Drive Through the Authentic West
This lasso-shaped road trip ropes in everything from saloon-packed mining towns to Indigenous lands of unbridled beauty.
The mythic tales of the American West conjure visions of cowboys galloping across ranchlands. Folks shootin’ the breeze in friendly saloons where infamous gunslingers once gambled. Indigenous peoples playing soulful flute music in heartbreakingly lovely landscapes. You’ll experience all these things and more on this road trip. Most meaningfully, you’ll hear authentic stories that will add strata to your appreciation of this complex land of dreams and extremes.
The adventure begins in Bisbee, Arizona, with a journey nearly 2,000 feet underground and 150 years back in time. At the Copper Queen Mine, ride a real mining train into a dark, chilly chamber where retired miners demonstrate old-school excavation methods and show you what miners would have seen in the 1880s (apart from the mules who lived down here full-time). The mine sets the stage for the entire trip, because the desire for valuable metals—first gold and silver, then copper to electrify and industrialize the world—triggered most of the events that defined the Old West and still reverberate today. The promise of bonanzas attracted the seekers who developed this region, causing clashes with the Indigenous civilizations whose people have called the land home since time immemorial. When the mines inevitably emptied, some boomtowns decayed into ghost towns. Others, like Bisbee, found ways to bounce back.
Bisbee is a hodgepodge of ochre- and cinnabar-hued buildings scattered among rusty mountains. It’s also a quirky arts haven. As you meander on your own or with a guide from the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum, you’ll see how the town strikes a balance between preservation and evolution. In Brewery Gulch, once rollicking with 50 saloons, you can sip stout crafted at Old Bisbee Brewing Company. At the Artemizia Foundation, peruse vibrant contemporary street art in a 1917 schoolhouse.
After a short drive north, you’ll roll into the Old West’s most notorious town: Tombstone. Here the entire central district, with its creaky boardwalks and dusty streets, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Dine in the Crystal Palace Saloon, once a watering hole where Virgil Earp had an office and Doc Holliday drank. Pop into the Tombstone Epitaph to see how newspapers were printed in the 1880s and read the original account of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. You can even watch actors reenact the shootout three times a day.
With its period costumes and gunslinger mannequins, Tombstone can seem like a movie set. But in a way, that’s apropos for a place where people came to reinvent themselves as characters in a frontier mythology. Much of the lore about the Town Too Tough to Die is as false as fool’s gold. Sifting through fiction for nuggets of truth takes a bit of effort. You’ll get help from knowledgeable guides on a walking tour with Tombstone Gunfighter & Ghost Tours. You’ll learn that the gunfight didn’t take place at the O.K. Corral, and that this silver-mining town was actually a multicultural melting pot with a sizable Chinatown and restaurants that served gourmet French fare to infamous sharpshooters.
As you venture northwest, stop at San Xavier del Bac Mission, one of many Western missions founded by Spanish colonists to expand their empire and convert Indigenous communities—sometimes peacefully, oftentimes violently. In the late 1700s, O’odham people and Catholic missionaries built this gorgeous church, with ornate statuary and murals that have been likened to those of the Sistine Chapel. Today, it’s practically preserved in amber, thanks in part to Tohono O’odham member Tim Lewis and Spanish-born Matilde Rubio—husband-and-wife conservators keeping their shared heritage alive.
After passing through Tucson and Phoenix, ride into Wickenburg. This town and neighboring Vulture City were put on the map in 1863 after Henry Wickenburg discovered gold and founded the Vulture Mine. As often happened in the West, ranchers followed. They homesteaded here along the Hassayampa River. Vulture City eventually dwindled into a ghost town. Today, it’s authentically restored, and you can wander through buildings decked with original furniture and mining technology. During a blacksmithing experience at Vulture City Forge, hammer hot steel into a knife or jewelry, as a 19th-century smithy would have done.
Wickenburg continues to cultivate its ranching roots, and here you can bond with the most universally beloved characters in the West: horses. November to April, cheer on cowboys and cowgirls lassoing steers in a rodeo arena and see why Wickenburg is considered the team-roping capital of the world. Through June 8, 2025, the Desert Caballeros Western Museum showcases The Horse in Art, an ode to the role these intelligent animals played in shaping the culture, history, and legend of the West. At Kay El Bar Guest Ranch, ride a steed through slot canyons and saguaro-studded desert, try your hand at team penning, and sleep soundly in a century-old lodge.
From Wickenburg, Highway 89 curves past ex-mining towns and ranchlands before reaching the mile-high city of Prescott. The former capital of the Arizona Territory still exudes a genteel Western feel. From the Chamber of Commerce, take a guided walking tour or a self-guided tour with the Heritage Trail map. As you stroll through the leafy central square with its neoclassical courthouse, or fantasize about living in the historic district’s Victorian homes, it’s easy to imagine Prescott’s early residents promenading in bowler hats and bustle dresses. The city also had its rowdy side. On Whiskey Row, you can imbibe at the 1877 Palace Restaurant and Saloon, a former haunt of Doc Holliday.
Don’t miss the Sharlot Hall Museum, founded by poet and Arizona territorial historian Sharlot Hall, the first woman to hold public office in Arizona. Here you can view artifacts in the Territorial Governor’s Mansion and admire basketry fashioned by the area’s Indigenous Yavapai people. During the museum’s monthly Living History Adventure, chat with interpreters in period garb demonstrating weaving, cooking, and hand-pressed printing.
