26 March ‘08 Wednesday
The plan for the day…Chiricahua National Monument. Approximately 70 miles east of our campground (at St. George) is the “Wonderland Of Rocks”, otherwise known as the Chiricahua Mountains. These mountains were the lands controlled by the Chiricahua Apaches and under the leadership of Cochise, who led the Native Americans resistance in the 1860’s. The ride into this 12,000 acre park took us all the way up to 7800 feet and into some of the most unusual rock formations you could ever imagine. The territorial views from up there were unbelievable.
The plan for the day…Chiricahua National Monument. Approximately 70 miles east of our campground (at St. George) is the “Wonderland Of Rocks”, otherwise known as the Chiricahua Mountains. These mountains were the lands controlled by the Chiricahua Apaches and under the leadership of Cochise, who led the Native Americans resistance in the 1860’s. The ride into this 12,000 acre park took us all the way up to 7800 feet and into some of the most unusual rock formations you could ever imagine. The territorial views from up there were unbelievable.
We would look out to one mountain range and then onto another. At one time we saw 3 different mountain ranges from this one spot. Prior to arriving in Arizona last year, my thoughts were that Arizona was mostly flat…well, that was a big mistake. There are mountains in every direction I look, and some of these are mountains run as high as 12,000 or more feet. The research on how the rock formations developed here, says that about 27 million years ago there was a huge volcanic action that covered the area with a deep covering of ash.
After the ash cooled and fused into a 2,000 foot layer of rock, “the forces of erosion” took place and created the sculpted shapes we see today. Our 3 mile hike took us in a large circular route that ran down into the canyons below and then back up, and all the while keeping in mind how great a place this must have been to hide a complete nation of peoples. After finishing our hike, having a bite to eat from our backpack, we drove back down the mountain to visit the Faraway Ranch. The Faraway Ranch was a homestead that was built by Neil Erickson (who fought against Cochise) in 1888, and was continuously kept in his family until the Chiricahua National Monument was established in 1928. As we walked the ranch and looked into all the existing buildings, it gave us the feeling that the Erickson family could be still living there and, could possibly pull into their “driveway” in just any minute.