Chiricahua National Monument Park
 

Just back from Camping and hiking The Chiricahua Mountains near Wilcox Arizona in the southeast part of the state. The unusual rock formations are like no other. Their origins began millions of years ago when a volcano in the area spewed ash and rock over the area that melted together forming layers that over eons of weathering and erosion left behind endless variety of spires , balanced rocks and other shapes.
They have a small campground 24 sites , no hook ups , but very nice , with miles of hiking trails. The park is 12,000 acres and over 85 percent of it is wilderness area , accessible by foot only. Every turn of the hiking trail brings a more unusual formation then the last. Not many people here, it is a little out of the way. The Hi-Lo did great as usual , perfect size for a small campground.

Great Pictures! Beautiful location.

Looks like a nice place to see, however my hiking has got very limited.

Very pretty pictures, Tom. Janet and I have camped in that campground twice and hiked the Heart of the Rocks trail along with several of the others. One of the times we were there, they had a stargazing event out at the far end of the park with a pretty good telescope. It included a nice talk on the various features visible in the sky that night too.

How has the landscape recovered from the fire? I don't really see any damage in your pictures, but my understanding was that it had hit the monument area pretty hard.

Another area we've camped at a few times is on the other side of the mountains near Portal. There's a Forest Service campground there called Sunny Flat: Sunny Flat Campground that is really beautiful, and there are some fairly easy hiking trails there too. If you go in the spring, the creek that flows by the campground should be running and it's right in the backyard of several of the campsites.

It may have been hit by the fire too though, so might not be so beautiful now.

- Jack

You could see fire damage. More so on the road up the hill to the trail heads. some of the canyons you hike in the fire did not go back in. But as you look off in the distance toward Mexico , you see a lot of damage. Campground and entrance to the park not affected.
Thanks for the tip on Sunny Flat , looks good we will try it sometime.