old west + things to do + unique stay + donkeys - bears.
August 13, 2024 9:58 AM Subscribe
My husband is turning 40 next year (mid-March). I'd like to surprise him with a getaway that includes his love of the old west/country western, great food and possible day trips to nearby cultural attractions (museums, historic buildings, live music). Whole towns, resorts, etc are all up for consideration.
A few other things:
We love unique stays, but I'd like to avoid outright camping as we'd probably be flying in to where ever this is. An old train? Glamping? We're all for it.
The budget is around $3000-$3500 for 3-4 nights. Willing to fly anywhere in the US!
We're more of a get out and go see vs relax and do nothing vacationers, but our "get out and see" trends toward the cultural vs heavy outdoor things. A historical tour/museum, art activity/cooking class or a play/concert and a great dinner is right up his alley. We're fine renting a car or using public transport.
He loves taking pictures, so places with interesting buildings/landscapes are great!
Donkeys are his favorite animal. He would be so happy to be able to see or interact with them in some way.
He really fears bears. Please don't send us anywhere that is going to have a grizzly roaming the property. Yes I understand that bears exist everywhere, but don't recommend a bear sanctuary or a grizzly-watching tour.
Go _____, and do ______, and stay ______ or By all means, avoid ________ because ______ are super helpful at this stage of my planning process.
Thank you!
A few other things:
We love unique stays, but I'd like to avoid outright camping as we'd probably be flying in to where ever this is. An old train? Glamping? We're all for it.
The budget is around $3000-$3500 for 3-4 nights. Willing to fly anywhere in the US!
We're more of a get out and go see vs relax and do nothing vacationers, but our "get out and see" trends toward the cultural vs heavy outdoor things. A historical tour/museum, art activity/cooking class or a play/concert and a great dinner is right up his alley. We're fine renting a car or using public transport.
He loves taking pictures, so places with interesting buildings/landscapes are great!
Donkeys are his favorite animal. He would be so happy to be able to see or interact with them in some way.
He really fears bears. Please don't send us anywhere that is going to have a grizzly roaming the property. Yes I understand that bears exist everywhere, but don't recommend a bear sanctuary or a grizzly-watching tour.
Go _____, and do ______, and stay ______ or By all means, avoid ________ because ______ are super helpful at this stage of my planning process.
Thank you!
Arizona would give you some Old West sites, like Jerome, which is considered a ghost town (and definitely populated, so no, I don't know the definition of "ghost town" they are using), and there are other ghost towns in Arizona. And of course the Grand Canyon, which has mules (a cross breed of donkey and horse). The famed burro (donkey) rides are actually mules, since burros are not normally able to carry people, but mules are larger and can handle the weight. A common trip is fly to Las Vegas, go over the Hoover Dam while passing over the Colorado River on your way to the Grand Canyon, do other things in Arizona, and fly home from Phoenix.
A big downside of, well, a lot of places in the western US when traveling, including Arizona, is how far apart everything can be. If you wanted the Grand Canyon, Jerome, and the OK Corral (which I expect to be, yes quite historic, but also very touristy), the Grand Canyon is near the Utah border while the OK Corral is near the Mexican border (not next to, just relative to other places). Skipping Jerome, Grand Canyon to OK Corral is a 6-7 hour drive. If it's a shorter trip, that's a lot of it spent in the car.
There are bears in Northern Arizona, but the likelihood of coming across one is close to zero, unless you visit Bearizona (yes, that's really the name), a local bear park, and of course that won't be on your itinerary. I've lived in Northern Arizona for 20 years and I have never seen a bear, unless I took a forgettable trip to Bearizona.
For a night at the Canyon, you would likely stay at the South Rim. The North Rim has far fewer people, but the wait time for the cabins at North Rim is usually around 18 months, if not longer.
