A Week in Bisbee Arizona Part 1

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Our next stop will be another of these far southern towns in Arizona. Queen Mine RV park in Bisbee is only about 7 miles from the Mexican border. We had heard good things about the town and figured we should check it out for ourselves. It’s only an 80 mile drive for the day so we take our time getting out of Patagonia and even sit in the day use area to have lunch before heading out. Our Bisbee campground is a rather small one (25 sites) with close quarters but it is right next to the historic district in Bisbee. The last tenth mile from the main road, up past the Queen Mine Visitor Center to the campground is a tight S curve that gains 50 feet in elevation. It’s wide enough to get up or down but you need to hope nobody is coming the opposite way.

Once up top, the campground is a big flat circle with all the sites around the perimeter of the circle. We arrived to find the place about half full. Open sites had an orange construction cone and we found the one with our name written on it. We had full hookup but only 30 amp electric even though the pedestals had 50 amp outlets. I’ve never run into that situation in the past but our rig sensed we only had 30 amp and we adjusted our usage accordingly. Besides overlooking Bisbee, the campground is next to the huge open pit area of the mine. It is neat to look out over the pit. Just s short distance down the road is a pullout with an even better look of the open pit that was in operation until the mid 1980’s.

Colorful Mine Remnants

Our Campground

View of Open Pit Mine

For our first day in Bisbee, we head out of town. About a half hour drive to the northeast is a place called Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area. Run by the state of Arizona Game and Fish. It’s a 1500 acres parcel of land with several small ponds or lakes. While it is renowned for the sandhill cranes that roost here in the winter, it also is home to a very large number of waterfowl. We thought we might be too late in the season (mid February) to see many of the cranes. Initially as we approached the turn into the place, we weren’t really seeing much sign of birds but we were optimistic that something must be present since there were a large number of vehicles in the parking lot.

It didn’t take long before we realized there were many thousands of sandhill cranes in a field just across from the walkway. It was difficult to comprehend just how many there were. Plus if we were at the tail end of their stay, what might it have looked like a month ago? We stood and watched them for quite some time. Occasionally a flock of over 100 more cranes would arrive and circle around looking for room to land. They are far from the most graceful birds in flight, especially during a landing. Every now and then, one of the cranes would belt out a call that has a prehistoric feel to it. It would raise its head to the sky and repeat the call over and over. We even saw a few skirmishes take place between the birds.

Sandhill Cranes

Large Flock Coming In

Trio Looking for Landing Spot

There were lots of other birds to watch as we walked around the trails adjacent to the ponds. An even more entertaining bird may have been the yellow-headed blackbird. One of the ponds had a large amount of cattails growing in the shallow waters. Perched on these cattails were several hundreds of these black birds. Most of the time they would be perched on their own cattail just chirping away. With so many of them, it was a rather loud place. Occasionally, something would prompt the whole flock to take off at once. The resulting “blob” of birds was a sight to see. In looking closely at photos I took during one of these mass ascensions, it seems impossible that they could even get any lift with their wings since they are so close to one another.

Singular Yellow-headed Blackbird

Small Group

Larger Group

A Blob of Blackbirds!

There were many dozens of ducks out in the more open waters of one of the ponds. We could tell there were some serious bird watchers, so we would occasionally ask them what we were looking at. A few people would see me with my long telephoto lens and assume I was an avid birder as well. I think they were disappointed when my answer to them would be “it’s some sort of duck!”. I did do a little research after the fact to be able to identify the ones in the following photos. At one point, I was watching a large group of ducks 100 feet from the shore when I saw them all take off. I wasn’t sure what had spooked them but then I watched as a woman with an umbrella was walking by. It seemed that as she continued to walk down the path, all the ducks would fly away. It didn’t seem like she recognized that she was the cause of all the birds leaving before she got to a spot.

Cinnamon Teal

Male and Female Green-winged Teal

Green-winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

Ducks Escaping Umbrella Lady

We spent several hours just enjoying the place, then went back to the car for lunch. Afterwards, we went around the loop again but definitely found the birds to be much less active. We probably should have shown up earlier in the morning to possibly see them even more active. As we went to leave, we noticed a lot of people standing near a very large roofed structure. The building itself wasn’t worth looking at so we figured there must be something up under the roof. Sure enough, there were two large owls on either end of the building. They both appeared to be snoozing only occasionally open an eye to check things out. It was difficult to see how large the one in the nest was, but the one perched on the cross beam was quite large. This was a wonderful stop being so close to where we are camping. It did appear that there were a few boondocking spots that could be used which would allow us to be there for the very early morning activity without much effort - maybe a future visit?

Owl in Nest

Big Owl

The next morning we decided to walk from camp and to a walking tour of historic Bisbee. There are some grand old buildings from back in the mining days. Nowadays, the town is a very eclectic place with a quirky vibe. Lots of unique artwork adorn the homes and businesses. There seem to be a large number of shops, restaurants and bars for a small section of town, but it was a very busy place.

