Every year residents of Bisbee host a fundraiser called the Bisbee 1000 Participants climb nine staircases totaling one thousand uphill stairs in all. Proceeds of the event are used to help repair and restore the hundreds of staircases so unique to this small Arizona town.

Mike and I wanted to participate in the official climb next week, but unfortunately due to a scheduling conflict we're unable to do so. Instead we decided to tour it on our own; we printed up the map and hiked around the town yesterday.

We actually got lost a few times. Thus, our tour of the town ended up being more than 1000 uphill steps--but that's ok. It was lots of fun, and there were so many things to see:


We just walked by this one-- I thought it was kinda cool.. The pic doesn't really do it justice, but I couldn't even see where the stairs ended!


This is view looking down from what we'd just climbed.


There were a bunch of colorful houses. It reminded me of my Russia days!


There was a cool wall with all sorts of things in it. The eyes on this face followed us as we walked by.


Cool bug, huh? It kept trying to hop away, so it was hard to get a good picture.. I loved the colors though!


I thought this was a clever use of a car door. ;) We found this at the top of one of the staircases we climbed.