Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Chiricahua National Monument

Monday:

We made our way the rest of the way around the mountains to the Chiricahua National Monument. Our RV is "29 feet" going on 30.5 feet. It also sits very low. Neither of these factors made finding a campsite easy. There are two washes that disect the campground roads making it difficult for long rigs. The sign at the entrance to the campground said no longer than 24'. Anyway, after a look around via the toad, we brought the RV in to a campsite on the good side of the draw. We'll have to go out against traffic to avoid the washes. Another drawback to this location is the trees in the sites we could get to. No Satellite, little cell phone signal. Even considering all this, it's a good campsite. We registered for a free shuttle to the top tomorrow and will take the 4.5 mile Echo Canyon trail back down. This should give us a good view of much of the place. We'll have to return to see the rest. There is more. It's much warmer here than on the other side of thr mountains at Cave Creek.

Tuesday:

We almost missed the shuttle. There was a mixup with the sign up list. We signed up to be picked up at the campground. The shuttle starts at the visitor center. Fortunately, Lou spoke to our neighbor and they were taking the shuttle them selves. They hadn't signed up yesterday and neither had the other two passengers. They happened to mention that we were taking the shuttle so the driver stopped by the campground anyway. Anyway, we made it to the top and took our 4.3 mile hike down Echo Canyon.

Chiricahua National Monument Chiricahua National Monument
Chiricahua National Monument Chiricahua National Monument
There were of course characters to be seen. Above left we saw a lage bird, on the right and Indian with head dress beside a cowboy.
Chiricahua National Monument Chiricahua National Monument
Some big rocks here!
Chiricahua National Monument Chiricahua National Monument
Nice forest as well. The hike down went through several environments. Lou loved this pond.

After our return, we enjoyed our lunch at the visitor center and then decided to break camp and head North. We stopped for the night at a rest area North of Casa Grande on I-10.

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