Headed to Tucson for a wedding on Thursday. Sights to see places to go and eat at? Apparently wife wants to go Bisbee for sightseeing, but were open for suggestions.

On the way to Bisbee is the Fort Huachuca Museum.
Also the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is on the west side of Tucson.

Cool old church maybe 15 or so miles south.

San Xavier del Bac

Piima Air and Space Museum.

Yes!!!!

It’s gonna be hot, so to make it enjoyable, be mindful of how much stuff outside

That said, Pima Air Museum is pretty cool. Quite a bit is outside though

There is an underground mine tour in Bisbee

Kartchner Caverns near Benson is really neat but you will have to check if tickets are available as that’s how they limit access so as to not damage the ecosystem as the cavern is still forming. There is Colossal Cave, a dead cavern so unlimited access, is on the east side of Tucson.

Tombstone is touristy but you might enjoy it

Just for a drive, you can drive to the top of Mount Lemon. You start at about 2500 feet at the bottom and to like 9000 feet at the top. A twisty, windy paved road.

There is a State museum there in Tucson

San Xavier del Bac is an old Spanish mission built about 300 years ago. Not really far from downtown.

Sucks you can’t tour the boneyard anymore.

This is a good list. I'd add the Asarco Copper mine tour and the Titan Missile Museum as additional options, depending on your interests. Not too long ago I'd have added heading down to Nogales, Mexico, but those days are over.

Yeah, I wasn't even going to mention Nogales now. Probably still a good place or two down there to go, if I knew some locals. Going in blind, so to speak, No Way Jose.

Oh, you might try to fill up on Mexican food in the area. Where's krp, he and a couple other guys mentioned some place, might be nearer to Phoenix though.

Find a canyon or mountain and start walking.

Like was said a few post above....Take a ride up to the top of Mt. Lemon and cool off nice ride.

Krp mentioned a place in Globe/Miami which isn't the shortest drive from Tucson.

ETA The drive up to Globe is a nice drive if you enjoy the desert and mining. Also, lived there for a good chunk of time but my restaurants may be a bit dated.

San Javier Del Bac
Pima Air and Space Museum
Titan missle museum
Old Tucson movie set
Sonoran Desert Museum
Tombstone
Kartchner caverns

Oh! Know Mt Lemmon did burn really bad a few years back. Many popular places burned so check with locals on where to go.

One of the more unique restaurants in that area, at least by my knowledge / experience which is little: El Charro Cafe or something similar that features carne seca. El Charro is pretty old, from 1922. Carne seca is kind of like finely shredded, reconstituted jerky. Barrio Brewing should be around there as well if that's of interest, though I don't know how that location is situated since I have only been to the one in Mesa (that one is cool because it abuts an airstrip!).

Check this place out for great steaks and ribs in a cool Old West style atmosphere. Been there since the 40's. LI'l Abners Steak House

Typically have a live cowboy band playing on the patio during weekends.

Aha, I wasn't sure where that place was.

And yeah, time allowing, a person from MO might find going past Globe and another 60 or so miles to see the Salt River Canyon might find that impressive too.

Hell, I had to travel through there numerous times and I always found it impressive.

Lots to see if you have the time and drive a bit.

Regards

You could always hit up sycamore.
Lol

Guayo's El Rey, best mex food in the world, is in Miami az, it's a 2 hour drive from Tucson. If you do drive, do one way through Mammoth/Winkelman, take time to check out and maybe a quick hike at Aravaipa Canyon. Before the state took it over my cousins own the ranch there, I worked summers there in highschool ranchhanding for them, cool area.

You can come back through Superior/Florence jt/Florence, about the same time driving.

If you don't have that much time, Lupe's in Oracle jt has decent mex food, probably still hit Aravaipa from there.

Tombstone/Bisbee/caverns are east and south.

Kent

Old Tucson is kinda fun if it's still around. You'll feel like you walked into a familiar movie location...which you did. You might feel like you could see John Wayne...but you won't.

Tombstone is good. Desert Museum is real good.

Best wishes. Enjoy.

I have eaten many a meal at Lupe's.

second that (El Charro), but I would not do the carne seca, too damned seca (dry)

try the birria, like brisket that falls apart. get a reservation a day ahead, or drink a margarita for 30 mins while you wait. very popular

going to Bisbee, get reservations for the underground mine tour, very cool

Titan Missile museum, outstanding. south of tucson 20 mins easy drive on freeway all the way.

