03-09 through 03-11-2025 Spectacular Sights in Eastern Arizona

We left the Tucson area knowing that our drive would be a short one.  Our destination was the small town of Willcox, Arizona, located only 89 miles east of Tucson on the I-10 route less than 60 miles from the New Mexico border.  We have traveled this route several times over the last 18 years that we have been RVing, most often on our way east toward Florida.

Several times in the past we have looked longingly toward the south and the Chiricahua Mountains with a promise that we would get there…someday.  Often we have been stopped by snow, but on this trip we got lucky and the snow predicted for Sunday was to end on our day planned for the national monument on Monday the 10^th of March.  Finally.  Mo had visited the park many years ago when she was stationed temporarily at Fort Huachuca, in Southern Arizona, but I had never seen it except in photos.  I was excited.

With a check-in time after 1 PM at our park in Willcox and only a two-hour drive, we were not in a big hurry to arrive.  We decided to take the extra time to go off the main route toward the south on the Dragoon Highway to visit a spot recommended to us by Wes and Gayle.  What a terrific choice and a great surprise to find this world-class museum nestled in the hills in the middle of nowhere.

The Amerind Museum was created to foster and promote knowledge and understanding of the native peoples of the Americas through research, understanding, education, and community engagement.  What began as founder William Shirley Fulton’s personal passion for archaeology grew into decades of research advancements and cross-cultural understanding.

As we explored the museum and the surrounding grounds, we were impressed that all the buildings and exhibits were privately funded by the Fulton family and descendants and by private donations.  Many of the exhibits were donated by various tribes throughout the country and philanthropists who chose to have their private collections curated and stored in optimal museum conditions.

The fee to enter the museum did not include an additional fee for hiking and exploring the surrounding trails that are part of the museum property.  Mo and I were content to explore the museum and save our hiking energy for our next day in the mountains.

We found a large area with plenty of room to park the MoHo and turned on the Fantastic Fan to keep Mattie cool while we explored.  We found room after room of well-displayed and curated exhibits with kind and knowledgeable docents who helped me with access for my walker.  I can hike a mile or two, but slow walking with a lot of standing in between is killer so I avoid it when I can.

As is often the case, we were not allowed to take photos inside the museum, but I did steal just one tiny shot with the phone from an upstairs room that was a replica of Fulton’s office in Massachusetts.  The beautiful patina on the wood paneling was real, with the original paneling brought across the country and used in this recreated room.

Without the ability to take photographs of what we saw, I am left with the superb website of the museum that has full explanations and illustrations of the various exhibits.  If you wish to see some of what made this a superb museum, click on the link here.

Sue near where we parked in front of the museum

Other exhibits included  Apache Presence and Continuity with Basketry, the Lindsays' wedding vases. with their donated collection of more than 300 two-spouted vases, and a beautiful room filled with hundreds of pieces of a century of shiwi (Zuni) and Diné (Navajo) Jewelry.

It was a delightful way to spend an afternoon and we had plenty of time to arrive at our campground at a reasonable hour.  When we made the reservation for Willcox, there were a few choices:  some seemed a bit dicey.  When I attempted to speak with another park, the person who answered the phone said, " Oh Honey, don't you worry at all.  We have a lot of people here year round but I am sure we can fit you in.  Just call when you get to Willcox".  That park was only $70.00 per night.  With a bit of grumbling from Mo, I settled on the KOA in Willcox, Arizona.  

At $101.00 with taxes per night, it was crazy expensive for us and even so, reviews mentioned the noise from the interstate as a problem.  

Site 8 at Willcox KOA

It turned out to be a great choice.  We were met at the check-in area by a very helpful guy named Mike who led us to our site, checked to be sure the BBQ was ready for us and clean, and filled us in right away with some much-needed information about visiting the Chiricahuas the next day.  If it weren't for Mike we may not have made the effort to leave the park at 7:30 in the morning to be assured of a parking spot at the more popular trail sites.  When we checked in, I mentioned that I had heard highway noise was an issue.  The kind woman at the desk pointed me to a small dish filled with cleanly wrapped new earplugs.  "Oh, Honey, we have that covered here."  Why does everyone in Arizona call me "Honey"??

Mattie loved the warm sunshine at our patio site at the KOA

The park was exceptionally clean, and the dog park was fenced and clean as well, with agility toys for Mattie to play on and plenty of doggie poop bags. I slept better that night than I had since we were on Ogilby Road with the help of those very good earplugs.

On the morning of March 10, we woke to the rising sun and a temperature of 27 F.  The air was so dry and cold that it crackled.  It has been a very long time since I felt air that is this dry or this cold.  When it is 27 degrees in Grants Pass there is icy fog shrouding the views in all directions.  Here the views seem to go on forever.  We could see the Chiricahua Mountains in the distance, our destination for the day.

When Mo returned from the early morning dog walk,  her white breath came into the rig as she rubbed her hands together wishing she had taken some gloves.  A little hat I knitted years ago warmed her head.  We were excited to see something new and different on this day ahead of us.  We have traveled so much that it is sometimes hard to find places we haven’t seen that interest us.

Leaving in the early hours of the morning has its own special rewards.  The road south toward the park, Highway 191, was almost empty.  We had the road to ourselves.  The combination of vast expanses out the windshield, the empty highway, and the invigorating air triggered what I call a "Joy Moment" for me.  

