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Taking on the Bisbee 1000, a premier stairway hiking event in Bisbee, AZ

While doomscrolling on Instagram late one night, I saw something that made me pause in my tracks. My friend Guy had shared a post about Bisbee, Arizona — a city I had never heard of before — and a stairway event there called the Bisbee 1000. The Bisbee 1000, I learned, was an urban hiking route throughout the city featuring 9 stairways and 1000+ stairs over 4.5 miles and about 700 feet of elevation. I was sold — I knew I had to go. 

I got my chance to visit Bisbee in mid-March 2026 with a few girlfriends. We ended up planning a short trip around Arizona, flying into Phoenix and out of Tucson with a stop in Bisbee on the way. Phoenix was a great time, and we spent 4 hours at the Musical Instrument Museum, but that’s another post for another time! But after Phoenix, we drove a little over three hours southeast to Bisbee. By the time we got there, we were about 12 miles from the Mexican border.

It was dark out when we arrived, but we could already sense the allure of this old copper mining town. With cute shops and street art seemingly EVERYWHERE, it was vacation love at first sight. Everyone in Bisbee seemed to be in a good mood. We checked into our Airbnb, the Sweet Spot on the Art Wall stairway, which shared a yard with another Airbnb. The guests there told us about an eclectic annual event called Tales from the Trash, with laughably questionable “art” and effervescent positive energy. After the show, we had time for a quick dinner at Bisbee’s Table (still dreaming of their Fresh Thai salad) and went to bed.

In the morning, after a quick breakfast, I loaded the Bisbee 1000 route onto Strava on my phone, and we took off. We encountered our first stairway right in downtown. Art was everywhere, and it was hard to keep up any sort of fitness pace as we were taking so many photos. After Stairway 3, we visited Castle Rock just off the route and met the owners of the Warner Hotel, who moved here and remade the hotel after falling in love with Bisbee on a quick trip. 

Bisbee 1000 route
The Bisbee 1000 Course Map (https://www.bisbee1000.org/#map)

What surprised me was that the route wasn’t all stairways, and there were flat sections in between, so if you wanted to make a more stairway-dense route that stays closer to downtown, a 2,000-stair route, or a route that incorporated nearby dirt trails, you could easily do it. (And I will do it on my next trip!) 

 

 

The art distracted us as we huffed and puffed up the 1000 stairs, the last stairway burning our quads, but we managed to finish with smiles on our faces. We replenished our carb stores at Screaming BansheePizza, did some shopping at Classic Rock Couture and Wolfbone Emporium, and then sadly had to head out of town to catch an evening flight out of Tucson.

Before our flight, we managed to pop into the Loma Alta trailhead of Saguaro National Park for a one-hour out-and-back hike.

Location: Bisbee, AZ 85603, USA

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