from Las Vegas to Tucson - Wild Wild West - USA 2022 - 5
01/02.03 - from Las Vegas to Tucson
Today it will be a long drive. I'm going to Gold Canyon, a small village east of Phoenix. But I will already make a first stop in Boulder City [↗]. This is a town that was founded for the workers who built the Hoover Dam. Today it is a nice clean community and the houses or lots are anything but cheap. First I stop at Hemenway Valley Park to see the Big Horn sheep. Unfortunately, they are not there today. The downtown area itself is really nice with lots of statues and some antique stores with even more stuff.
Next stop is Kingman. I've been here a couple of times. But hey, I'm here anyway and there's always something new to discover.
Now the longest part of the drive to Gold Canyon begins, and there's not much to stop for (except for a short stop to eat some vegetables I brought with me).
In Mesa, another town east of Phoenix, I stop briefly at Walmart, and since it's right next door, I also check to see if there's anything of interest at Kohl's. Kohl's is a department store chain I discovered 4 years ago that seems to have a good balance between price and quality.
I finally reach my destination. The Best Western Hotel is really nice, built in adobe style.
Breakfast is only available from 6-9am, which means I better get to Gold Canyon before I leave. Also, I lost an hour in Arizona, but since I'm still getting up early, it's not really an issue.
Gold Canyon is an artificial western town where they brought old buildings from different places to create a kind of theme park. I've been there twice before, but since it's only a few miles from the hotel, I thought it would be a good idea to go again.
I got there around 7:30 (no point in being there at sunrise, by the way, since it rises behind a mountain peak) and of course, there was no one there except a few people from the adjacent campground. Anyway, the entrance is free 24/7. They make their money from the stores and various attractions.
This time I want to take some pictures with my 12mm lens, but that turns out to be difficult as they have placed so many ads that many perspectives don't work (at least if you don't want to spend hours removing them in Photoshop). So I switch back to my standard lens and focus on the small details. You can spend hours here and still find something new.
After an hour or so, I head back to the hotel, grab a coffee from the breakfast buffet, and call home.
I take my time drinking the coffee and writing some more on this travelogue.
The drive to Tucson doesn't take long, even if I don't take the direct route. Instead, I take the AZ-177 to Kearny. This is a mining town founded to relocate people for the expansion of one of the largest copper mines in the world: ASARCO Ray Operation. That's what I want to take a look at.
Unfortunately, they have closed the official lookout, but there are some spots along the road where you can park the car and take a look at the mine. At the moment there is not much going on. It looks like they are mainly maintaining the site. Maybe that's why the lookout is not open. I change lenses and use the full 560mm to fill most of the frame with the huge trucks they are using. But not only the machines are interesting, but also the landscape is nice.
So I continue my drive towards Tucson. But before I get there I pass Biospere 2. We were there more than 20 years ago and I want to see how it looks like today. Well things changed quite a bit. The structure itself is of course the same and I remember the stories they told us pretty well (that's why I don't go for a tour by the way). The approach was via a dirt road where we had to drive very slowly in the passenger car we had. Now they are marketing the place extensively in visitor centers and hotels. They've paved the road, built a big parking lot, and built a visitor center that keeps you pretty far from the building if you're not on a guided tour.
But they also set up some nice tables in the shade where I eat the salad I bought at Walmart yesterday.