Colorful Buildings

Large Flies

Artistic Wall

We used one of the multi stage geocaches in town as our tour guide. It took us all over the place. The town is built in a very hilly area and many of the narrow streets are quite steep. There are dozens of long and steep staircases as well to get from one area to another. We saw a large number of the homes have incorporated old car or truck doors into gates. Interesting and not as tacky as it might seem when the whole town has similar feel to it.

Creative Use for Auto Door

Long, Steep Staircase

Lizard Art

It takes a fair amount of energy to climb some of the staircases but the views of town from above are impressive. We understand there is some sort of race each year where the runners go up and down many of the stairs as they complete the route. Would be interesting to watch but definitely wouldn’t want to compete. After spending time in town, it becomes clear why so many people come to visit.

Large Church

"B" Hill

Overlooking Our Campground

Another day trip took us west to the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. This tall and skinny parcel encompasses about forty miles of the San Pedro River and the unique ecosystem that is created near the water. We had stopped at a section of this place a few years ago during our stay in Benson. This time we will check out a section further to the south near the San Pedro House. A former ranch home from the 1930’s, it is now a small bookstore and visitor center for the area. What’s neat about the area near the river are the massive cottonwood trees that are only present for several hundred feet on either side of the river. There are numerous hiking and biking trails so we decided to go out and enjoy the area and scope out how the trails might work for mountain biking if we choose to come back.

Neat Trail Markers

San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area

We start our hike heading south on the trail well west of the river. It’s a very dry area even though we are only half mile or so from the river. The views are nice with the huge mass of cottonwoods and mountains in the far distance. We discover this trail to be in good shape and not too sandy. It could probably be a nice bike ride for later in this stop or a future one. We head east toward the river to complete a loop that will amount to a few miles.

View with Cottonwoods and Mountains

The river was flowing and lots of birds were flitting around. A small pond area made for a very picturesque spot. Another trail follows along the river and occasionally has a path out to the water. From the looks of leaf and twig debris lodged in trees, the place looks like it gets very flooded at times. It would have been a much prettier walk if it were later in the season. As it was, the trees were not leafing out quite yet.

Reflecting Tree

San Pedro River

When we got back to the car, we took the short drive to Murray Springs Clovis Site. This archeological site  has been studied and found to have people living here over 11,000 years ago! They are named the Clovis culture because the first such site was found near the town of Clovis New Mexico. There is a short walk around an interpretive trail that describes what the archeologists have discovered. It turned out to be an okay diversion but nothing too special.

Murray Springs Trailhead

The next morning, we decided to go see possibly the most popular sight in town which also happens to be the closest to camp. The Queen Mine has a small visitor center with a movie of other things to see in the area and some displays about the old mine. The real draw of the place however are the underground tours. Chris walked down to get tickets mid morning and discovered we got some of the last tickets for the last tour of the day. I guess it is even more popular than we imagined.

Queen Mine Entrance Sign

Enter Here

We head down the hill fifteen minutes before the tour in order to get our instructions as well as our hard hats, safety vests and lights. Not the most fashionable look, but at least all the visitors look the equally dorky. We will head into the mine about 1500 feet. It’s a flat route into the side of the hill rather than a vertical drop in an elevator. There won’t be much walking though since one of the mini train locomotives will pull the half dozen or so pedestrian cars into the mine. The cars are interesting because passengers straddle the bench seat facing forward. It’s a fun experience to ride into the mine. A couple hundred feet in, they stop the train to allow those that thought they could handle the claustrophobic conditions a chance to bail out with full refund and walk back out. We don’t have any takers, so onward we go.

Chris and Her Hard Hat

And We're Off

Heading into Mine

It appears they have signs every 100 feet to give us an idea how far we have come. Every now and then, I spot a sign pointing the direction out. I suppose this could come in handy if something goes wrong! We make several stops along the tracks. Our tour guide is a former worker from the mine, so he has a lot of interesting stories to share. This mine was renowned for the high grade copper ore present - 23%. The mine was in operation for a hundred years so we found out how the tools and techniques changed over the years.

Could Come In Handy

Tour Guide Explains Mining Operations

Cool Rail Bike

Drilling Equipment

At one stop, he described how the hole pattern was drilled into the rock in concentric circles that were then filled with dynamite and detonated in a precise sequence to blast the rock out exactly how the miners wanted. Our last stop brought us to what seemed like a highlight to many of the other visitors. The two seat toilet was mounted onto a set of wheels so it could be moved around and taken outside to be dumped. Being assigned to take care of this task would definitely be the worst job in the place.

Youngsters Watching Intently

Porta Potty

Before we knew it, the tour was over and we all head back to the train for our ride back out. To me, all the places seemed to be large enough that I didn’t get any claustrophobic feelings but I suppose if you are prone to those feelings, this tour might not be a wise choice.

Odd Image Blurring - Ghost???

And We're Back