Next, navigate the hairpins of Highway 89, which were dynamited out of the mountains in the early 1900s. Your destination is Jerome, once deemed “the wickedest town in the West” due to the residents’ propensity for drunkenness and setting the place on fire. But it’s understandable that locals would drown their troubles in moonshine-soaked shenanigans. When you tour the Mine Museum and the Jerome State Historic Park museum, you’ll learn that life in this former copper-mining town could be ferocious. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, miners braved threats of falling rocks and explosive fires as they endured long hours of backbreaking work in cacophonous caverns. Around town, acidic smelter smoke laden with heavy metals filled people’s lungs and wiped out the vegetation for miles.
Thankfully, Jerome today is an artsy community where locals preserve the most charming aspects of yesteryear while adding a modern twist. On Main Street, nosh on Parmesan truffle fries in the Clinkscale Hotel, Bar & Grill, a 1899 mercantile store where some of the first Levi Strauss jeans were sold in the West. The Clinkscale is rumored to be haunted, as is the Spirit Room saloon in the 1898 Connor Hotel, where you can toast to a ghost named Claudette. At Nellie Bly Kaleidoscopes & Art Glass, the owners have restored this former brothel, which burned down twice before miraculously surviving the fire of 1899.
About 15 minutes northeast, Tuzigoot National Monument offers a chance to look inside a pueblo built between A.D. 1000 and 1400 by the Sinagua people, who farmed the Verde River Valley. Based on archaeological excavations that unearthed macaw feathers and seashells, the Sinagua were part of a trade network that stretched from the Colorado Plateau to the jungles of Central America. At the Verde Valley Archaeology Center and Museum in nearby Camp Verde, you’ll get a sense of the larger sweep of history, when humans arrived in the region about 14,000 years ago to hunt mastodon and saber-toothed tigers. At Montezuma Castle National Monument, marvel at the Sinaguan version of an apartment building sculpted into a cliff.
Some researchers believe many Sinaguans moved on to the Hopi mesas—and now, so will you. Base yourself in Tuba City at the Hopi-run Moenkopi Legacy Inn & Suites, which arranges tours through the Hopi Nation. You’ll learn about this spiritual community that has lived here for more than a thousand years, sustainably surviving through dry farming. Also, visit a Hopi art gallery and see ancient petroglyphs, including artwork that encapsulates a central principle of Hopi culture: living in harmony with nature.
Continue north through the Navajo Nation to Monument Valley, an epic expanse of sandstone spires and mitten-shaped monoliths that embodies the essence of the West. On a tour with Monument Valley Safari, trundle along back roads to iconic Western film locations, towering buttes, and a Navajo hogan, or traditional dwelling. Your Diné (Navajo) guide might play a traditional flute, weave tales of Navajo lore, or share insights on archaeology.
Next, cruise into Utah and stop at Bluff Fort Historic Site to learn about the area’s pioneers. In 1879, 70 families from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints set off from central Utah on what they thought would be a six-week journey to establish a mission along the San Juan River. It turned into a six-month ordeal that involved blasting through cliffs during a bitter winter before they gave up and settled here. You can wander through a replica of the co-op where the pioneers and Navajos traded until a bank robber blew it up in 1925. From Bluff, Wild Expeditions leads kayak and Hummer tours along the San Juan River, which is sacred to several Indigenous communities. From the riverbanks, you’ll hike to petroglyph panels dating to 2000 B.C.
Take Highway 162 toward Colorado, then cruise the Trail of the Ancients National Scenic Byway to Mesa Verde National Park. From A.D. 550 to 1300, Ancestral Puebloans constructed this expansive constellation of cliff dwellings and mesa-top villages. Book a ranger-led tour in advance to gain access to Cliff Palace and Balcony House. In these dwellings, climb ladders and shimmy through passageways to living rooms and ceremonial chambers as you learn how the people farmed and gathered water from cliffside springs.
About an hour east, Durango has transformed from a stop on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad serving 19th-century silver miners to an outdoor-lovers’ paradise. In the Main Avenue Historic District, the stately Strater Hotel transports visitors to 1887 with its Victorian architecture and corseted ladies serving cocktails in the saloon. North of town, Bar D Chuckwagon serves barbecue with an Old West music show and sides of wagon rides, blacksmithing demos, and pistol shooting. If you have a day, hop aboard the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad steam train, which has been whistling through Cascade Canyon since 1882. Then stroll around Silverton, where the mountain setting looks much as it did when miners caroused here in the late 1800s.
Beeline south to Gallup, New Mexico, to experience a fascinating blend of Indigenous cultures. Three nights a week throughout summer, the city hosts traditional American Indian dances. During the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial parade each August, see more dancing, plus rodeos, art, and parades. Year-round, take a self-guided walking tour of the downtown’s murals, which commemorate everything from Diné cowboys to the Long Walk, when the U.S. government destroyed Navajo lands and forcibly marched Diné people 450 miles to a reservation. At the Gallup Cultural Center, decipher the history of the Navajo Code Talkers. These 400 Diné soldiers served the U.S. military in WWII, transmitting secret messages in their complex language to help coordinate battles in the Pacific.
Head west to Ganado, Arizona, to shop at Hubbell Trading Post, which has been selling Navajo rugs and jewelry since 1878. End your adventure in Canyon de Chelly, where Diné people and their ancestors have lived for nearly 5,000 years. The sienna-colored cliffs here are steeped in stories. On an excursion with Canyon de Chelly Tours, Diné guides, such as mythology expert Percy Yazzie, connect tales of the Ancient Ones to the canyon’s history of conflict and the peaceful ways of the Diné farmers and sheepherders who keep the culture alive today.