On the way to Arizona, and just prior to the border, we stopped at the little ghost town of Steins, New Mexico, for lunch. It was very strange to be in a town that was a bustling community near the rock quarry. It was inhabited from 1861 to 1955. In 1949, due to a lack of water (and less work in the area) they stopped a train at the town and asked anyone to get on who wanted to move out with what they could carry. Eleven hundred of the thirteen hundred took them up on the offer. By 1955, there was nothing left. There was a general store with one person in it. He was very interesting and had many neat stories to share with us. Here is the view of a Ghost Town:
After lunch we headed west to Arizona. We wanted to stop at another state park on the way to Tucson and Phoenix, however, we did not find one that had room, so we decided to stop in the friendly little city of Willcox, Arizona. As it turned out, this used to be the location of the largest shipping area of cattle in the US. You wouldn't necessarily know that now, however, since it only has a population of about 3,500 people. We picked out an RV park that was not well advertised (a local we asked at the gas station wasn't even sure where it was when we got there), however, we found it without much trouble. The lot was pretty barren (of people and of trees, grass, etc.). It was just a large gravel 'parking lot'. We set up our site:
It turned out to be a great spot (we even stayed an extra day more than we had intended). This place had originally been a lounge and then was converted into an RV resort. It has a pool, a spa (whirlpool), a little restaurant, a fitness centre, a store, and a TV lounge. Here is the indoor pool:
The price (though high) included a waffle breakfast for everyone! Reba and Daniel thought this was a great place. Somehow I think the TV lounge had something to do with that. Heather Lynn, David, and James thought it was great since they were modem friendly (i.e. they had a phone hookup they let us use to do our e-mails).
Since we arrived there on a Saturday afternoon, we were able to go to church on Sunday morning for a Palm Sunday service. We decided to go to the First Baptist Church of Willcox. We actually had at least five choices in a four block area, and there were quite a few more available if we wanted to poke about. It was great to spend the morning at church, and even better, we found out that night they were planning an Easter musical, so we decided to go to that as well.
On Sunday afternoon we drove up to the Chiricahua National Monument (pronounced CHEERY-COWA). This was about a forty minute drive across desert terrain ending with a jaunt right into the side of a mountain. Eh oh, another trip up the side of a mountain! It wasn't nearly as bad as the cliff dwellings. When we got to the top we were able to see all the incredible rock formations. What a creation! The different things we have been able to see on this trip are astounding. This looked like a spread out, mountain version of the city of rocks. Here we are at the overlook:
And here is a closer look, providing a perspective of large these rock formations are. They were produced from tremendous volcanic activity.
When we got back we had a little snack (didn't have much time) and then headed over to our Easter musical at First Baptist. After that we headed back to our campsite for dinner.
Well, we had to decide what we were going to do next. Fortunately, our buddy Duncan Glendinning (we are heading that way to stay at the Glendinnings near Phoenix) said that he was not that impressed with Patagonia Lake State Park (a probable destination the next day after a planned visit to Tombstone along the way) so we decided not to head down there and to Nogales (Arizona/Mexico). Instead we continued on west and then north heading to Tucson and our next destination.