Chiricahua National Monument Rocks! - Arizona

Wilcox, Arizona

Wilcox Elks Lodge

The Chiricahua National Monument in southeast Arizona is known for its rhyolite rock pinnacles. Some rising hundreds of feet into the air balanced on a small base.  It's a simple park with one road in that passes the visitor center and a small campground.  It's for smaller rigs and since we could not find boondocking close enough we stayed 45 minutes away at the Elks Lodge in Wilcox.

 

The road in passes through some pines as you rise in elevation.  It's much cooler up here too.

Then you pass through some of the spires and pinnacles.  Very impressive.

We stopped at the visitors center to get some suggestions on which hike to take as our time was limited.  We drove up to the Lookout and walked the short path to the top. Beautiful 360 degree views.  We then drove to the Echo Canyon Parking and took the Echo Canyon Trail to the Grottoes.  We hiked about 4 miles in total.  You could have continued further but this gave us the most variety and we could hike among the boulders and spires.

What a great view looking East.  You can see New Mexico.

Love the bark on the Alligator Juniper.

So many stacked rocks.  Some on very small bases.

A castle like look out.

We named these The Kissing Rocks.

The triangle shaped peak really stood out with the pinnacles.

On the Grotto Trail you hike all around them.

 

In 1976 these 9440 acres of Chiricahua National Monument are Class I Wilderness.  No developments that alter the land such as roads, buildings, utility lines etc are allowed.

We did a little rock climbing too.

Some amazing balanced rocks.

Beautiful views are everywhere.  We'll need to come back and hike on some of the other trails.

The rocks are covered in colorful lichen.

   

 

This was a fun spot to climb around and explore.

We had a picnic lunch and the Blue Jays were very friendly.  They kept coming to my hand to take peanuts.  Angie got a great slo-mo video of them.

How cool is that?!

What a great, long day we had!