Kartchner Caverns
& Tombstone

Kartchner Caverns Camp Spot

Next stop was Kartchner Caverns in Benson, Arizona. We had heard we must stop and see these amazing caverns and they were right!  The caverns are located inside of a state park with a campground.  Convenient if you’re planning a trip to see the caverns. Camping with electric and water hook-ups is $30/night. There are absolutely no discounts of any kind – we were told when we asked. Zip, zilch, nada – everyone pays the same amount for the tours and for camping, unless you have a coupon! We found a $4 off coupon in a brochure that we found on the caverns.  The campground is adequate but not amazing. The spots are close together and the amenities include bathrooms and showers.

The cave tours are the amazing part.  There are two tours to choose from, the Rotunda Room or the Big room Tour. The Big Room is only available to tour during certain times of the year because of bats that occupy the cave during certain months. We went in the middle of February and had the option to do either. We had read on several blogs that they are equally amazing which made it hard for us to choose. We decided to go with the Rotunda Room because it was the first available for reservations. The tickets are $23 for adult admission, $19 each with our coupon 🙂 . They go to great lengths to preserve the inside of the caves, going so far to give explicit instructions to not touch anything, you cannot bring phone/camera inside the caves, they don’t want sweatshirts or jackets tied loosely around your waist – you must roll it up tightly and then tie it around your waist. They say all these instructions politely and explain that its all in the name of preservation for future generations. We smiled an obliged, but that also means we have no pics of the inside of the caves. So you will need to visit the website to see the inside. As usual, the pics don’t do it justice.

Kartchner Caverns happens to be a short driving distance from the notorious Tombstone and old Fairbanks. We spent an afternoon in Tombstone and another in Fairbanks. Tombstone is a small city with a great history that refuses to die. We found out relatively quickly by the first place we walked into and then the second and third, that every tour there costs $10/person. Almost all the places on the short strip have a story to tell and it will cost you to experience it. A little trip to Tombstone could cost you some dough if you went on all of the tours. We decided that we would go on one tour, the old courthouse. We’ve learned to ask if there are any discounts at just about every place we go and usually there is, but we were finding that all the places we had went to on the strip said, “no”. Then, just as we completed paying for the courthouse tour we found that they do in fact offer discounts to veterans because it is run by the state, but we hadn’t asked this time! Ugh! So, we paid $10 each.

The courthouse held much history and of course told the legendary story of when the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday got into a shoot out with the “cowboys” at the O.K. Corral, where the McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton were shot and killed back in October 1881. Some say it was murder and some say justice was served. We enjoyed walking down the main street and imagining what it would have been like way back when.  We also took a moment to check out the cemetery.

The following day we explored the ruins of Fairbanks.  This city did not hold up like Tombstone.  There are a few remaining structures from the once bustling city near the river. Again, we walked around the old town and found remnants of what it used to be over 100 years ago. There was an old mill and cemetery that we walked to that were some distance from the few remaining buildings. It was at the base of the mill that we spotted a rattler. This was the first rattlesnake I’ve ever seen out in the open! As tempted as I was to throw a rock at it and hear it rattle, I resisted and Jimmy thanked me for it. It was a good decision.

We packed a lot into that weekend and there was much more we could have seen and done, but we had to get back to work. We were off to Mesa, Arizona next…