By the way, you didn't give an indication of where you are, so we don't suggest something that's 50 miles from you and you have visited multiple times, but I'm guessing all of the western US is fair game.
posted by Meldanthral at 10:56 AM on August 13 [2 favorites]
A big downside of, well, a lot of places in the western US when traveling, including Arizona, is how far apart everything can be. If you wanted the Grand Canyon, Jerome, and the OK Corral (which I expect to be, yes quite historic, but also very touristy), the Grand Canyon is near the Utah border while the OK Corral is near the Mexican border (not next to, just relative to other places). Skipping Jerome, Grand Canyon to OK Corral is a 6-7 hour drive. If it's a shorter trip, that's a lot of it spent in the car.
There are bears in Northern Arizona, but the likelihood of coming across one is close to zero, unless you visit Bearizona (yes, that's really the name), a local bear park, and of course that won't be on your itinerary. I've lived in Northern Arizona for 20 years and I have never seen a bear, unless I took a forgettable trip to Bearizona.
For a night at the Canyon, you would likely stay at the South Rim. The North Rim has far fewer people, but the wait time for the cabins at North Rim is usually around 18 months, if not longer.
By the way, you didn't give an indication of where you are, so we don't suggest something that's 50 miles from you and you have visited multiple times, but I'm guessing all of the western US is fair game.
posted by Meldanthral at 10:56 AM on August 13 [2 favorites]
Do go to Bisbee, Arizona. It is absolutely gorgeous (and great to visit in March), and no bears anywhere around. It's an old copper mining town and the site of an infamous labor conflict that almost turned deadly for the workers involved.
Yes, you can tour the old mine, and many of the fine eating establishments will give you that Old West feel as well. It's become an artists' colony and so there's tons of eye candy of all kinds. Nose candy, too, if the world's largest rose tree is in bloom at all.
And make sure to drive around huge, beautiful Cochise County while you are there. The highlight for me is Chiricahua National Monument, an Apache stronghold up through the turn of the last century. Unique rock formations and never very crowded with tourists, thank God. Photo gallery here.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 11:01 AM on August 13 [6 favorites]
Yes, you can tour the old mine, and many of the fine eating establishments will give you that Old West feel as well. It's become an artists' colony and so there's tons of eye candy of all kinds. Nose candy, too, if the world's largest rose tree is in bloom at all.
And make sure to drive around huge, beautiful Cochise County while you are there. The highlight for me is Chiricahua National Monument, an Apache stronghold up through the turn of the last century. Unique rock formations and never very crowded with tourists, thank God. Photo gallery here.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 11:01 AM on August 13 [6 favorites]
Whoops - the rose tree is actually in Tombstone, AZ, but it's not that far from Bisbee. And Tombstone itself is worth a few hours at least.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 11:04 AM on August 13 [1 favorite]
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 11:04 AM on August 13 [1 favorite]
Bisbee is awesome. By all means, go to Bisbee, stay at the Shady Dell or the Copper Queen, and spend a day or two poking around the town, it's really a great little place. You'll want to wander around Cochise County, as well. That part of the state is breathtakingly beautiful.
But, and this is a huuuuuuge but, do not - and I cannot stress this enough - DO NOT go to Tombstone. You will be tempted! It's right there! Close to Bisbee! But it's AWFUL. It takes everything interesting about the "old West" and has turned it into a sub-Disney level attraction/themed show. The "shows" are awful, the food there is execrable (it's cruise-ship buffet quality, at best), and the whole place is basically just designed to suck dollars out of tourists who crave the "real Western experience!" while offering them nothing of the sort.
Drive through Tombstone on your way to Bisbee, look around as you pass through, and know that you'll have seen all you need to see of it.
Also: Fall for the billboards on I-10. Go see The Thing. It's dumb. But it takes 10 minutes.
posted by pdb at 11:24 AM on August 13 [3 favorites]
But, and this is a huuuuuuge but, do not - and I cannot stress this enough - DO NOT go to Tombstone. You will be tempted! It's right there! Close to Bisbee! But it's AWFUL. It takes everything interesting about the "old West" and has turned it into a sub-Disney level attraction/themed show. The "shows" are awful, the food there is execrable (it's cruise-ship buffet quality, at best), and the whole place is basically just designed to suck dollars out of tourists who crave the "real Western experience!" while offering them nothing of the sort.
