"Old Tucson" - Certainly Not What I Was Thinking!

From the very beginning of planning this set of days off, Granpa has been talking about "Old Tucson."  I'm hearing him and putting it on the agenda, but I'm assuming it'll be another trip to a weary looking old downtown with (now) paved streets and tourist traps.

Today is the day we go explore this, and Granpa is excited.  I'm thinking that, if all else fails, we can at least get in a trip through Saguaro National Forest West (because there is a Saguaro National Forest East, too.)

We head west out of Tucson through a mountain pass and into a Saguaro-studded desert.  (Hmm, says I, this is different.)  The mountain pass is gorgeous, as are most in Arizona.  I'm always frustrated because the roads are usually two-lane, and there's no place to pull over for photo ops. Sometimes I try shots from the moving vehicle, but they just don't compare to a stop-n-op.

At least you get to see what a front yard looks like in Tucson ... Lawnmowers need not apply.

You probably can't see it, but this is our first glimpse of what is "Old Tucson."  Follow the wiggly line on the valley floor and try to see the settlement at the end on the left.  Now, imagine that you are on horseback.  This might be what you would have seen coming out of a mountain pass headed for a town in the old west in, say, 1775 when Spanish soldiers founded Presidio San Augustin del Tucson, (or a hundred years later, in a stagecoach.)

That concept visualized is pretty neat all by itself.  

The Saguaro seem to just march inexorably right up the mountain to the absolute top.  They appear to grow right out of the rocks!  These are healthy compared to the ones in the National Park East, but there are no interpretive signs educating you about them.  I scan the tops of all that I can see for a Crested Saguaro that I learned of on our last contract in Kingman, but I find none. (See http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2013/12/crested-saguaro.html)

I now begin to understand that "Old Tucson" is not old Tucson.  I query Granpa.  "Old Tucson" is a movie set that was built by Hollywood in 1939 to film a movie named Arizona.  (That's the same year Gone With the Wind was released.)  It has been expanded, partially burned down, rebuilt and continues to be a much-sought-after movie set and now, theme "park."  Not a Six Flags or Disneyland, but a theme park nonetheless.

One of my most favorite movies of all time, McLintock, was filmed here.  Knowing that, as I walk the streets of "Old Tucson," I see the locations where the famous John-Wayne-chasing-Maureen-O'Hara segment was shot.

This is a full-size town with complete structures, not just old west facades.  If you could read the directional signs, you would see High Chaparral, Arizona Ruins, Stage 2, Rodeo Arena, and Native Village - and yes, the TV series High Chaparral was filmed here - along with about 400 other movies and TV shows!