I don't get these moments very often and there is no formula that I can use to make them happen.  They come out of nowhere for no reason I can discern.  I had my first recognized "Joy Moment" more than a decade ago as we hiked in Joshua Tree NP, and another one that I remember as I sat in our yard watching the sun wink in and out of the leaves of one of our huge old oaks.

It took less than an hour for us to arrive at the park entrance, with a moment to stop and photograph a group of three javelinas, also known as collared peccaries.

The northwestern entrance to the monument

Chiricahua National Monument is an unexpected treasure in the wild deserts of eastern Arizona.  The geologic forces that created this place of "Standing Up Rocks" as the Apaches called it, are repeated throughout the West.  Layers of the earth's crust built up over eons suddenly bulge from increasing pressure beneath and a volcano erupts. The result was catastrophic, more than 5 times the volume of the Krakatoa eruption in Indonesia in 1883 and more than ten times the volume of ash and debris expelled by Mt St Helens in 1980.

As the ash and pumice flows slowed, the particles settled in layers of solid rock called welded rhyolitic tuff. The enormous volume of molten rock expelled from the magma chamber caused its roof to collapse, forming the Turkey Creek Caldera.

Mo on the Massai Point trail with the caldera wall in the distance

Faulting and erosion over time have erased all but a few walls of the large caldera.  A bit of this caldera wall is visible from the Massai Point overlook toward the southern end of the park.  As the tuff cooled, it shrank and fractured, forming a series of long, perpendicular, vertical joints, that today look like rows of columns. As weathering and erosion from wind and water have continued over the millennia tall spires and pinnacles developed.

The Visitor Center at Chiricahua National Monument, constructed by the CCC between 1934 and 1940

In addition to the spires and hoodoos in the park, there is a multitude of plant and animal life that reflect the four ecosystems that come together in this "sky island" surrounded by the relatively level plain of southern Arizona and New Mexico deserts.  Four different zones meet right at the center of the Chiricahua National Monument, including the Rocky Mountain zone to the north meeting the Sierra Madre zone of Mexico to the south, and the Sonoran Desert to the west meeting the Chihauhaun Desert on the east. 

The Massai Point Overlook was constructed by the CCC

We decided to skip visiting the Visitor Center until our return trip from the upper parts of the park so that we would be early enough to get good parking for the trails.  Mike had encouraged us to park at Echo Canyon first because it is the most popular, but I wasn't sure about my ability to hike all the trails. The most dramatic structure built by the CCC workers at the park is the Massai Point Overlook, and I didn't want to miss hiking to it. 

The trail is an in-and-out round trip of just over half a mile, but it isn't exactly flat, with some steep sections and rocky stairs at the beginning and end of the hike.  I was thrilled that I could still manage a hike like this one, especially since the views in all directions were so spectacular.  However, I made no attempt to climb the winding narrow rock stairs to the top of the overlook structure.

See the overlook structure to the left of Sue

Mo climbing the stairs on the return to the parking lot on the Massai Point Trail

After this hike, we drove back to the Echo Trail Head where we decided to try the mile round trip route down to what is called the Grotto.  By this time the parking area was nearly full, but with our little blue tag, we found a parking spot.  The temperature was beginning to warm up and there were a lot more people on the trail than earlier in the morning.

I love this image of one of the amazing stonework walls created on this trail by the CCC

At this link is a fascinating pdf for anyone interested in reading about the details of the CCC at Chiricahua National Monument. The CCC camp NM2A at Chiricahua existed for six years between 1934 and 1940. In that short span of time, enrollees and the foremen who directed them built an entire recreational site and associated NPS management district, including 17 miles of trails, eight miles of reconstructed roadway, a campground, an administrative center, and housing and maintenance facilities. Chiricahua’s landscape is dense with CCC accomplishments; there are few places in the park where visitors will not experience a constructed feature of that era.

After returning from the Grotto trail we drove up to the trailhead for the Sugarloaf Mountain Trail.  At the top of Sugarloaf Mountain is a lookout that was also built by the CCC.  The trail was long and steep and some hikers returning said that there was ice on the trail and they decided to turn around.  We walked up a little bit just to get a feeling for the views from this high point in the park.

Snow near the beginning of the Sugarloaf Mountain Trail

Panorama from a point on one of the trails showing the Arizona desert in the distance

After our hikes, we drove back through the canyon to the Visitor Center which by this time of day was rather crowded.  I spent some time looking at a few goodies and did manage to find a very nice tee shirt with Chiricahua Rocks on the front.  I have soooo many tees from so many desert places, but I do wear them out so it is nice to have another one that is still new.

We were able to take Mattie with us for our early morning hikes because the temperatures were cool enough that she could wait in the car safely.  Dogs are not allowed anywhere on the trails in the park with one exception.  I remembered that a short paved trail was accessible for wheelchairs and walkers and dogs were allowed on the Bonita Creek Loop Trail near the entrance to the park

I appreciated that the trail was paved with concrete rather than asphalt so it wasn't terribly hot for little dog feet even though the air temperature was in the 80's.

The sun felt warm and skies were blue and as we left the park boundary, we were surprised that it was still only 2 in the afternoon.  What to do?  We had noticed a dirt road meandering off toward the east as we drove toward the park earlier that morning and wondered where it went.

Next Post:  What did we find at the base of the Chiricahua Mountains?