Drive through Tombstone on your way to Bisbee, look around as you pass through, and know that you'll have seen all you need to see of it.
Also: Fall for the billboards on I-10. Go see The Thing. It's dumb. But it takes 10 minutes.
posted by pdb at 11:24 AM on August 13 [3 favorites]
It's the wrong month, but Bryce Canyon Mule Days is in May. We've been in the area for a month, there's all kinds of cool programs since you're near Bryce Canyon, Dixie National Forest, Grande Escalante, Kodachrome Basin, Goblin Valley, and Zion National park. In this area you can find every possible kind of accommodation, including covered wagon (with heat and a/c), tiny houses, cabins of every comfort level, yurts, airstream parks. (We just drove past Ofland this weekend and I want to come back and stay in all the different lodgings.)
Near Zion, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is in Kanab (which is a cute little town, we spent a weekend at the Best Friends Roadhouse) has an equine center, they don't specifically mention donkeys but you can find out for sure. Kanab is maybe 2 hours from the Grand Canyon, which offers Mule Trips.
Oh, and southern Utah/northern Arizona hosts - as best I can tell from experience - approximately 30% of Europe in the summer, so absolutely anything you want to rent for accommodation - tents, backpacking gear, RVs you drive, RVs someone puts on a site and you stay in it, kayaks, SUPs, telescope and camera gear, dune buggies, jetskis - can be found without having to fly in your own equipment.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:50 AM on August 13
Near Zion, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is in Kanab (which is a cute little town, we spent a weekend at the Best Friends Roadhouse) has an equine center, they don't specifically mention donkeys but you can find out for sure. Kanab is maybe 2 hours from the Grand Canyon, which offers Mule Trips.
Oh, and southern Utah/northern Arizona hosts - as best I can tell from experience - approximately 30% of Europe in the summer, so absolutely anything you want to rent for accommodation - tents, backpacking gear, RVs you drive, RVs someone puts on a site and you stay in it, kayaks, SUPs, telescope and camera gear, dune buggies, jetskis - can be found without having to fly in your own equipment.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:50 AM on August 13
There also always Oatman AZ with its famous wild burros that wander around town, it’s part of the old Route 66 if you are in the area.
posted by lepus at 12:02 PM on August 13 [3 favorites]
posted by lepus at 12:02 PM on August 13 [3 favorites]
Santa Fe New Mexico is absolutely full of Western history and fun cultural stuff to see and do. Everything from rodeos to Indian Market to Georgia O'Keefe to opera to an impressive contemporary art gallery scene.
There is also a burro parade, burro races, donkey rescue, and burro statues.
posted by forkisbetter at 12:14 PM on August 13 [6 favorites]
There is also a burro parade, burro races, donkey rescue, and burro statues.
posted by forkisbetter at 12:14 PM on August 13 [6 favorites]
And yeah, as meldanthral notes, the western US is...very very large - although I see from your profile you're from Portland (as am I), so that's not something that should catch you off guard.
Public transport from place to place in the SW is not great except from major city to major city. To drive from Bisbee to Santa Fe, for example, is 8 hours pus. To drive from Bisbee to the south rim of the Grand Canyon is almost 7. So some sense of where you'd be coming from/maybe wanting to be centering yourself would be helpful.
posted by pdb at 12:34 PM on August 13
Public transport from place to place in the SW is not great except from major city to major city. To drive from Bisbee to Santa Fe, for example, is 8 hours pus. To drive from Bisbee to the south rim of the Grand Canyon is almost 7. So some sense of where you'd be coming from/maybe wanting to be centering yourself would be helpful.
posted by pdb at 12:34 PM on August 13
Never been but when I saw "West" but with art and culture and food, I thought of Marfa, TX.
posted by mmascolino at 12:38 PM on August 13
posted by mmascolino at 12:38 PM on August 13
Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions so far- you're all helpful in mentioning the drive between places. I also grew up in Vegas and have made the drive to Jerome, AZ, parts of Utah, etc a few times, so I know the feeling of how long it takes to get to a place. I am in PDX now, so flying into anywhere and renting a car isn't an issue.
