didn’t actually spot it, although she was very engrossed in checking out and sniffing their green-tinged poop!
The wind was picking up as Sheila and I hiked, and it was downright icy with gale-force winds by the time we returned. Our plan was to drive on to a small town called Bowie to boondock for the night, which put us on an “unimproved” road that turned out to be the bumpiest road we’d driven on so far–corrugated parts of the road shook our vehicle violently as we drove over them, and we felt every bump as the gravel hit under our RV. The road went on for miles, made even longer as we had no choice but to drive at a snail’s pace of 10-15 miles per hour. Just ahead of (finally) arriving at Bowie, we received an emergency alert on our phones about a dust storm warning, and noticed that there were dust storm warning signs all over the road!
Rather than stay in Bowie, we decided to push on toward New Mexico, where our clocks moved forward an hour to local time. We drove through thick dust being kicked up by the wind on the highway, before arriving at a clearing off the highway where we set up for the night. Lisette had a shower in the RV and the carbon monoxide alarm went off (which we later deduced could have been because of all the dust that had blown into our RV to create a false positive). While our parking spot was on a quiet stretch, it was loud, thanks to the strong winds and rain that lashed our RV that night.
Route Map
[…] visited quite a few fascinating former mining towns that had their heyday long ago, like Tombstone in Arizona and Tonopah in Nevada. In North Idaho, the town of Wallace was once known as the "silver capital of […]