Bisbee, Coronado National Memorial, & Picacho Peak

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Bisbee & the Coronado National Memorial:

After finishing our hike at City of Rocks State Park, we drove about 3.5 hours to Bisbee,
AZ, where we checked into the OK Street Jailhouse. The jailhouse has
been transformed into a surprisingly comfortable B & B (though
you have to cook your own breakfast). Built in 1804 as the county
jail, it was part of the prison system until 1915 when a larger
facility was needed. It is believed to have once been owned by John
Wayne. In fact, there's a life-size cardboard photo of John Wayne in
the corner which took us by surprise every time we looked in that
direction! The former drunk tank is now a living room, kitchen, and
half bath. Upstairs where the serious offenders were housed is
now a large bedroom and bath, complete with a spa tub. Located in
the middle of “Old Bisbee,” it can serve a great base for
exploring the historical town and area.



Bisbee’s history is that of mineral mining in the late 1800s through around 1974 when
the last copper mine closed. The mining industry left huge scars on
the landscape, the most noticeable of which is the Lavender Pit. The
Lavender Pit is a former open pit copper mine named in honor of
Harrison M. Lavender (1890–1952), Vice-President and General
Manager of Phelps Dodge Corporation. Phelps Dodge Corporation opened
the Lavender Pit in 1950 and production through 1974 totaled 86
million tons of ore averaging about 0.7% copper, or about 600,000
tons of copper produced, with gold and silver as byproducts. The pit
covers an area of 300 acres and is 900 feet deep.



Our main purpose for staying in Bisbee was to be close to the Coronado National Memorial
located about 30 miles southwest of Bisbee right on the US/Mexican
border. The memorial was established to interpret the Francisco
Vázquez de Coronado Expedition around 1540. The Coronado expedition
was searching for the seven cities of gold and probably crossed into
what is now the US just east of the park following the corridor of
the San Pedro river. The expedition traveled from present day Mexico
all the way to Kansas before giving up on their search. Along the
way, the “missionary” purpose of the expedition became more of a
cruel invasion of the native culture of the region. Regardless of
the positive or negative impact of the expedition, it was one of the
first to explore what is today the southwestern United States.



On Friday, we drove to the memorial for our hike of the day. The thing that attracted us

to the memorial was the trail system that includes the origin of the
Arizona National Scenic Trail. This trail passes through the
memorial from the US/Mexican border and on through a portion of the
Coronado National Forest all the way to the border with Utah in the
north. I particularly wanted to hike to the border just to see what
it looked like there in this very remote area. I wondered if there
was a “wall” or any other kind of barrier or even an indication
of a need for some sort of secure barrier. We did manage to hike to
the border on a well maintained trail from the memorial’s visitor
center (which was closed due to the government shut-down) to a
junction with the Arizona trail and then to the border. What we
found was an easily crossed barbed wire fence which marked the border
and a boundary monument, number 102, which marked the start of the AZ
trail. The boundary monument is one of 258 such monuments erected
from 1891 to 1894 by the joint US/Mexico International Boundary and
Water Commission. The commission was created in 1889 to help resolve
disputes over the exact location of the border. The monument is
apparently located just on the Mexican side of the border since it is
on the southern side of the barbed wire fence. The inscription on
the monument reads ”The destruction or displacement of this
monument is a misdemeanor punishable by the United States or Mexico.”
Ate lunch at a bench there at the border. Of course we both had to
slip through a hole in the barbed wire and step a foot or two into
Mexico before we returned back up the trail to our car. The trail
from the visitor center to the junction with the AZ trail was 2.4
miles with a 1,500 foot elevation gain, then the trail to the border
from there was a one mile descent of about 600 feet in elevation. Of
course returning from the border meant climbing those 600 feet back
up, then going back down those 1,500 feet back to the car. All
totaled we hiked about 7 miles that day.



Returning to our jailhouse, we relaxed a bit before walking to the nearby Stock

Exchange Saloon for dinner. The Stock Exchange Saloon gets its name
from the fact that while originally a saloon, during prohibition and
the time of the mines’ heyday, it became a Stock Exchange and now,
some time after the repeal of prohibition, it’s a saloon again.
After dinner, we returned to our cells at the jailhouse.



Picacho Peak:

Saturday we drove north from Bisbee to Gold Canyon, AZ, just outside of Phoenix. Our plan was to stop at the Picacho Peak State Park along I-10, a little over half way, hike a short easy trail, then drive on to our motel in Gold Canyon. This was supposed to be a day when we took an easy hike to rest up a bit from the longer hikes. We had planned to hike what looked like a short 1.6 mile trail to the summit of the peak. As it turned out, this was not the smartest decision for a couple of reasons. First, it was a holiday weekend and admission to the park for Arizona residents was free (we had to pay $7.00), thus the trail was very crowded. Then there is the trail itself. Only 1.6 miles with an overall elevation gain of a little over 1,300 feet – BUT – that 1,300 feet is misleading. First there is a 900 foot climb in the first half mile, then a 250 foot descent in the next tenth of a mile, then a climb of 400 feet in the next 2 tenths of a mile before a final steep 100 foot climb to a saddle at about the one mile mark. From there you descend again almost straight down 400 feet in less than a tenth of a mile before climbing around 700 feet in the last half mile to the summit. That first mile to the saddle was pretty hard, especially with sharing the trail with LOTS of other people. But then we saw the hand-over-hand descent along a cable going down and, knowing that we’d have another half mile or so before the peak, we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and went no further. We ate lunch there at the saddle and then turned around and headed back to the car for the drive on to Gold Canyon, AZ. We got 2 hard miles in and were sufficiently tuckered when we finally arrived at our motel that evening.

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Photos

View from Joe's Canyon trail
The Joe's Canyon trail is the one that went from the visitor center to the junction with the Arizona trail..

From Joe's Canyon trail
Looking into the valley towards the visitor center.

Another from Joe's Canyon trail
Looking back toward the visitor center (that little red dot in the valley).

From Joe's Canyon trail
The curvy road going into the mts is the road we would have taken to Montezuma Pass if the shuttle had been running.

Looking into Mexico
This view is from about where the junction with the AZ trail was, looking southwest.

Monument # 102
The border monument at the start of the AZ trail.

Stepping into Mexico
The monument is just on the Mexican side of the fence.

Anne in Mexico
We both had to make short visits to Mexico.

Border fence
Looking west. You can see where a road parallels the border in the distance. Its that little light brown line in the middle of the picture

Mexico
Looking south over the fence into Mexico.

The Lavender Pit
In Bisbee, the huge hole in the ground left by the Phelps Dodge mining company after they extracted all of the higher grade copper ore.

The OK Street Jailhouse
Where we stayed in Bisbee.

Another of the jailhouse.
Bars on one second floor window were hinged so that you could use an escape ladder to evacuate if necessary.

John Wayne
Just as you enter the Jailhouse you see this man standing on the left. Surprised us every time we entered.

Picacho Peak
The peak itself is the one on the right. The saddle where we turned around is that little notch on the right side below the peak.

Picacho Peak
From the trail to the peak.

Descent from the saddle
Not a very good picture but this is looking down that steep descent from the saddle down to the trail that then goes up to the peak.

Desert view
The desert surrounds Picacho Peak state park.

In Picacho Peak state park
One of the lesser peaks in the park.

From the trail
Looking up at the peak from the trail to the saddle.