San Xavier del Bac Mission, like an Ancient European Church out in the middle of the desert very cool, can buy frybread /chile beans right in front from the locals

Tomstone, on way to Bisbee, historical museum in the old County courthouse is the least touristy thing in town.

walk around Campus at the U of A, especially Old Main, historic building, and the center of campus, WWI memorial fountain on west side of old Main, for the students and alumni killed in the war to end all wars.

East side of old main is the outline of BB-39, USS Arizona, and memorial with names, rates, and hometowns of all 1177 sailors and marines killed aboard on December 7, 1941.

Go to Douglas sit in Walmart parking lot checkout the hot ass Mexican girls.. go play golf in naco launch golf balls into Mexico. Desert diamond casino, then head to sells for burritos

Don't know if you've picked a hotel, but Loew's Ventana Canyon is a nice place to stay, and rates are pretty reasonable in the Summer. It's hard to drive to all the distances down in So AZ, but Loew's puts you up on the hill where Sunrise is the main street, and that can take you to Bisbee Breakfast club for a decent breakfast,and is also close to Sabino Canyon where you can walk, hike, or take a tram up into the hills. There's also an El Charro down off Skyline which usually isn't as busy (or quite as cool) as the one off of Court st, downtown. Chicken tortilla soup is great, so is the 3-tamale plate. Margaritas, average.

Also puts you close to Mt Lemmon, which is a nice visit. Although, if you don't already hate cyclists, you will by the time you travel up and back.

Bisbee has the mine as mentioned, The Copper Queen is pretty much the best restaurant, although there are some slightly up the hill (Cafe Roka?) within walking distance by all the antique stores that are getting popular, haven't tried. Some really decent galleries along the main drag downtown, too.

You'll drive right through Tombstone on the way to Bisbee, haven't been there in years but they used to have some pretty cool exhibits, Bird Cage, Museums. One of them had a delightfully tacky little diorama and film narrated by Vincent Price showing their history. Kind'a cool.

You'd need to double check on Old Tucson. It was closed the last time we were out that way in 2022. I get out there occasionally, having spent some time at Ft. Huachuca many years ago.

Is The Thing still a thing?

Buddy there now who’s not been there in 10-15 was blown away by the homeless camps.

Never been a bad idea to make sure you’re carrying. Also DUI’s in AZ are first offense felonies. Just in case that matters. It sure as [bleep] made me walk and find someone with an Uber account lol

It is still out there...somehow.

That defies logic lol

you don't discuss the Thing, it is only to be seen...

Kent

Once...maybe.

Don't know if I heard that limerick as a kid, my grandfather's sister lived in Willcox... or I made it up myself later... looking at the F'n signs every mile.

Kent

Every mile...for what seemed forever as a young lad.

were staying at an Embassy suites in Tucson. Yes i'll be packing as usual and not driving

This is the list. I've been to all of these and all are worth the visit. Throw a dart and go.

Villa Peru is awesome, we are in Tucson right now and went there last night. Peruvian food rocks, this place is fairly expensive but really is fantastic

Istanbul restaurant is also great, Turkish and Mediterranean. The Manti and okra and kebabs are all very good

For Sonoran dogs Guero Canelo is good but I usually prefer the food truck versions

Haven’t been to El Charro in a long time but will try to go there tomorrow

Have a GREAT time in Tucson

The San Javier mission is cool. The DeGrazia art museum is cheap and really cool if you like art. We went to the SCI wildlife museum, it’s pretty cool as well

Gonna check out Karchber caverns tomorrow and maybe Tombstone afterwards

Ok back from Tucson. There’s so many good places to eat there

Alafia west African restaurant was very good. The whole tilapia was great

Selena’s Salvadoran 👌🏻 Pupusas are dynamite

For tacos taqueria El Chikitin (food truck) on Grant and Country Club is an awesome quick stop. If you have a sweet tooth there is a Raspados El Chikitin next door (actual storefront). The Macedonia was fantastic

Kartchner Caverns is pretty cool. I’d say worth seeing

Tombstone is a total tourist trap but people were loving it. The shootout is worth the $10 admission. If you like beer, Tombstone Brewing is there and it’s my favorite brewery in the state

Well we're here and heading to Miami AZ for lunch and take Kent's 2 routes. Going to Bisbee as well and trying to squeeze in some more sights tomorrow. BTW the Divine Bovine burger joint was great

If you get a chance you might want to take a selfie in front of the AR15 mural in Miami to document your visit. I keep forgetting to do that. It's right down from Guayo's.

