Down By The River B and B is located in Saint David, AZ and offers you a wonderful place to stay within a short drive to many different types of activities. There are historical sites, ghost towns, a movie studio set, museums, national and state parks and monuments, outdoor activities, festivals, stargazing and the Southeastern Arizona wine country. The B and B is located within an hour of the Tucson International Airport and is close to Interstate 10 and the major highways that span the county. This is why we call Down By The River B and B “The Lodging Hub of Cochise County”. The B and B is also a short distance from activities in Santa Cruz County.
Cochise County land area is as big as the States of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined with a total area of 6,218.77 square miles. It is the 38th largest county in the United States. While Cochise County is large and Arizona is the 6th largest state in the union, there are 7 of the 15 counties in Arizona that are larger than Cochise County. To see it all, you want to stay at a location that gives you easy access to the area via simple day trips. Down By The River B and B fits that bill. In looking at the attached map, you can see that the B and B is located in an area that has a variety of things to do and places to go. For your convenience, click this to see the larger map.
Some of the highlights of the county include Parks and Monuments. Many of our guests are here to visit these locations. The Chiricahua National Monument has fantastic rock formations although it did have the Horseshoe 2 fire go through there in June of 2011. I have some past blogs about the Chiricahua N.M., both before and after the fire. Kartchner Caverns State Park contains live wet caves and offers two tours that are both unique. Tours of the Throne (or Rotunda) Room is open all year and the Big Room is only available between October 15 and April 15. Reservations are encouraged for these tours. There are more
1000 year old pictographs can be seen at Council Rocks
parks and monuments in the county that offer fascinating items such as Native American pictographs over 1000 years old, the location where Coronado is thought to have entered into what is now Arizona and more modern history locales.
Birding is also a major activity in the county. The San Pedro National Riparian Conservation Area is one of the 5 best migratory birding areas in the United States. The B and B is located on the San Pedro River at the north end of the riparian area boundary with easy access to other birding areas throughout the county. Birding can be done any time during the year since there are birds that live here all year round. In the winter, the area is inhabited by birds that are from the northern climes such as Sandhill Cranes and other water birds. Spring and fall is when migratory birds visit on their way to other areas, while summer has birds that make the area home while nesting.
There are many historical places to visit. Old ghost towns, sites of old forts including a Spanish Presidio that was build in the 1700s, the Butterfield Stage
The Bird Cage Theater is now a museum with many things to see from the late 1800s.
road and way stations and towns like Tombstone and Bisbee. There are museums scattered throughout the county and this year there will be a big celebration for the 100th Anniversary of Arizona Statehood. The events and festivals will be occurring in the area during the entire year, so check out the calendar on the B&B website for upcoming things to do and see.
There is also much that you can do and see if your interest lays in hiking the many trails that are in the county. Many of these hikes will take you into the back country to old mines, ghost towns and ruins. This is also a great way to observe nature here in Cochise County, as it is home to many animals and birds. Many people think of Arizona as a flat desert but here in Cochise County there are peaks almost 10,000 ft in elevation. The mountain trails will lead you through pine forests and, at certain times of the year, these trails are snow covered and inaccessible. If you do much outdoor hiking you will see just how rugged the county is with the many canyons and mountains that are located here. It is easy to imagine why it was so hard to capture the Apache People during the Indian Wars that took place in the county in the late 1800s.
Southeastern Arizona is also where most of the grapes are grown for the wineries in Arizona. There are many tasting rooms available and these are located in two areas. One is in the Sulphur Springs Valley with Willcox as the focal point and the other is in the Elgin/Sonoita area. Both locations have some
Sunsets in Arizona are fantastic to see.
fine vintners featuring a variety of wines for you to choose from. When Down By The River BnB started in 2005, there were only 3 tasting rooms in these locations. Since that time it has grown to include about 15 wineries that feature their products. Some of our guests have come back to the B and B at the end of the day, sat out on the patio to enjoy the wine that they had purchased and watched the sunset.
At night when there is little or no moonlight, the stargazing can be phenomenal. There are a few ways to enjoy the night sky. One is to just sit and look at it. Most people that live in the city have never seen the Milky Way. During the fall and winter this view of the sky is spectacular. Some of the guests have brought their own telescopes and have set them up on the property to do viewing. Down By The River also has a 13” Dobsonian telescope that is available for use by guests. This telescope is not computerized so the user will need to know locations of objects so that these can be found in the sky. Lastly there is an observatory that is in Benson. San Pedro Valley Observatory has many telescopes and rents them out for the evening. I did do a blog on SPVO so you might want to read about what I wrote on that facility.
So when you come to visit Cochise County and all it has to offer, choose Down By The River for a great place to stay while you go about exploring all that makes this a wonderful place to call home.