03/23/02 Hiking Rhyolite Canyon Trail (9.2 miles round trip from visitor center):
Well, I finally got into Chiricahua National Monument. They've ripped up the roads and work on them during the week. The construction crews aren't there during the weekends so its business as usual then.
I got on the Rhyolite Canyon Trail about 8:30am. This is the longer of the two loop trails with a 1500 foot rise in elevation over the course of 4 miles or so ending at 7100 feet.
What a trail it is. It starts off through Ponderosa and some other kind of pines and hardwood forests littered with boulders, yuccas and agaves. Off across a wide valley rising out of a steep slope are pinnacles, spires and columns in great profusion similar to the whodoos of Bryce Canyon National Park but without the colors.
This trail is really a series of connecting trails, Lower Rhyolite Trail, Upper Rhyolite Trail, Sarah Deming Trail, Heart of Rocks Loop, Inspiration Point Trail, Balanced Rock Trail, Mushroom Rock Trail, Hailstone Trail. Sarah Deming Trail was probably the steepest. When I got to the end of it the GPS said 6800 feet elevation a gain of 1400 feet.
Heart of the Rocks Loop is through a section of pillars and columns. A large balanced rock and many formations resembling an Old Maid, Camel's Head, Duck on a Rock and others made this 1 mile loop interesting. The biggest balanced rock is 25 feet tall, 22 feet in diameter and 1000 tons. Inspiration Point provides a view over a large valley way below with steep slopes covered with pillars and columns.
I was feeling pretty good until a young couple came running by and then came running back from Inspiration Point. That made me feel like an old man. The Hailstone Trail was interesting in that these little round limestone like stones have fused together. I presume some sort of volcanic activity such as lava cooling in the air part way forming little marbles and then cooling the rest of the way on the ground and fusing together. Saw my biggest lizard so far out west, about 6 inches and an emerald green.
03/24/02 Hiking Echo Canyon Loop (3.3 miles round trip):
50's today with big winds blowing again. The Echo Canyon Loop starts with the Ed Riggs Trail at 6800 feet and immediately descends a couple hundred feet to the Hailstone Trail. Very nice views of pinnacles standing watch on far slopes, much the same effect as the Saguaro Cactus in Saguaro National Park.
Out in the open mucus is whisked right out of the nostrils by the strong winds. What? That's not so gross. I was thinking snot is blown right out of your nose. That would have been gross.
The trail then climbs back up through Echo Canyon. Here the pinnacles are right up close but you have to peek through the Douglas Firs and Arizona Cypress to see them. 2/3 of the way up the trail actually passes through a group of pinnacles. You can look down 30-40 feet to the base of some or up 50-100 feet at others... a couple of balanced rocks too. Great views across small valleys at whole armies of pinnacles.
I had passed Massi Point Trail so went back down the Ed Riggs Trail a ways and then to the Massi Point Trail. This is only .3 miles but picks up 200 feet in that distance. Signs tell about how these pinnacles were created by volcanic action and erosion.
Fort Bowie National Historic Site is 14 miles north of Chiricahua National Monument. Having finished Echo Canyon Loop by 11am I went up there. The old fort is nothing but a few piles of rocks. The newer one seemed to be basically some adobe walls and I didn't bother to go there. There's a ranger station there and there maybe a museum... I dunno.
I had to hike 1 1/2 miles in to the forts. It was made interesting by interpretive signs along the way about the Chiricahuas, a thatched wickiup and a cemetery. Most of the soldiers have been moved to some sort of national cemetery but Geronimo's infant son remains.
03/25/02 Hiking Cochise Trail (10 miles round trip):
Remember the Broken Arrow TV show from the 50's. Cochise Stronghold is 20 miles west (40 miles by road) from Chiricahua National Monument off AZ-191 in Sunsites. Cochise, chief of the Chiricahaua Apaches had his main settlements here.
Unfortunately there's not really anything to see. A nice interpretive trail telling about the Chiricahuas but nothing to see, just a bunch of signs on a short trail.
The actual stronghold is now an ordinary campground. Cochise must roll over in his grave (where ever they hid him) every time one of those bleepin' generators get fired up.
Cochise Trail wanders up about 1100 feet in 3 miles. It's 1 mile to Cochise Spring which is dry. Another mile brings you to Halfmoon Tank, the nicest spot on the trail. A pond is created by a concrete dam retaining the water released by a spring. One more mile to the Cochise Divide. All this is is a wire fence and a sign saying this spot divides the west and east Cochise Strongholds. Nothing at all to see except a cane cholla with lots of yellow blossoms.
The scenery is pretty nice as the trail moves through large growths of Manzanitas with their red trunks, Alligator Junipers with their scaley bark, agaves and yuccas. Lots of tree covered ridges and peaks on one side and huge boulders stacked on top of each other on the other side.
It was another 2 miles to the West Stronghold. Since the trail took a sharp turn downward and I hadn't seen anything of real interest so far I didn't think the struggle back up was worth it and turned back.