Guayo's El Rey on Sullivan street. Miami is about one mile long going through route 60, there is only one street paralleling the 60, it's on the north one block, Sullivan st, it's the real downtown, mostly antique shops and Guayo's, many of the buildings are abandoned. There are two Guayo's restaurants, two brothers from the original couple that started Guayo's in the 40s. The other is 'Guayo's on the Trail' a few miles away on the road to Roosevelt lake. I like Miami's Guayo's better but they are very close. The two brothers kill some nice mule deer around that area.

I get a number 6, enchilada, taco, burro, if you order a combo the default for an enchilada is cheese and the burro is a 'regular burro', which is bean, red sauce and meat chunks. I tell them to add beef to my enchilada, you can add whatever or leave it cheese, I like the regular burro but you can make it whatever they have, my buddy likes the green chili burro. There are two different hot sauce, I use the hot, my wife mixes the two, and the kids use the mild, ask which is which.

The rice is killer, they won't give up the recipe and I can't figure out the last one or two ingredients to duplicate it.

Kent

Being pride month, Bisbee will be interesting, funny how such a small town has such a large homosexual population?
Best chow in Bisbee is Bisbee breakfast club, there are several points of interest, and a major part of old town is legit, unlike Tombstone.
If for some unknown reason you venture further south to Douglas, best Meskin food in the county is El Chef. Possibly one of just a small handful in the whole state that actually make their red sauce for burros and enchiladas from Chile pods instead of out of a can or jar. You can always tell the minute you see that pale orange/red color, the restuarant is slacking, El Chefs sauce is deep red and the real deal.

Gonna have to check out this place in Miami

Globe/Claypool/Miami are all one community maybe 6 miles total. Anyway since you will be in Globe, if you have 30 minutes stop by the ruins, just off the 60 in Globe, It's part of an actual city park.

1324 S. Jesse Hayes Rd.
Globe, AZ 85501

Kent

It's been there for about 80 years, recipes are the same as long as I can remember and probably from when my grandparents ate there.

Kent

Gwen had the #5. I had 2 green beef enchiladas . We had 3 bowls of them fabulous chips. Kent thanks for the routes and the restaurant. Taking on Bisbee tomorrow am. Went to casa grande ruins and stopped at several interesting places.

You can stop in the old Globe cemetery and check out Ed Tewksbury, last man standing in the Pleasant Valley War, and Al Sieber, famous chief of scouts for the US Army during the Indian wars in Az. He also took Tom Horn under his wing.

I didn't mention the chips, hoping they'd be a pleasant surprise, I swear I could just eat bowls of chips and go out happy. For those that don't know they put two kinds in the bowl, corn and flour, the flour are like super gourmet.

Kent

Going to Bisbee I like the Horseshoe cafe in Benson for breakfast or lunch coming back, in Tombstone I think it's the OK Corral cafe about a block off the main drag.

Kent

Did Coronado park, Montezuma pass, and national forest today. Loved it. Think we saw Cous deer by Parker canyon lake. Hit a border patrol check point too.

Should have just asked for places to see in the state!

Hope you enjoyed.

SHH!
Busy enough as it is.

I know Dave... I don't know if it's worth driving from Tucson for, at least the first time.

My wife describes it like this... first time you say, that was good... second time your tastebuds have acclimated to the different type of flavors than the mex/amer food in town, and says, Oh ya... by the third time you swear there's some addictive drug put in there.

No where else is the chips and salsa worth stopping in for by itself, or the rice not just some side afterthought. Most of the mex restaurants in the Globe area are related, the Reynoso and Guayo families multiple restaurants, Burger house, Ed's la casita... very unique traditional style mex food found no where else.

We've taken a lot of people up there, if my wife posts on facebook we went, they come out of the woodwork complaining we didn't invite them...

Kent

Krp,

What fo you think of Guayos on the Trail. Used to stop there on the way up to hunt with JLG.

They are brothers, Guayos in Miami is closed wed, the trail is closed tuesdays, maybe mondays also now. They do that so one is always open. They have the same recipes and menus, same chips, slight variation in taste, very close.

My wife likes authentic albondigas soup with clear broth, on the trail's soup is red and tastes like Campbells veg soup... that's the only complaint.

I've eaten at on the trail in the last month fishing on a wed, it was good!

Kent

Copy. Have eaten at both many times but the Tucson to Rim drive it was more convenient to stop @ on the Trail.

