We were out for a walk on Shabbos when we noticed that in addition to every RV parked near us having horses and dogs, there was also a large enclosure for quail.  We also noticed that all the dogs looked very similar.  We assumed that the quail were for hunting.  On our way back to the RV, we ran into Margaret, who told us that we had inadvertently stumbled into an American Kennel Club competition, called a Field Trial, for Brittany dogs.

Field Trails are a kind of simulated hunting exercise.  For a detailed explanation, see here.  Like our experience being accidentally imbedded in a motocross hillclimbing competition, we had no idea that this sport even existed.  Like other RVs here, Margaret and her husband Tom had a gooseneck trailer which had a living area in front, a kennel and tack area in the center, and a horse area in the rear.

This morning, Margaret took our daughter for a ride on one of the three horses they brought to this competition:
 

Trish and the kids visited another trailer with Brittany puppies.  Looks like they’re ready to find some birds!

Margaret’s dogs rest before competition:

Margaret also gave the kids a couple ribbons her dogs had won at prior events.  They travel from competition to competition for half the year, and it sounds like they have no shortage of ribbons.  Thanks Margaret and Tom!

The grasslands go on forever:

There were two bunches of RVs here for the competition:

We left Las Cienegas National Grassland and headed West to Tumacácori National Historic Park:

Tumacácori mission was one of the missions established by the Jesuits to impose Christian culture on the native population.  The historical sequence reminded me of attempts by the Greeks to Hellenize the Jews.  This church was built in the early 1800s:

The kids completed the Junior Ranger program:

We headed north to Tubac, AZ.  Tubac is a four-by-four-block artists community.  There were a number of kinetic wind sculptures on display:

There are dozens of stores selling a wide variety of things you don’t need:

This was the entryway to some kind of “healing center”:

Leaving Tubac, we still wanted to visit the Whipple Observatory.  Looking at the various apps on my phone, I could see that the observatory was within the Coronado National Forest, so we could do dispersed camping there.  The satellite photo showed a number of pullouts beyond the visitor center, so we decided to go for it.  We drove in about 10 miles on the access road and found a great pullout just below the visitor center:

The moon was already rising:

Another great Arizona sunset:

As we set up, the bull on the left kept glaring out us.  We were worried he would charge:

Just beautiful:

Tomorrow we will explore the visitor center.  See the trip map for today’s drive.

I awoke to the sound of thousands of cranes getting ready to fly off this morning before sunrise, and this was with the windows closed!  The cranes nest overnight in the shallow water of Whitewater Draw to avoid predators.  In the morning, they fly off in search of food and return at sunset.  I quickly dressed and stepped out to see clouds of cranes flying off in the distance as the sky gradually lightened.  It was a magical moment to be sure.  I had to lock the door of the RV when I left because the latch froze in the retracted position.  It must have been in the high 20s at dawn.

Heading South and West, we arrived at the mining town of Bisbee, AZ.  Our first stop was the Lavender Mine, an open pit mine that produced 600,000 tons of copper from 1950 to 1974.  That copper was liberated from the 256,000,000 tons of rock removed.  See the buildings on the rim to get a sense of the size of the hole, which is 300 acres in area at ground level and 900 feet deep in the center:

We visited the Bisbee Museum, which was fantastic.  We just finished listening to Hattie Big Sky in the car, which was set during World War I.  The book talked about the pressure to purchase Liberty Bonds and Stamps to show one’s patriotism:

The bottom floor dealt with the history of Bisbee, including the Bisbee deportations, which was fascinating.  Upstairs the museum focused more on mining:

The museum houses amazing samples discovered when Bisbee miners would be mining along in a shaft and break into underground caverns filled with brightly colored mineral formations:

There was a tire on display from the giant dump trucks used in the open pit mines.  The tire gives you a feeling for the size of the vehicle:

After the museum, we walked around the town, which still has many of its original buildings:

Bisbee is a town built into a mountain, so there are many stairs.  We climbed the 183-stair staircase known as staircase #3 in the Bisbee 1000 stair run (see map):

Several of the houses we saw use car doors as fence gates:

You can do it!

From the top, we could see some of Bisbee’s houses.  The blue house left of center is the width of a single-wide garage door:

Some of the streets we paved in bricks and had a European feel:

Bisbee feels like a mountainous version of Berkley, and after seeing some of its inhabitants, I wondered how many of its inhabitants are not under the influence of controlled substances.  It seems that there’s a competition amongst home owners to have the most quirky house.  Wall art is also very popular:

Parting view of Bisbee:

From Bisbee, we drove Southwest to Coronado National Memorial.  As we entered the Memorial, we could see the border wall with Mexico a couple miles to the South.  At the visitor center, the kids tried on some armor:

The kids completed their Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges:

From Coronado, we drove North to camp on Coronado National Forest land just South of Sierra Vista, AZ.  We could see another Aerostat blimp keeping an eye on things:

The Huachuca Mountains, pronounced “Wa-Chuka”, rise to the west:

Tomorrow we’ll head North to Fort Huachuca.  See the trip map for details.

We left the casino early this morning and drove a couple hours East to Chiricahua National Monument.  When we arrived, we found out that we the road to Fort Bowie NHS is passable with an RV.  We had attempted to visit both Chiricahua and Fort Bowie during our four-week trip in the summer of 2011, but the area was aflame with what would later become known as the Horseshoe 2 fire.

We arrived at the trailhead without incident:

It’s a 1.5 mile walk to the fort and visitor center.  I think this is the only NPS site I’ve been to that has a hike-only access to the visitor center:

In the distance, we could see the remains of the fort.  I tried to imagine the relief felt by survivors of Apache raids when they realized they were going to make it to the safety of the fort:

After the kids received their Junior Ranger badges at the visitor center from Ranger Ross, we walked the ruins.  Many of the building were made of low-grade adobe, now stabilized by an overcoating of plaster by the Park Service:

It was neat to find artifacts and know that they were from the 1860s, contemporaries of President Lincoln:

We stopped in at the cemetery on the hike back to the RV:

The sunset was amazing:

We drove down from Fort Bowie’s trailhead parking about a mile to overnight on BLM land with decent 4G service.  See the trip map for details.  Tomorrow we will head back to Chiricahua.