Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Chiricahua National Monument

 
Bill and I have visited Chiricahua National Monument twice before, and we enjoyed it just as much on Monday, our third visit.  As I've mentioned in a previous post, we have been hanging out with Jerry and Kim of Creating the Life, and today we showed them Chiricahua.

We did a 7.3 mile hike from the Visitor Center up to Heart of the Rocks and back down.  The weather was perfect for hiking...sunny and in the 50s.  Although we've had some really cold weather recently, none of us expected snow and ice on the trail.  Bill was smart...he brought a walking stick.  I opted to leave mine in the Jeep.  But, I am happy to say, we all made it up the trail and back down with no one getting hurt, although there was just a bit of slipping and sliding on the icy patches.
 
 Because parts of the trail remain in the shadows, some areas had a lot more snow/ice than others.  Here's Kim walking carefully up the trail.
 And here's Bill traversing another icy patch.

 
About half way up the trail, we came upon a group of NPS trail maintenance workers.  I didn't want to interrupt them to get a picture, but I was able to get a picture of some of their equipment.  These guys were busy cutting rocks to create steps along the trail.  One of the guys had a measuring tape so he could determine which rock would fit where.  It gave us a glimpse of what the CCC did back in the day.  So remember, the next time you are out hiking, these trails didn't make themselves.  : )  We gave the NPS guys a hearty thank you as we passed.
 
 We stopped for lunch once we reached the Heart of the Rocks trail.

After lunch we did the obligatory group shot.
 
Here is Balanced Rock.  It seems every "rock" park has one of these.  Although the feature next to Balanced Rock wasn't named, we all agreed it should be called "Hiking Boot."
  As you can see, it was a beautiful day for a hike.
But the biggest surprise was saved for last.  As we were leaving the park, this is what we saw...a mama javelina.....
 
 ...and her two youngsters.
What a great day to be in southeastern Arizona!! 
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8 comments:

  1. There's a cute kids book about javelinas called "Don't Call Me a Pig". Your pictures reminded me of it.

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  2. Hmmm...imagine that! My post today has very similar photos. Ha ha :)! We had an absolutely, awesome time yesterday. Thank you so very, very much!!

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  3. Looks like a great day! Love the little critters at the end!

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  4. Looks like a great hike. What a snow surprise. Wish we still had a group like the CCC. There is so much that needs to be done.

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  5. We continue to enjoy your blog. I think we will have some big news ourselves in a few weeks. BTW, I noticed your counter is about to 100,000. WOW.You have certainly lots of people!!!

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  6. Hi, thanks for the hike report! we are heading to Chiricahua area in March. Did you visit Chiricahua from your camp in Benson, or did you stay in or near the park? We want to boondock when we go to Chiricahua and we've read the best area is off Pinery Canyon Rd before you enter the park, but we are not sure. Thanks! Lisa

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  7. Lisa - We did a day trip from Benson to visit Chiricahua. I have heard about boondocking outside the park but don't have any first hand knowledge. There is a beautiful campground in the park, but it is limited to SMALL RVs. We tent camped there last year. Have fun!

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  8. Thanks! We might make a day trip there before we land there in order to scope out the boondocking area. We just bought a generator so it will be our maiden boondocking trip!

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