I am open to both a multi-stop, change rooms every night type thing (although adding up the hours it seems like we'd need more time than I think we could get) OR finding a good base location that has a lot to see + things within - let's say a 4-5 hour drive at most.
Keep them coming! I'm building a good list based off your recs for further research.
posted by haplesschild at 12:47 PM on August 13
I am open to both a multi-stop, change rooms every night type thing (although adding up the hours it seems like we'd need more time than I think we could get) OR finding a good base location that has a lot to see + things within - let's say a 4-5 hour drive at most.
Keep them coming! I'm building a good list based off your recs for further research.
posted by haplesschild at 12:47 PM on August 13
I'll suggest Durango, Colorado. It's a beautiful large town with a great deal of "old west" history, excellent dining and lodging, and many music/food/drink cultural things to do. You can scale your "outdoorsy" experiences up or down from nothing to cycling to canoing to hiking or just rent a car and go on scenic drives. The landscape is breathtakingly beautiful.
It also has a small airport with multiple daily hops from Denver, so you won't have to drive into town, you can just fly in and rent a car if you want to.
I spent a few weeks there some time ago and it was a highlight of my trip out west.
There's a Durango Tourism site with very comprehensive listings, just do a search for it.
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:51 PM on August 13
It also has a small airport with multiple daily hops from Denver, so you won't have to drive into town, you can just fly in and rent a car if you want to.
I spent a few weeks there some time ago and it was a highlight of my trip out west.
There's a Durango Tourism site with very comprehensive listings, just do a search for it.
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:51 PM on August 13
If you like donkeys, then Oatman, Arizona is where you need to go. It's both terrible and wonderful and you can easily drive there from Vegas in a few hours. Now staying around there, I don't know. Kingman is pretty meh but if you get on Route 66 there are weird old motels galore. I did parts of it some years ago and it was really wonderful, but I was camping.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:19 PM on August 13 [2 favorites]
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:19 PM on August 13 [2 favorites]
Here's a small itinerary/cluster of things he might like centered on a drive up the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra in California on Highway 395. Fly into (wherever works - LAX, LAS, etc), and drive up to Cerro Gordo (does he watch Ghost Town Living???? Meet Brent!) for a day. Sleep in Lone Pine. The Alabama Hills are there, the site of many an Old Western. They even have a museum about it (small scale, not too tacky). You can get various guidebooks to drive to the famous filming locations. It's a great place to hike with lots of good geocaching (fun for beginners like I was). Nice weather that time of year.
Independence, the next stop north on 395, has a great little history museum. Very old-west-settlors-esque. They also sell lots of great books about California's history - settlement, mining, etc.
Then drive up 395 to Benton Hot Springs and stay at the Inn at Benton Hot Springs. One day, you can take a side trip to Tonopah, CA (a historic mining town but also currently mined for Turquoise. You can do Turquoise hunting tours there (if they're currently running, which they aren't always - at Otteson Brothers). There is a cool historic hotel in Tonopah too. Also a good side trip from Benton Hot Springs is the ghost town of Bodie. No touristic crap - it's just preserved in "arrested decay". Very scenic and most photographers have a great time there. You could continue north and fly home out of Reno (more historic mining stuff up that direction), or just drive back to LAX (it's about 5 hours from Bishop to LAX). There are all sorts of small cozy, quirky mountain resorts all up and down the Eastern Sierras to try as well. If you're going in March, it will be snowy if you drive up into the mountains at all; perfect time for this one, where you leave your car at the parking lot below snow line and get driven up to the snowed-in lodge on snowmobiles.
