Meandering in Southeastern Arizona...

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Absolutely criminal—never having been to Kartchner
Caverns State Park, that is…when it’s so close to
Tucson. It’s only 55 miles! We finally the reason we
had not been there yet is that one must make
reservations for the cavern tours, but you can’t make
reservations for the campground. Hmmm. Whoever figured that one out should re-think it a bit. I’m sure we’re not the only camperss that have been kept away because of that odd policy, knowing that the campground filled up quickly and it’s a crap shoot getting in.

So we decided to right this terrible wrong, cast caution to the wind, and make reservations for the Rotundra/Throne Room tour for Sunday afternoon, February 24…and took off for the park on Friday, 22 February hoping we would get into the campground. We figured if we couldn’t, we would stay at one of several private RV places in Benson, AZ, which is only 10 miles from the park and try to get into the campground later.

We lucked out, though…we got to the park about 2 pm and there were still campsites open…a few, anyway. We only paid for 2 nights because we didn’t know what the park was like, thought we might chose to move to a different location…and figured we would extend our stay if we liked it well enough. We circled through the two loops once…there were only maybe three or four sites left, and there were other RVs coming in right behind us, so we quickly decided which one we wanted and staked our claim. We stayed on the loop closest to the “Discovery Center” (the visitor’s center) near the walkway that takes one from the camp ground to the center… We thought this was a good site, as there was an older Airstream Excella a few sites away…probably a 30 or 31 footer. (We never did see those folks during what ended up being a 5-night stay…but we did take a picture of their rig! It’s below.) By 4 pm the campground was full, and it remained that way until Sunday afternoon. Each day until then, RVs would slowly circle through, scoping out the place, looking at everyone’s park tags to see who was planning to leave that day…they’d end up parking their rigs in the tour parking lots, doing their tour, then circling through again…and finally going elsewhere to land for the night…

This is really the first trip we’ve taken where we had no specific schedule. Why? We have been inspired by our new Airstream friends, Rich and Eleanor who have full-timed in their Airstream for two years with their 7-year old daughter, Emma. Rich publishes Airstream Life magazine from the road. He and Eleanor recently bought a home in Tucson early in 2007 to use as a landing
place periodically. They then left to continue their tour, and
retruned to Tucson in November ’07 to began a challenging
renovation of the house with the goal of getting it all fixed up
before they hit the road again this spring…so that when they
return in the fall of 2008, it would be habitable. Check out their blog, “Tour of America.” We were further inspired by Bobby and Danine, friends of Rich and Eleanor’s who happened to be “camping” at Rich and Eleanor’s house when we visited…they have taken a year off and have been on the road touring the country with their daughter, Elise. Their blog, “A Year About,” is equally interesting. Granted, our style of Airstreaming is a bit different than these two sets of experienced and fearless travelers because of time constraints and the necessity to be based from home…nonetheless we decided to give being a little less structured in our travels a try. If they can do it from day to day for very long periods and survive so happily, we should be able to handle it for our far shorter trips, right? Right.

So this was the trip. We decided to use Kartcher Caverns State Park as our springboard into a week of “meandering” around southeastern Arizona with nothing particular in mind other than a number of places we’d like to see…and just let things happen as they happened…no specific plans, no reservations (other than the mandatory cave tour reservations, of course). We had been in Bisbee, AZ last fall and had driven east to Douglas, then north on Highway 191 to Dragoon and on home on that trip…and we just returned from a very nice long weekend at Patagonia Lake State Park between Patagonia and Nogales, AZ, where we met up with our friend Chan...so we were ready to put more of southeastern Arizona under our belts…Benson, Willcox, and points of interest in that general neck o’ the woods.

After we arrived at Kartchner, unhitched the Bambi, set up camp, had a snack and took the Girls for the mandatory walk in the new territory…and while there was still light, we helped the Girls don their bustiers (harnesses), secured them into the back seat of the truck, and took off to check out private RV park options in Benson, just 10 miles away…thinking we may want to move our base of operation to Benson for a few days after a few nights at Kartchner. We had done some preliminary Internet research on RV parks in the area so we were armed with names and addresses and RV guide ratings of parks. We checked them all out. Most of them are fairly basic…almost all offer WiFi and
cable…and none of them are bargains. Well, one was pretty
cheap, but it offered very little and was right next to the freeway.
Most would be OK for an overnight if you don’t mind staying in
a glorified parking lot and just wanted a place to stop and sleep.
The nicest place was Butterfield’s, very close to the main drag and shopping… a very clean place with paved roads, WiFi, cable, it’s own observatory, etc, etc., but a little “packed-in” feeling… It was by far the best option, but after a few days there you’d know your neighbors much better than you wanted to. Lots of winter visitors long-terming there we though, too, which might cut down on availability. Unless you had a specific reason to be in the area, there was not much draw in Benson...and if we had a reason to spend much time there in a private park, Butterfield would be the place.

Benson sits at the junction of I-10 and Highway 80, which goes south into the San Pedro River Valley to Tombstone, Bisbee and Douglas...and that’s pretty much its claim to fame we felt...not much there to attract people. (Now they’re
going to hate us in Benson.) It was a disappointing foray,
other than a cool little antique wagon wheel for the yard,
acquired at the local antique shop on the main drag
through town. Back to Kartchner just in time for the temps to drop and the winds to rise…we were in for a blustery night as the wind came off the Whetstone Mountains into the valley, rocking the Bambi from time to time. When the sun went down it got chilly dern fast! But we were all cozy and warm in our little Bambi. It was a good day all in all. We’d done what we set out to do and then some...and the Girls were exhausted to prove it.

Click on the “Slide Show” below to see pictures of this first day of the tour, click on any one of the other segments of this trip, or click on “Other Trips” below the pics to take you to our main trip page. We hope you enjoy!

>Other Trips