Guadalupe Mountains National Park, City of Rocks State PArk New Mexico and Catalina State Park - Tucson

Catalina State Park -Arizona

After spending over 5 weeks in Texas, it was now time to say goodbye to the Lone Star State and move westward once again.  Texas was an extremely varied experience, and we would highly recommend visiting there.

Although the daytime temperatures were acceptable at our next planned destination, the nighttime lows were too low to not winterize the RV’s plumbing again, so we passed on Carlsbad and its famous caverns, and continued in a more westerly direction. Tucson, Arizona had been beckening for weeks with its daytime temps in the low 70’s and not dropping near freezing over night. On the way, we did a slight deviation from a the direct route to spend one night at, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, located in Northwest Texas, just below the New Mexico state line. GMNP is a relatively new park, being created by two generous land donations in the 1960’s. At over 5600’ above sealevel, our campsite offered beautiful views of the mountains to the immediate West, and flater lands miles to the East. Although we did not have time to hike into the high country while there, you would be amazed at the changes that take place as you climb the trails up into the back country. Huge conifers, clear streams and many animals call this place home. The local Apache people called this place home and hid from the US Army for years in the upper reaches among the dense trees.  While we did not hike into the back country, we did hike a couple miles over to the ruins of one of the Butterfield Overland Mail Stations. Built before the Civil War, transcontinental telegraph and Pony Express, the company crossed from St Louis, Mo to Sacramento, CA in under 25 days!

GMNP - view from campground. imagine flowing streams and large timber on top 

ruins of Butterfield Stage station

easy hike trail GMNP

As mentioned, GMNP is sitting high up in the mountains, and the RV was given a pretty good test in climbing the several miles to the park and campground. Going back down would require a good amount of brake pedal. I remembered reading that the transmission in our RV had a feature, that when activated, would downshift the transmission safely when the brake pedal was pressed. I am happy to report that it worked as designed and we decended the mountain and rolled on to City of Rocks State Park in Southwest New Mexico. CORSP is a nice stopover for a day or two and we just happened to be there for the Total Lunar Eclipse at the end of January! RVs sites are set back in among the large rocks, This is very different and very cool.

Lots of rocks to be found

campsites set back in among the rocks

sunset from our site

City Of Rocks SP site 

total lunar eclipse of  Blue Super Moon

We arrived in the Tucson area the next day and our next stop , Lazy Days KOA. Now I know some of you may be thinking KOA?, but there was a reason to not go directly to a State or National Park. While on the roof of the RV back in Florida, I saw that the rain gutter caulking needed redone and had located a dealer in Tucson who could schedule it and not impact our plans. This dealer, Lazy Days RV, is adjacent to the KOA! We pulled in, occupied our site for the night (complete with lemon and orange trees where we did a little harvesting) walked over to the in-park restaurant for a decent BBQ dinner accompanied by a Prickly Pear Margarita.

our KOA site was under here - roof, like many in the area, is a solar array

Lazy Days KOA - tan building is restaurant, gift shop. Pool, hot tub and pet wash behind building

 The next morning at 8 AM I was pulling in to the service lane and dropping it off for the day! Then Cindy the dogs and I drove over to a nearby AutoZone, where the manager helped replace a cracked breather elbow on the Jeep ($4.67). Then we drove off in search of a good breakfast! Just up the road was Sunny Dayz Cafe and there we enjoyed a very nice omlet and a couple cups of coffee along with their speciality- a Sunny Puff (small wedge shaped doughnut puff rolled in powdered sugar and cinnamon) yummy! The remainer of the time waiting was spent back at KOA using the very nice, dog park, washing Cooper and CJ in the special dog wash and reading in the shade. By 3 PM we were back on the road and heading towards our next location - Catalina State Park. Located about 15 miles north of Tucson, this convenient park offers nice hiking, ancient ruins, easy access to civilization (groceries or even movies) and the points of interest in the Tucson area. Along the way we saw the tents erected for the  international Gem and mineral show being held.

Gem Show Tents - largest in the world!

Catalina State Park was booked solid for our entire stay! We saw rigs come and go during our week and a half there, but all spaces in both campgrounds were occupied at all times. With its scenic views, well maintained facilities and a locale offering access to many attractions, it is no problem to understand why all sites were occupied. In addition, the weather was great! Daytime provided sunny and mid 70's, nighttime mid 40's this made for very pleasant living.

Catalina State Park 

CSP Mountains from campground

Saguaro at Catalina State Park

With this great weather, we readily took advantage of the free music in the Park Saturday evening.

early evening free music in the park!

