Hill and Dale: Bisbee City Trail

Friday, January 18, 2019

Bisbee City Trail

After yesterday's epic bicycle ride up Mt. Lemmon in Tucson, and since we were now in Bisbee to visit sister Trish, I thought an easy hike was in order—the city trail up Brewery Gulch and Zacatecas Canyon, on up Tombstone Canyon in the hills, and down Tombstone Canyon back through Main Street. This route has the added benefit of being a great tour of Old Bisbee. We were feeling pretty good after our little 55-mile ride up and down Lemmon, so this little 3-mile loop was a walk in the park. We added a mile or so with side trips here and there for about four miles all told. Brilliant day. All photos courtesy of my brother Jon, with a couple obvious exceptions.

Toward the end of Brewery Gulch, almost to Zacatecas Canyon, sits the amazing Mimosa Market, my go-to place for home-made bread, pie, bulk herbs and spices, and just about anything else you might need. It's a Bisbee institution and the owners are real gems.

Such a short hike doesn't require much if any gear. Water, we don't need no stinking water.

This place ir presently uninhabited, but it has had many temporary residents over the year—end-of-the-worlders waiting for the Rapture, anarchists, new-agers, minimalists—folks who for whatever reason, can't, or won't, consider more typical abodes

Brewery Gulch and the old copper mine, known locally as lavender pit, in the background.

My brother Jon Damon from Plano, Texas. Photo by Randall.

One of the old water tanks, now defunct, that still dot the hills.

The art deco courthouse on Tombstone Canyon Road.

The hill portion of the city hike begins or ends at Laundry Hill and a flight of stairs, one of dozens that climb the hills of Tombstone Canyon in this vertical town.

Any walk or hike around this town is also an art crawl; and this town is crawling with artists, who decorate their homes with some very imaginative pieces, this a welded dragon.