A wish list for exploring
Most of Arizona’s beautiful destinations are open. Here are suggestions for exploring Arizona in 2021
Most of Arizona’s beautiful destinations are open, while a few remain closed due to COVID-19. Check out suggestions for exploring Arizona in 2021.
Never has a new year been so eagerly anticipated. Things just have to get better, right? No pressure, 2021. But you better deliver. • While plenty of uncertainty remains, at least we’re moseying toward the neighborhood of Normal. What I’m most looking forward to is being able to ramble all across Arizona once again.
There are lots of things I’m eager to see and do, including old favorites and some that are new to me.
Of course, a few places are still closed but I’m hopeful they will reopen in the coming months. With that in mind, here’s my 2021 Arizona wish list.
Ghost Tour at the Bird Cage Theatre
As an Arizona travel writer and author, I’ve written about and stayed in virtually every haunted hotel in the state. Only once have I had a ghostly encounter.
It occurred at the Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee, where a heartbroken prostitute took her life. My sound sleep in the Julia Lowell Room was interrupted by a cold presence. I awoke shivering, frozen to my very marrow. I was sure it was contact from beyond the grave. Then I realized it was just my wife’s icy feet pressed against my back.
I’ve concluded that ghosts don’t like me. They never reveal themselves to me. But if ever a paranormal experience could be had, surely it would be at the historic Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone. The saloon and brothel opened in 1881 and ran for more than eight years before shutting down. Legend has it that 26 people died on the floor, and 140+ bullet holes still aerate the building.
While I always love to visit this remarkably preserved time capsule, I want to return for one of the nightly ghost tours. The Bird Cage is said to be one of the most haunted buildings in Arizona, so if there is something on the other side of the veil (besides my wife’s poor circulation) this will be my chance to find out.
Details: 535 E. Allen St., Tombstone. 520-457-3421, tombstonebirdcage.com.
Hike at White Pocket
Since I don’t have 4WD, I’ve not yet made it to this rugged corner of northern Arizona’s Vermilion Cliffs National Monument filled with domes, hoodoos and white-capped waves of swirling sandstone. If erosion is an artist, White Pocket was created during its abstract period.
A friend and I had plans to explore this exotic fantasyland last summer but the universe had other ideas. We’ve rescheduled for later in 2021 and I’m very much looking forward to it.
No permits are required to visit White Pocket. But this is a remote location, far from any sign of civilization, so be prepared. A rough road and deep sand requires 4WD and high clearance.
And please remember that despite the gnarled craggy appearance, this high plateau country is a fragile environment. Treat it with respect. Pack out all trash and any other trash you might find.
Details: 453-688-3200, blm.gov/visit/white-pocket-trailhead.
Explore Monument Valley when it reopens
Of all the places I didn’t go in 2020, I miss Monument Valley the most. It was the first summer in years I didn’t hike
across the valley floor, wrapped in stillness, admiring the sharp vertical notes of the big monoliths, and caressing the soft underbelly of passing clouds.
Because nowhere else does the sky seem so close. You feel it pressing down on you as it slips amid the towers, buttes and mesas. The spaces among those formations become as haunting and memorable as the rocks themselves.
Let me stress that Monument Valley and all Navajo Tribal Parks are closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and tourism to the reservation is strongly discouraged. Few services are available. But I’m hopeful the parks will reopen sometime in 2021.
If and when they do, three Monument Valley hiking trails are accessible without a Navajo guide — Wildcat, Lee Cly and Mesa Rim. There’s also a 17-mile rough dirt road that crawls across the valley floor. It can be done on your own, but if Navajo-led tours resume, you’ll get fascinating cultural insights and the ability to explore new corners of the landscape while supporting a local business.
Details: Get information on Navajo Tribal Parks and travel restrictions on the reservation at navajonationparks.org.
Watch hummingbirds in Patagonia
The Paton Center for Hummingbirds also is closed during the pandemic but once it reopens I’ll feel like things are approaching normal again.