After checking out what was close by to visit, we choose to get our science fix and tour Biosphere 2. Only 25 minutes North of CSP, Biosphere 2 was frequently in the news back in the early 1990's as a team of 8 scientists spent 2 years inside attempting to create a living habitat/environment complete with oxygen and water to support human life in outer space. Results were mixed, but science did gain some knowledge. Low Oxygen and food production were serious issues that plagues them throughout the experiment. Today, University of Arizona utilizes the facility as a research facility. Pretty neat to experience.

main building at Biosphere 2

Biosphere rainforest

The next day was Superbowl Sunday and also time to clean the living quarters, go grocery shopping, visit the local Library to grab some hi speed internet and get ready to watch the game. Congrats to all my long suffering Eagle fan friends!

Monday morning found us heading down to Tucson and then East to the Mt Lemmon Scenic Drive. You start at roughly 3000' above sea level and climb to over 8000'! Along the way "in 27 miles it is the biological equivalent of driving from the deserts of Mexico to the forests of Canada". The views along the way are spectacular!

the scenic drive up Mt Lemmon hugs the mountains

many Hoodoos to be seen

more great views

The great drive and fabulous views were cut short by a rattling sound from under the Jeep (again). This was determined to be two broken exhaust hangers and a muffler about ready to fail. I had a small repair kit in the Jeep knowing we'd be traveling in some remote areas and soon had the tailpipe supported with wire once again.  Time to boogie back home and call Meineke! I made an appointment for a shop only 10 minutes from camp for first thing the next morning and then drove to the local Library to buy some used novels. The next morning, while sitting in the customer waiting area, the manager came out and said the dreaded words -" I need to show you something"! Jeep was losing bodily fluids at the rear axel and needed seals replaced. They were able to fit this in and Jeep was back on the road later that day.

Wednesday we grabbed Cooper and CJ and drove the 45 minutes West to Saguaro National Park. The Saguaro can  live for 125-150 years, are supported by a woody internal frame that is similar to very dry pine kindling in density when dead and provide homes for numerous birds. The park provides a scenic drive or numerous hiking trails, a modern Visitor Center complete with  a nicely done movie on the park and a gift shop! We took the scenic drive, did a couple of the  short hikes and climbed to see the Petroglyphs! Then back home for an relaxing afternoon at CSP. The extremely low humidity, sometimes in the single digits, equates to very pleasant days in the late afternoon shade.

this Saguaro could be 125 - 150 years old!. Probably 25-30 ft tall

these Petroglyphs are 600-1000 years old!

Thursday was Museum day for Dave. I had two destinations in mind. The first, the Titan II Missile Museum south of Tucson and secondly, the Pima Air and Space Museum right at the SE corner of the city next to the Air Force Base. First off to the Titan II Museum. Here you have the only surviving Titan II  silo (they used these to launch the Gemini Missions as well as for defense) . All the rest had the missiles removed and used for launching satellites, etc, the lids destroyed and then filled in. Here, you get to go down into the  control room, see reenactment of a launch and then view the disarmed Titan II in the silo!!! Most excellent!

Original stairs down to the underground missile command center.

original control room consoles- no Red Button, two keys need to be turned in sync after procedures completed to verify launch legit!!

Titan II in silo

Next it was time to check out Pima Air and Space Museum. A private museum on 80 acres with over 300 planes, helicopters, etc on display. (unfortunately my favorite WWII fighter - the Curtis P40 was in the restoration building) However, inside climate controlled hangers and out in the sunlight, are displayed a vast array of aircraft, including a B36,  B47, B52, two earlier Air Force One , numerous transports, Cold War and Viet Nam War fighters, choppers and inside the hangers, restored WWII fighters and bombers - Corsairs, Mustang, Spitfire, B24, B29, B25 and numerous others!! This is a great visit and my 3 hrs there was the minimum amount of time I would recommend.

on the left - JFK and LBJ's prop Air Force One, LBJ's first jet Air Force One

acres and acres of aircraft!

there are 5+ hangers of displays like this

Friday was the scheduled day to have the RV washed and waxed. Yes, somewhat of a luxury, but we had not been at a location that allowed washing your rig since early last Fall. So, here in the Mecca of the Snowbirds, washing and waxing is a big business and we took advantage to spruce up the rig and put a protective coating on it. We got up early, grabbed the dogs and with Jeep in tow, headed back down to Tucson and Lazy Days RV. We dropped the rig off, went a few blocks over to Sunny Dayz Café for another great breakfast and then on the road to Tombstone, home of silver mines, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and the gunfight at the OK Corral!!!

Tombstone has many original buildings remaining from its founding in the late 1870's as a silver mining town. Yes there were gunfights and Boot Hill is for real, but it was all about silver mining. Supposedly there are several hundred miles of mine tunnels beneath the immediate area of the town. We went down in the original mine and the excavated area represents what the silver that was removed!!!

all empty space was silver ore!!

Tombstone has many original buildings, including those from the Wyatt Earp era!

Wyatt Earp's house. Statue of Earp in foreground

This wraps up our stay in the Tucson area as we cleaned up and packed up once again. We will be in the Arizona area for several more weeks and will be reporting in when we can. Lots to see and experience in this great country!!

happy trails


Cooper and CJ
.