As far as great food in this area: There's nothing gourmet, but the good stuff includes Whoa Nellie Deli (not kidding, it's fantastic) in Lee Vining and Mountain Rambler Brewery in Bishop (they also have a great BBQ place in Bishop). There's probably more but I haven't been up there in awhile. Bishop makes a pretty good base. If you delay until Mule Days, on I think Memorial Day weekend, there will be even more to do as the snow starts to recede on the mountains. Like driving up the roads toward some of the trailheads on the Eastern Sierra.
There is just so, so, so much stuff to do and explore in the Eastern Sierra. Feel free to memail me for more.
A completely "other" idea - Death Valley has lots of historical stuff, and March is the time to go. Stay at Furnace Creek Resort. DO NOT stay at Stovepipe Wells resort.
posted by bluesky78987 at 5:24 PM on August 13
Independence, the next stop north on 395, has a great little history museum. Very old-west-settlors-esque. They also sell lots of great books about California's history - settlement, mining, etc.
Then drive up 395 to Benton Hot Springs and stay at the Inn at Benton Hot Springs. One day, you can take a side trip to Tonopah, CA (a historic mining town but also currently mined for Turquoise. You can do Turquoise hunting tours there (if they're currently running, which they aren't always - at Otteson Brothers). There is a cool historic hotel in Tonopah too. Also a good side trip from Benton Hot Springs is the ghost town of Bodie. No touristic crap - it's just preserved in "arrested decay". Very scenic and most photographers have a great time there. You could continue north and fly home out of Reno (more historic mining stuff up that direction), or just drive back to LAX (it's about 5 hours from Bishop to LAX). There are all sorts of small cozy, quirky mountain resorts all up and down the Eastern Sierras to try as well. If you're going in March, it will be snowy if you drive up into the mountains at all; perfect time for this one, where you leave your car at the parking lot below snow line and get driven up to the snowed-in lodge on snowmobiles.
As far as great food in this area: There's nothing gourmet, but the good stuff includes Whoa Nellie Deli (not kidding, it's fantastic) in Lee Vining and Mountain Rambler Brewery in Bishop (they also have a great BBQ place in Bishop). There's probably more but I haven't been up there in awhile. Bishop makes a pretty good base. If you delay until Mule Days, on I think Memorial Day weekend, there will be even more to do as the snow starts to recede on the mountains. Like driving up the roads toward some of the trailheads on the Eastern Sierra.
There is just so, so, so much stuff to do and explore in the Eastern Sierra. Feel free to memail me for more.
A completely "other" idea - Death Valley has lots of historical stuff, and March is the time to go. Stay at Furnace Creek Resort. DO NOT stay at Stovepipe Wells resort.
posted by bluesky78987 at 5:24 PM on August 13
I've had fun visiting Old Tucson, where a lot of old westerns were filmed. You can go into the buildings and they have shows / character actors. If you go, definitely take an old timey photo in costume!
posted by beyond_pink at 12:11 PM on August 14
posted by beyond_pink at 12:11 PM on August 14
If you do happen to go to Durango, you are very near Mesa Verde NP - which has many stunning drives, and some fascinating ruins.
I also love the drive to Ouray and back, via Silverton and the “Million Dollar Highway” (aka Red Mountain Pass), which is stunning, and a bit scary (but in a good way.
Although, now that I think on it, March might be a bit early for that road to be open. Anyway, put this in your “to do sometime” list!
posted by dbmcd at 1:20 PM on August 14
I also love the drive to Ouray and back, via Silverton and the “Million Dollar Highway” (aka Red Mountain Pass), which is stunning, and a bit scary (but in a good way.
Although, now that I think on it, March might be a bit early for that road to be open. Anyway, put this in your “to do sometime” list!
posted by dbmcd at 1:20 PM on August 14
An old train?
Your search terms are narrow gauge railroad, steam trains, railway tourism.
There's a few of these around in different areas, do some searching once you find a place with other stuff you want to see.
posted by yohko at 2:31 PM on August 20
Your search terms are narrow gauge railroad, steam trains, railway tourism.
There's a few of these around in different areas, do some searching once you find a place with other stuff you want to see.
posted by yohko at 2:31 PM on August 20
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posted by effluvia at 10:15 AM on August 13