This birding hotspot captures the laidback charm of Patagonia. The Patons put out backyard feeders in the 1970s and hummingbirds swarmed the property. The family soon began welcoming strangers who came to enjoy the colorful show. After Marion Paton died in 2009, neighbors kept the feeders stocked until 2014 when the Tucson Audubon Society took over.
The place hasn’t changed much over the years. There are chairs beneath a shade awning and a big board to list recent sightings. Folks have come from all over the world just to sit quietly in a small Arizona yard and watch clouds of hummingbirds. That sounds like a lovely carefree way to spend an hour and I hope to get to do it again soon.
Details: 477 Pennsylvania Ave., Patagonia. tucsonaudubon.org.
Spend a night at the Shady Dell
This remarkable place is the closest thing to a time machine you’ll find in Arizona. The vintage trailer park in Bisbee offers beautifully restored aluminum trailers for overnight accommodations,
as well as a bus and a Chris-Craft yacht.
The attention to detail is eye-popping. Every knick-knack, furnishing and fabric is appropriate to the era of the trailers. I’ve never been here without receiving tours of the other accommodations.
It’s like a swinging impromptu cocktail party from the 1950s. That’s just life at the Shady Dell.
And good news for foodies: Dot’s Diner is once again open on weekends dishing up hearty breakfasts and a slate of juicy burgers.
Details: 1 Old Douglas Road, Bisbee. 520-432-3567, theshadydell.com.
Explore Castle Dome Mines Museum
Tucked away in the sun-splashed outback of the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge northeast of Yuma, Castle Dome provides an authentic glimpse into the everyday life of an Arizona mining town.
What makes the ghost town so intriguing is that each of the 50-plus buildings is packed with period furniture, equipment, accessories and artifacts. These self-contained mini museums fill in a piece of the larger picture of what life was like on the desert frontier.
Visitors can wander the grounds at their own pace, and this is one of my favorite historic sites. Wooden floors creak at my every step. A soft breeze rustles faded curtains. Tables are set with tin cutlery. Sun streams through wavy windows and splashes across bottles and glasses lining the wooden bar. Poker chips sit stacked, ready to be pushed into the pot at the next turn of a card.
In every room, a moment hangs suspended. It feels like the townsfolk just stepped away, maybe to watch some hard-eyed stranger pull iron on one of the local bad men.
Only a thin layer of dust — the desert’s revenge — brings me back to the present. Tours of the fluorescent mineral walls of the adjacent Hull Mine are also available. See the website for hours, directions and prices.
Details: Castle Dome Mine Road, Yuma. Museum admission is $15, $7 for ages 7-11. 928-920-3062, castledomemuseum.org, enchantedcavern.org.
Tour Kartchner Caverns
Kartchner Caverns lies hidden beneath the rough hills of the Whetstone Mountains in southeastern Arizona near Benson.
A bristling forest of stalactites, stalagmites, columns and crystals fill the soaring rooms of this wet living cave. When you enter, a soft wall of humidity wraps around you. The sound of dripping water echoes in the darkness. It feels like walking into the chambers of a beating heart.
This fragile environment is intact and thriving because everyone involved, from the young cavers who discovered it, to the Kartchner family who owned the property, to Arizona State Parks, wanted to protect it. Limited cave tours by reservation only are currently being offered. No same-day cave tours.
Details: The park is 9 miles south of Benson on State Route 90. Tours cost $23, $13 for ages 7-13, $5 for age 6 and younger. Reservations: Call 877-MYPARKS and select option 2. Information: 520-586-4100. azstateparks.com/ kartchner.
Sit on a sandy beach
When November 2021 rolls around and it feels like summer is gone and much of the country is starting to hunker down for winter, I’m going to spend an 80-degree day on an Arizona beach.
I’ll sit near sparkling water beneath a clear blue sky and watch boats and seagulls, and remind myself I’m still in Arizona. My favorite beaches for autumn relaxation with a sprinkling of summertime are in Arizona State Parks in Lake Havasu City and Parker at the edge of the mighty Colorado River. Check out Lake Havasu State Park, Cattail Cove State Park or Buckskin Mountain State Park.
Details: azstateparks.com/lake-havasu, azstateparks.com/cattail-cove, azstateparks.com/buckskin.
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