TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Tourists heading to Rocky Point have had to make plans to use an alternate route since the Lukeville Port of Entry closed Monday.
The detour adds several hours to many tourists' trips.
"I've been going down since 2002," Frank Leadley said. "When I lived in Albuquerque, we used to go down for the bike rally."
Leadley says it wasn't until he was in Rocky Point that he learned the closest border check point was closed.
"I go down there and everybody goes I think he might not be able to go back if he doesn't leave Sunday," Leadley said. "So we're thinking, well, we're having too much fun. There's other places we go, other borders to cross, Nogales and San Luis down there by Yuma. So we will just stay another day. We'll go that way."
He says his commute back through San Luis was smooth sailing.
"So it was an extra, probably an extra four hours. I look at it this way," Leadley when you leave from here, four hours to the border [from] here. That day's kind of wasted. So what's an extra four hours?"
While he wasn't too worried about the extra commute time, he says local businesses in Rocky Point are feeling uneasy.
"They're panicking. Because nobody knows," Leadley said. "And it's closed indefinitely. They can't give you a date. It can be open tomorrow. It could be open a month from now, who knows?"
RELATED TEAM COVERAGE: