Day 25 – 27: CHIRICAHUA NATIONAL MONUMENT, Arizona

Land of Standing Up Rocks.  As you enter Chiricahua NM, you are climbing up a sky island...an isolated mountain range rising above the surrounding grassland area.  It’s rock pinnacles are looming over the road like guardians of the mountain.  The Chiricahua Apache called these pinnacles 'standing up rocks'.  27 million years ago, nearby Turkey Creek Volcano spewed ash over 1,2000 square miles.  These ash particles melted together forming layers of rhyolite.  Cooling created joints and cracks in the rhyolite.  Erosion by water and ice enlarged the cracks.  Weaker material was washed away leaving behind an endless variety of spires, balanced rocks and other shapes.  The sculpting continues today.  Many of these spires have names and at night the come alive and move about....just kidding.

Chiricahua National Monument was established in 1924 to preserve and protect the pinnacles.  In 1934 the Civilian Conservation Corps took on the jobs of improving the road, constructing the trails and many of the structures.  The park is 11,985 acres.  86% of the park is designated as wilderness.

 March 28 – 30.  We stayed at the Bonita Campground within the park for 3 nights.  It is a primitive campground which means no power or water or showers.  There is a nice restroom with flush toilets.  Some parks only have pit toilets. The campground is laid out in the middle of a forest of cypress and pine so there is a lot of shade.  But unfortunately the site are scattered about at weird angles.  No trailer over 28 feet can fit in.  Our trailer is slightly over 26 feet.  It was very difficult to get into our site because of some boulders that lined the entrance.  We ended up running over some of those boulders and scraped and realigned our stairs and pushed our tailpipe against the back tire.  It took several tries to back into that site.  But we made it were able to realign our stairs and tailpipe. 

 Since we are out in the wilderness it is dead quiet at night and you can do a lot of star gazing.  It is peaceful and relaxing.  Unfortunately during the day....the generators are running to charge up the trailer batteries so you can use your lights and other things.  Our neighbor had an old generator that was so loud (imagine a diesel truck engine running full speed right next to you).  That is a major downside to primitive camping.  But during the quiet times, you can enjoy being intimate with nature.

There is one road that goes into the park.  It is an eight mile scenic drive that rises from the grasslands to the summit at Massai Point where you get a a sense of being atop a sky island.  Along the way are many view points with views of spires that were named by the workers who built the road and the trails.  An interesting view is a rocky mountain called Cochise Head.

We spent one day hiking the Echo Canyon Trail.  This trail looped into Hailstone Trail and then Ed Riggs Trail.  This hike was awesome and so very scenic.  It took us right into the middle of a forest of spires and balanced rocks.  The trail is a combination of smooth and level, rocky, climbing over boulders, steep and uneven.  It is a 3.4 mile loop.  But what was supposed to be a 2 to 3 hour hike ended up being a 6 hour hike for us.   It about killed me.  But after getting back to the trailer and relaxing, I felt the hike was worth it.  The scenery and views were so awesome.

Turtle rock and a turtle on a rock. 

 This rock has a cave carved into the side of it and that looks like another turtle rock on top of it.

End of the trail..almost. .9 miles to go.

Our next destination is New Mexico.