Rio Rico- Nogales area (Tucson, Yuma: homes, buy, school)

[Hal Roach]

You can do a lot of upgrading on a house with the 300 per day you will spend puttering around....which is fun, but just remember the cost involved vs. the cost of the house. Some take literally forever. October is quite nice down there. Shorts during the day, jacket at night. Shades for both..lol. No not really.

[Sockeye66]

I'm flying into Tucson Saturday and have an AirBnB booked in Tubac for a week. 1st three days will be on a HD Road King finding some back highways. I'll have a Mustang droptop for the last 3 days.

Definitely will find my way to Tombstone and Bisbee, what other areas should I not miss?

[Deelighted]

Originally Posted by Sockeye66

I'm flying into Tucson Saturday and have an AirBnB booked in Tubac for a week. 1st three days will be on a HD Road King finding some back highways. I'll have a Mustang droptop for the last 3 days.

Definitely will find my way to Tombstone and Bisbee, what other areas should I not miss?

Be sure to visit The Velvet Elvis for pizza in the town of Patagonia. http://www.patagoniaaz.com/the-velve...-patagonia-az/ Also plan a day in Patagonia State Park.

On your way to Tombstone, stop and visit the Fairbank ghost town which is on Hwy. 82 outside of Tombstone. There's a museum and book shop inside the general store building.

[Sockeye66]

Originally Posted by Deelighted

Be sure to visit The Velvet Elvis for pizza in the town of Patagonia. http://www.patagoniaaz.com/the-velve...-patagonia-az/ Also plan a day in Patagonia State Park.

On your way to Tombstone, stop and visit the Fairbank ghost town which is on Hwy. 82 outside of Tombstone. There's a museum and book shop inside the general store building.

Thanks! That'll be two stops along our 82 route.

[WilmaWildcat]

Go by Bookman's in Tucson and look through back issues of Arizona Highways magazines. We took some good side trips from their articles.

In the 90's I remember a good article about that area you're discussing; the magazine in hand, we went all the way around by Cochise Stronghold and Lochiel -- last stop before Mexico on that country road. It is cool parking there by that little house and looking out over the grasslands in Mexico to mountains way beyond the border. I don't know what it looks like 25 years later.

Even then the border patrol was parked there, but just one Bronco; we had a sand-colored pickup truck, so everybody thought we were some government people, I guess. They waved to us like they knew us. We turned around from Lochiel and came back down by Patagonia and then home to Tucson. At least that's how I remember it.

At that time, the Museum of the Horse was still in Patagonia, before the owner got fed up and moved it all to Ruidoso NM. Their historic train station was already looking nice at that point. Lochiel and a bunch of little settlements in there were all mining towns. I think you can give yourself a good ghost town tour.

[RichCapeCod]

"Lochiel -- last stop before Mexico on that country road. It is cool parking there by that little house and looking out over the grasslands in Mexico to mountains way beyond the border. I don't know what it looks like 25 years later."

I wrote a book about the border, including the Lochiel area (can't name the book as it's against City-Data rules to "advertise"). This part of our country is truly the third nation, not really Mexico, not quite the United States. I interviewed a man who, a half century earlier, lived in the home below (I believe the same one mentioned by this poster):

https://imgur.com/6H8j6om


https://imgur.com/4Wge4Ya

The gentleman told me there was not real border in the 1950s and 1960s. People moved back and forth to both nations.

Our border in this area is a few strands of wire and welded railroad track:

https://imgur.com/Qd8gYSf

Rich

[WilmaWildcat]

Hi, Rich! Thanks for the reply.

I don't know if that is the same little house, but it could be if it were fixed up a little. The one we saw looked in better condition. But the trees and brush around there do look like the area -- more than the photo of the road through a straight grassland.

Lochiel is at the edge of that mountainous area where all the mining towns were, and it's quite wooded and pretty in there, even with streams. At least it was the way we went. The photo of the road through grassland looked more to me like the area around Coronado Memorial...

All the best!

[recycled]

If you have time on your visit to Nogales area, a nice backroads trip is heading west past Ruby ghost town to the rustic little village of Arivaca. There is a mix of well graded dirt and paved roads headed that direction. This time of year is the perfect time for a visit to the area. Lots of mountain scenery and desert vegetation along the way with a good assortment of animals and birds. The Buenos Aires nat'l wildlife refuge is just west of Arivaca.

[WilmaWildcat]

Here's a great little video of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife refuge and some others in the area. Arizona Illustrated is a production of the UA's PBS station. I think I've seen all their local features video segments, and they are all good. Here's a few I noticed, with the home page index given at the bottom.

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEPJ...d_SM&index=299

Patagonia Lake State Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfhR...4Kd_SM&index=8

Canoa Ranch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb2f...Kd_SM&index=41

Arizona Illustrated Stories main page, listed newest to oldest
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...E5IGhjAL4Kd_SM

[Sockeye66]

Great suggestions! I have both Lochiel and Arivaca mapped for my travels.

I'm flying down Saturday so my adventure begins soon.

I promise to follow-up upon my return.