Precious Memories: Tombstone, Arizona and 5-Star Rest Area in Las Cruces, New Mexico

34-Day Cross Country RV Trip + 7-Day Caribbean Cruise 2022

Day 3: Tombstone, Arizona to Las Cruces, New Mexico

April 30, 2022

This morning, we only had a short 24-mile drive down the road from the campground in Benson to Tombstone. It's an easy, pretty country road with very few traffic on this early Saturday morning. I have done the research beforehand to figure out where we can park in town. There is a huge free parking lot for RVs and trucks down 6th Street, making this a convenient spot to visit. We were the second vehicle parked there that morning.

Tombstone is really an intrigue place with plenty of history and stories. One can spend as much time as they want here but we planned on only a couple of hours exploring this area which consists of just a few blocks.

Spacious parking down 6th Street in town.

Just a couple of blocks up to center of town.

Main street for visitors.

The infamous Bird Cage Theater.

Boardwalk

Horse-drawn carriage takes people for rides.

Signs along the street.

Cosmopolitan Hotel

O.K. Corral where they have gun fight shows,

includes admission to the Historama.

One block down from main street is another attraction with gun fight show.

Trolley that takes tourists on rides around town. $10pp.

Big Nose Kate's Saloon

Inside Big Nose Kate's.

$65 'antique'!

Painting inside Bird Cage Theater with bullet holes.

Bird Cage Theater

Menu of Big Nose Kate's Saloon with decent prices.

Great place for lunch, enjoying the atmosphere and good food.

My 'Hangover' burger. Excellent!

MOR's shrimp tacos.

We even had leftovers to go.

Ending our morning visit here.

Then we drove about five minutes away to the Boothill Graveyard for a visit.

$3 admission.

It is here where you could find those famous characters who died in Tombstone.

Here is Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers.

We also found a few Chinese who were buried here.

From Tombstone, we drove back north to Benson, filled up our gas tank and continued our drive east. We planned on spending the night at a campground in Deming, New Mexico but after talking to the owner on the phone, who kindly and honestly told us that the campground is a little off the track and we had to go on some gravel road, we decided to skip that and push further east to Las Cruces. I have read that there is a 5-star rest area near Las Cruces where we can spend the night for free. Just dry camping with no hook-ups. Sounds like a good option for us even though we have not done boondocking before. This is a popular rest area and for people who wants to spend the night, it's first come first serve. I was a little worried since it was a little late in the afternoon already. Fortunately, we were able to get into a good spot when we arrived, with some shades and an excellent view of the city below.