Regards

Last time I saw JLG, he had a young girl hunter up in the Payson area that needed a 410 to hunt squirrels with, she wasn't able to get it done with a 22. He was wanting to find one for the mother to buy her...

Screw that, I asked the guys on CWT to pony up 20 bucks each and we bought one for her. JLG stopped by my house to pick it up, later he said her mother cried and had no idea strangers cared about her daughter enough to do that... pass it on...

JLG is a good guy, glad I know him.

Kent

Lupe's is almost like the Globe area mex food, thought maybe they were related but I don't think so.

Kent

Kent,

do you happen to know what part of Mexico the families are from?

Regional variation in things like the soup you mentioned, or those chips I have to try one day, are what make finding good Mexican food special.

Sonoran style, but not the commercialized Sonoran style, very unique sauces and flavors found no where else. Not americanized at all.

Kent

Kent,

Now that you mention it Lupe's is pretty close to the globe area cuisine.

How I miss good mex food.

Regards

Thanks Kent,

J, I bet it's tough where you are. Maybe not as bad as NW PA in 1999, or Harrisburg PA in '79. I was jonesin' bad there.

I worked on Oahu early 90s, looked in the yellow pages for a mex food restaurant, there was one on the island, downtown Honolulu... I don't know what the chit it was they brought me, you'd never guess it was mexican food and tasted worse.

Kent

As a kid went to Michigan for a couple months with a buddy. His family took us out for Mexican food about halfway through the trip. I was so excited!

Then we pulled into their "Mexican" restaurant...Taco Bell.

What a letdown...

Since we're relating some incidents.

'79 in Harrisburg PA, there was no Mexican food to be found (by me anyway) so I decided to make some shredded beef burritos for my friend who put me up when I first got there. Beef, onions, garlic, even some chilies weren't too hard to find, I think I found some "Pace" type salsa, then went to 3-4 grocery stores for the flour tortillas. At one, after some searching, I decided to ask a young lady working there if I had missed them. She directed me to an aisle and pointed up at a box of preformed hard corn taco shells and said "Oh, you mean these". Can't remember where I finally found them, but I did get some burritos made.

NW PA in '99. Asked a dude I worked with where I might find some. He said there's a restaurant up the road in Jamestown NY. OK, the Sears store and the big grocery are there so I can tie in some shopping and get a Mexican meal. I check the menu, the waitress comes to take my order. I'll have the beef burrito." would you like onions and peppers on that?" I didn't say it out loud but thought that's an odd question, however I am in NW NY and these folks think garlic in the spaghetti sauce makes it spicy. Yeah, I'd like the onions and peppers. "would you like chips and salsa?" Hmmn? another odd question............sure bring them too.

Food comes, the burrito is served wet, like in NM, which is tolerable. But the red sauce looks a bit funny. Well isn't this interesting, it's got ground beef in it like spaghetti sauce and tastes about the same too. Burrito was edible, ground beef inside though, but there were onions and ............bell peppers. Check comes, I look at it and there's a $3.50 charge for the chips and salsa, and $0.50 each charge for the onions and peppers? WTF I say. Waitress says that's what we charge. I told her I though she was just being polite as some folks don't like onions and peppers and that where I come from chips are set on the table when one sits down. Oh well, never went back to that place and I warned folks away even.

Eventually found a place in Bradford PA, run by a Mexican guy who ran a restaurant in Buckeye, AZ of all place. His wife was from PA and wanted to go back to her family so he decided to open a restaurant there. Wife and I would make the 45 minute drive in all sorts of weather when I needed Mexican food and the folks there thought I was crazy.

'74, Port Angeles WA. Just came out of a back packing trip over the Olympics from the Quinalt Lake side. 2 buddies and I spied an ad for Mexican food in the Yellow Pages. Boom, after freeze dried food for 8 days or so, hell to the yeah. We go, order food, lady brings out the "hot sauce" in one of those big glass dishes with a stainless steel lid and a spot for a spoon handle. Used to have them in places for sugar too. 3 SoCal boys, early 20's, hungry, we ate our food and three jars of their sauce. Get to the register and the lady says, and I'm not scheidting you, " You boys aren't from around here, are you?". We asked how can you tell. "No one around here could eat on dish of that hot sauce and you guys ate three" We laughed and told here we were from down near that border and that was more like baby food where we came from.

Juneau AK, E WA, and a few other places along the way were tough at times too.