Anyone who has looked at my pictures before knows how much I love rocks! I am always in awe of the landscape and love to see all the beautiful formations.
We left our RV before 10 am this morning (better than yesterday) and spent the day driving around Cochise County. Gary said we drove at least 200 miles, but at least he could drive the speed limit instead of the 58 mph he keeps when driving the motor home.
We headed for I-10 and had to go through another border patrol. We see the border patrol all over this area! Anyway, this picture is on I-10 as we were heading east.
The route today was somewhat circular but we took a few off road travels. To get to the Cochise Stronghold we did drive on dirt roads for awhile. Gary was not real excited about this side trip, but I loved it! I can remember watching movies and TV shows about the "Cowboys and Indians" and remember hearing about Cochise and Geronimo. This is the area that they actually lived and battled.
This area was surrounded on three sides by the mountains so I understand how the Apaches would be able to defend themselves against the army.
Because of the unique rock formations there are a lot of hiding spots for the warriors to stay in wait.
It was a pretty long drive around the valley to get to the other side where we went to the Chiricahua National Monument. The visitors center was the first place we went when we got in the park. We wanted to get a map and get a little background information on the people who had lived here.
Of course, in the visitor center there were lots of displays and even a video we could watch although we did not stay to watch it.
One of the first sites we stopped at gave us a good look at some of the columns of the rock. They had been shaped by temperatures, rain and wind, though I think the wind was a major factor. Today is was a little windy as we began our travel through the park.
Unfortunately, Chiricahua National Monument was in the middle of one of the bad fires in Arizona last year. According to one of the displays I saw in the visitors center the fire had engulfed over 220,000 acres.
After driving to the furthest point in the park we stopped to have our picnic lunch. We found that the local Jays loved to have people eat in their territory! We then walked on a trail that took us to some more exhibits. This display explained how this area could be left with the type of animals and vegetation that are here when it is surrounded by desert. The forces of four different ecological areas are what influenced the local area.
If you look at this rock cropping carefully you might see why it was labeled "Cochise Head". His chin and mouth is to the left, then his nose and forehead. Can you see it? Just think, no dynamite or mountain carvers were used in this creation!
I tried to take a picture of the display and did not realize my shadow would block it out.
As you can see we were at a decent elevation! The elevation was not the problem - the wind was the challenge.
At the next stop we decided to take a hike along one of the trails. We were headed to the Echo Canyon Grotto. Gary was a little worried about my walking the trail since it seems I have become very good at tripping and falling. He didn't want to see me make a face plant!
Just for his sake I did a face plant so he would stop worrying!
Some of the remarkable sights are the balancing rocks that are all around.
I should have taken this with one of us standing next to it so you could see how massive it was. I couldn't even begin to figure out how much this rock would weigh.
At least you can get a little perspective from this shot. I think I took over 50 pictures of rocks today!
Gary thought it might b a good idea to take my picture to prove I was on the trail. It seemed to get windier by the minute so even though we were on a trail we had to be really careful!
Rocks, rocks and more rocks!
Oh, look at these passageways. Cool stuff. How the weather does this is amazing. I just wish the pictures would be able to show how remarkable these formations are.
Today the winds were pretty intense. Gary estimated that the wind gusts were about 40-50 mph. I guess that rocks would get shaped over time because of the wind.
I stopped to take some pictures so Gary took off ahead of me. I should have known better. When I got back on the trail I kept looking for him ahead of me. No. He hid in one of the outcroppings until I walked by. He growled like a bear and almost scared me off the trail! After 41+ years you would think I would be ready for his fun!!
This rock formation I took a picture with my zoom feature. The picture below shows what it looked like from the trail.
This is what remains of an "Alligator Juniper" tree after the fire last year. It is easy to see from the bark how it got its name.
We did things a little backwards photography wise. I took a picture of the signpost about the trail we hiked after we got back.
We were ready to get back on the road again. We traveled through a few small towns, one was called Dos Cabezas which I think means "Two Heads." It is always interesting how some names come about.
As we were driving back to our camp we looked for a Mexican restaurant. Finding none along the way, surprisingly, we went a little past our turn-off to go to the town of Sierra Vista. I think its the largest town in the county. With a little extra help from our GPS we found the main road that was full of places to eat and got our wish. I do think, however, that the fresh homemade tortilla chips were the best part of the meal!
Tomorrow we will drive to Bisbee, AZ to see what we can see! We will stay here a fourth night before we take off on our journey west.
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