On the last morning in the Chiricahuas, most people were up early, I on the other hand slept in the van until after breakfast. I found that the van gets very cold at night but is still more comfortable than sleeping on pebbles in the tents. When I eventually woke up I quickly ate a breakfast consisting entirely of hot dogs and bacon, which I consider to be an excellent breakfast. After that, we quickly broke camp and loaded the vans for the next leg of the trip.

Tombstone

The next stop on the trip was Tombstone, the town too tough to die. Tombstone is reached by dirt roads, which are apparently not meant for vans. On the way to Tombstone, Harrison revealed that it is impossible to eat 5 saltine crackers in less than thirty seconds. After several people tried it was shown that it is actually impossible to do so. Upon entering Tombstone Ally became very happy because she noticed that there was a rock shop. The town of Tombstone is famous for being the location of the gunfight at the O. K. Corral. Nowadays town is a tourist trap. It is filled entirely with old west style stores and re-creations of gunfights daily.

San Pedro R. N. C. A.

After leaving Tombstone, we began driving again. Soon a bright green line appeared which starkly contrasted the surrounding area. As we got closer that line turned out to be the Cottonwood trees surrounding the San Pedro River. When we reached the San Pedro Riparian Natural Conservation Area we ate lunch. During lunch bees attacked us. Also Dr. Merck and Dr. Holtz found several interesting birds to photograph. After lunch we began the short hike to the San Pedro River. The first think that I noticed about the San Pedro River was that it actually had water in it, unlike most other "ivers" in Arizona. The river is fairly shallow but has large piles of branches pushed against trees indicating that it can go much higher. As we walked along the trail next to the river's edge we could see that the river followed a zig-zag pattern and that the shores were cut into point bars. The river is also highly polluted due to the fact that it flows past several Mexican factories on its way north to Arizona. On our way back down the trail we stopped to notice the rocks by the riverbed as well as to corner and identify a stink beetle, which sprayed the stick we were prodding it with its foul smelling spray. We then hiked the short way back to the vans and drove to Kartchner Caverns.

Day 8 (part II) Kartchner Caverns
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