Story: Old West Tucson

Southern Arizona conjures up quintessential images of the wild west: dusty landscapes, tumbleweed, haciendas, and old missions. One of the greatest legends of the Old West was born there, when Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday strode down Fremont St in Tombstone to the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Before the cowboys and highwaymen, however, there were the Spanish Catholic missionaries. They built missions throughout the southwest, sometimes at the request of the Native Americans. The remains of one such mission can still be found in Tumacacori National Park, near Tubac, and if you're a photographer like me it'll keep you happy for an afternoon of snapping. San Jose De Tumacacori was built in the early 1800s, but eventually abandoned after constant Apache raids. It is now in a state of arrested decay, but twice a year, in October and in May, Tumacacori hosts High Mass and the Mission is beautifully lit with thousands of candles and echoes with song.

One of America's best preserved and notable missions is a little further north, a few miles south of Tucson - the Mission San Xavier del Bac. This is still an active parish for the Tucson Diocese, so go inside to sit and watch people shuffling through. Outside the mission is a food and craft market run by the Tohono O'odam tribe. Be sure to try the Indian Frybread, a delicious piece of fried dough topped with chillies or honey.

When the young Americans started moving west in search of new land, they found wealth scattered on the ground, in the form of gold and silver. The pioneers became miners and God was replaced by mammon, as the new towns became famous for gambling, prostitution, and crooked law.

Tombstone is probably the best known of these towns. While it's a bit cheesy these days, you can still pay your respects at Boot Hill cemetery in front of the supposedly original and actual tombstone that reads "Here lies Lester Moore/ Four Slugs From a .44/ No Les No More".

The guided stagecoach tour through town can be a surprisingly entertaining way to hear stories of Tombstone's rowdy past and at the Crystal Palace saloon, a Doc Holliday look-alike will teach you to play Faro, a popular card game in the old west.

Less touristy is Bisbee, a still lively old copper town carved into the side of a mountain. Bisbee has some excellent food and bars and is just an incredible place to wander. When you visit most towns from the old west, they are a shadow of what they once were, but Bisbee appears exactly as it must have in it's heyday. You'll be transported back a hundred years by the old ,robust brick buildings. Randomly stacked on top of each other in the valley, they're like some kind of architectural stadium.

Further east is Ruby, one of the best preserved ghost towns in Arizona. You'll need to allow some time to learn its history of gold and banditos however - the price of admission to this privately-owned town is help with its restoration. For every hour's looking, you spend an hour working.

By the 1920s the wild west was less wild, and movie-going audiences had an insatiable appetite for romanticized tales of the pioneers. Over 300 of these westerns were filmed at Old Tucson Studios on the west side of town. Anyone who has seen classic westerns such as Rio Bravo, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, will find the studios familiar. With fantastic views of saloons, brothels, general stores and train stations, this place is a dream to photograph; after all, that's what it was designed for.

Kids will love the stagy gunfights later in the day, but if you get there early you'll beat the crowds and get to hear the incredible Ennio Morricone soundtracks they play in the parking lot.

Perhaps the most famous western star of the 1920s and 30s was Tom Mix, who was friends with Wyatt Earp and starred in over 300 movies. Rushing from Phoenix to Tucson in 1940 he crashed his (beautiful) 1937 Cord and was killed. Mix's memorial is a monument of his horse Tony standing riderless. It still attracts flowers and knickknacks 80 years on, and is a die-hard western way to end your trip.