Easter Sunday and A Ride through The Las Cienegas National Conservation Area

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Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018

We started our day at The Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church for
9:00 AM  Mass to celebrate Easter.
The parishioners at this parish are very welcoming and it is always a
joyful experience attending Mass here.
This church has been serving the community of Tombstone for over 135 years.

We then went over to the Longhorn Restaurant for breakfast.
I remembered to take a picture when the food arrived then I realized
 the waitress had brought me the wrong meal.
 So when mine arrived I took another picture. 

We took the time to stop into a couple of shops and then headed back home. After changing we headed out to take a ride through the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. We had read about this area in Doug's Blog Miss Adventure Travels and a woman I am in contact with on Facebook had also mentioned this area. So being curious we went to check it out.

We turned onto the main road 6900 from AZ-83.
This is a beautiful area and the grasslands seem to go on forever.

It feels very peaceful here and we can see why people would enjoy
spending time parked out here.

We did make a stop at the Empire Ranch. The signs and the pictures pretty much tell the story

We took a walk down the Heritage Discovery Trail.

This was one

large tree.

I did take a closer picture of the New Ranch House but I really liked this
one with the cottonwood trees in the background.

Above is the Visitor Center.
We did pick up a Walking Tour Brochure here.

In the brochure it describes the various rooms and mentions looking in the
windows to see them. I am guessing that was before they fenced in the
buildings and started the stabilization project.

We did not go in and tour this area, next time. 

Leaving the ranch we continued down the road to check out the various listed areas designated for camping. We also picked up a map of the area at the Visitor Center which was very helpful. It is the same one on the boards at various locations but having one in hand is always nicer. I did not take any pictures of the various camping areas as there were people parked in all of them.

We just happened upon this there was
nothing about it on the map.

Again, the grasslands are beautiful and seem to go on forever.

We have turned out onto AZ-82 and are headed home.

Tonight's sunset

followed by a very nice afterglow.

We enjoyed our ride through the conservation area and will certainly take the time to go back as there are a lot of areas to explore. The question we had before we went was would we decide to dry camp here and the answer to that question for us is no. If we had a smaller rig or a 5th wheel we might consider it but with the motorhome we have presently we would not feel comfortable taking it down some of the roads. Since, we had to get off the road to let two RV's that were leaving pass our concern is what would happen in the motorhome if we had this happen. The Stinger "B" would not be able to pull off anymore than either of the two RV's we met could. One thing we always talk about is, if everyone wanted to park in the same place it would get very crowded. We can see why others love parking in the area you can feel the peacefulness as you ride along but for now we will not be adding to the "crowd".  Though we may contribute to the dust as we drive through.

Tom and I Hope you had a Wonderful Easter!

If you would like to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.