While on vacation last week, my mom, sister and I drove from Scottsdale to Tuscon, AZ to check out Old Tuscon Studios, one of the only movie studios in the Southwest. I bet you can guess who came up with this brilliant idea?  Columbia Pictures built the studio in 1939 and it served as the beautiful backdrop for some of major Westerns like Rio Bravo, Gunfight at the O.K. Coral, Gunsmoke, Bonanza. Tombstone, Young Guns, The Wild Wild West, and the Three Amigos - “you son of a motherless goat! Most interiors were shot in Hollywood, but the exterior shots were shot in Old Tucson. The first time I visited the studio I was 13, but I wanted to see it again. Everything seems a little bit less grande than I remembered, but still pretty cool, and full of memories. We watched a gunfight reenactment of the 1960s TV show, Wild Wild West, took a walking tour of the studio, learned all about its place in cinematic history, but the very thing that took my breath away and will cement this trip in my memory was setting out on horseback to this see this - hills full of cacti, probably filled with rattle snakes and scorpions, but really just pure beauty.  The decision to take the ride was spontaneous - seize the moment I say - and I’m so glad we did. I may have been a city slicker saddling up on a horse in a dress and sandals, but the experience of heading out here with my mom and sister who both had never ridden before was just awesome. Taking time to just be in the moment and enjoy my beautiful surroundings was exactly what I needed! 
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While on vacation last week, my mom, sister and I drove from Scottsdale to Tuscon, AZ to check out Old Tuscon Studios, one of the only movie studios in the Southwest. I bet you can guess who came up with this brilliant idea? 

Columbia Pictures built the studio in 1939 and it served as the beautiful backdrop for some of major Westerns like Rio Bravo, Gunfight at the O.K. Coral, Gunsmoke, Bonanza. Tombstone, Young Guns, The Wild Wild West, and the Three Amigos - “you son of a motherless goat! Most interiors were shot in Hollywood, but the exterior shots were shot in Old Tucson.

The first time I visited the studio I was 13, but I wanted to see it again. Everything seems a little bit less grande than I remembered, but still pretty cool, and full of memories. We watched a gunfight reenactment of the 1960s TV show, Wild Wild West, took a walking tour of the studio, learned all about its place in cinematic history, but the very thing that took my breath away and will cement this trip in my memory was setting out on horseback to this see this - hills full of cacti, probably filled with rattle snakes and scorpions, but really just pure beauty. 

The decision to take the ride was spontaneous - seize the moment I say - and I’m so glad we did. I may have been a city slicker saddling up on a horse in a dress and sandals, but the experience of heading out here with my mom and sister who both had never ridden before was just awesome. Taking time to just be in the moment and enjoy my beautiful surroundings was exactly what I needed!