Feb 28, 2012 - Kartchner Caverns

We have been told by several RV’ers that while staying in Tucson we must go to the Kartchner Caverns. Each described this place with words or phrases like ‘spectacular’, ‘uniquely beautiful’, or ‘like nothing you have ever seen’. One person said “It’s just a cave, but you should go see it anyway”. Well we went and it was all of those things and more. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures but I did capture a few from others visitors and have posted them for you. In the end no picture can replace being in this cave, feeling...

Feb 5, 2012 - Gesundheit

We started our day with a very nice breakfast at the campground. They have a small restaurant in their home with 5 tables. Great conversation with other campers and an excellent meal. Before we left Tombstone we went to the one attraction we wanted to see but ran out of time Friday, The Rose Tree museum. Honest, the biggest rose tree in the world is there. This tree was planted in 1885 and is still healthy and growing. Wait 'till you see the pictures. They also had an excellent museum which depicted one of Tombstone's first families. We...

Apr 17, 2011 - Kartchner Caverns State Park, AZ

A high of 95 degrees again on the drive here. Air conditioning is being used! Kartchner is a unique park setting for us-cactus all around. Good spacing between sites, in the mid 80's but saved by a constant breeze. Nice interpretive center and garden walk. Would like to see a rattlesnake and roadrunner, but no luck yet. A beautiful full moon tonight.

Oct 24, 2010 - Kartchner Caverns SP, Benson, AZ

Kartchner Caverns State Park is near Benson, AZ. We had heard of it from other RVers. The state has made a great effort to keep it as a living cave. As such, it is fairly warm and humid inside the cave. They have installd several walk-in cooler type doors that you go through to enter and exit the cave to preserve the interior atmosphere. They don't allow any pictures to be taken in the cave so you are out of luck on that count. But there are so many more stalagtite and stalagmite formations than I have seen in other caves because the...

Mar 6, 2010 - Bisbee, Caves, Rocks and Indians

On Thursday (March 4), we got outta Dodge (Tombstone) and headed on down the road (Highway 80) to the old mining town of Bisbee. It was a lovely day and a lovely drive, through pretty country, and we arrived just in time for breakfast at the High Desert Market & Cafe, a funky spot that would have fit right in to the Slocan Valley, our old stomping grounds. Great food. Neat stuff. Highly recommended. (Especially the breakfast burrito.) We spent a couple of hours walking around, looking at the old buildings, poking our noses into some of the...

Dec 11, 2009 - San Pedro Valley and Kartchner Caverns

Leaving our very dry place at Quartzsite early yesterday morning, we saw a lot of freeways—I-10, then Arizona Hwy. 85, next it was I-8, and then back onto I-10. We took the Hwy. 85 bypass around Phoenix, and pulled into the Escapees RV park in Benson, AZ. We’d hoped to stay in the Escapees park, since we’re members. There we found that no hook-up sites were available. We took a “boondock” site, hoping a hook-up site would open up this morning. It didn’t. So we found a nearby RV park, Cochise Terrace. This RV park only cost $8 more than the...

Apr 30, 2009 - Kartchner Caverns

Kartchner Caverns is a great underground cave located in the desert hills about 50 miles southeast of Tucson, akin to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, but smaller (our next big stop). The remarkable thing about Kartchner Caverns is that it is a "living cave", still dripping water and growing stalactites and stalagmites AND careful steps have been taken to preserve this delicate state. Admission is by small guided tours only and you enter through a series of airlocks designed to maintain the interior environment of 68 degrees and 99%...

Mar 22, 2009 - A very full day--where's the beer

Today started very early 6 a.m , I guess I was excited to go to the Kartchner caverns. We had a tour booked for 9;30 of The Big Room, which they just opened in 2003. It was really good ,slightly different than the caves in Florida but just as interesting and wonderful. When it was over we headed to Tucson to the Titan Missle Silo, which was decomissioned after the treaty with Russia. We went down 55 steps to the control room ,which was about 1/3 of the way down . They had cut outs in the silo so you could look at the missle up close and...

Jan 4, 2009 - The best kept secret -Kartchner Caverns

In 1974 two cavers Tenen and Tufts were exploring the limestone hills at the base of the Whetstone Mountains. In a sinkhole they found a crack where warm air flowed out signaling the existence of a cave. They explored and found themselves in a pristine cavern. Over a period of four years they secretly explored the cave. In 1978 they told the property owners James and Lois Kartchner about their amazing discovery. These caves only became publicly known in 1988 when the property was purchased by the Arizona States Parks in order that they were...

May 16, 2007 - Benson, AZ

After a long walk, I ate the breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn next door, then went to the local winery (the largest in NM) and the Wal-Mart. So, it was afternoon when I got started. I stopped at a DQ to get one of their strawberry sundae waffle cups (mmm good) on the way to the next SKP park in Benson, about an hour east of Tuscon. This will just be an overnight stay, as tomorrow I will drive to an SKP park northwest of Phoenix for a few days. I was here for about a week last year and already visited the rock phenomenon at a national...

May 1, 2007 - Part 1: Tombstone, Arizona...

Monday April 30th Well, we have arrived in Benson our destination for the next couple of days. Not that it would be our dream destination but it is the closest thing to Tombstone & Bisbee where we want to visit for the next couple of days. We found another Passport America Park & our total rent for the next 2 nights is $20.97. We like that ...We got set up & then headed to town to rent a couple of movies. We were told to rent Robin Williams "RV" so we did. Not even funny! Not for us RV'ers anyway! The second movie was great though. "An...

Apr 11, 2007 - Kartchner Caverns State Park, Tombstone, Nogales, Bisbee, Arizona and environs

Hi, everyone. For the past week, we have been camping in a beautiful state park in the foothills of the Whetstone Mountains near Tombstone, Arizona. The park is called Kartchner Caverns State Park. The park contains the most beautiful caverns in the US, and the caverns rank in the top ten "show caverns" in the world. We visited the caverns the first day here. Since we couldn't take photos inside, you can check out the caves at these two websites: www.pr.state.az.us/Parks/parkhtml/kartchner.html www.explorethecaverns.com/ Next, we visited...