A hike into God's art gallery



My lunch view

All I can say is “wow.” Today’s hike in the Chiricahua Mountains in Southern Arizona left me amazed and awestruck and just a little bit tired.

Since my first hike here in January I have heard members of the hiking group talk about the beautiful Chiricahua Mountains and the excitement and anticipation of this season-ending hike. Because the trailhead is 110 miles from the resort the hiking group met at 7 a.m. instead of the usual 8 a.m.

With only 12 hikers and very few cars I offered to drive and ended up with three passengers in the Tahoe. We arrived at the ranger station at the Chiricahua National Monument at 8:55 a.m. to catch the 9 a.m. shuttle to the top of the mountain.

Natural spires over our heads

Unfortunately, the 9 a.m. shuttle was actually an 8:30 a.m. shuttle so we were looking at the prospect of shuffling cars to the top of the mountain and leaving one at the bottom to take the drivers back up after the hike.

Fortunately, the nice ranger said because we had a full group he would run a second shuttle up the mountain for us at 9:15 a.m. so we didn’t have to move cars around. A park volunteer drove us to the trailhead and dropped us off to begin our hike through the mountains.

The first part of the trail was down and I started to think this is going to be an easy hike. Ah, but then the trail turned to a sharp ascent and we probably climbed about 600-800-feet in a very short time.  The trail proceeded through an area that was significantly damaged by fire just two years ago and it was sobering to see the extensive damage done by the fire, which was caused by a careless campfire.



Walking through the fire section

As much as it was sad to see the damage it was encouraging to see that in some places nature is slowly restoring itself with new plants.

At nearly 7,000-feet I struggled a little with my breathing as we scaled the large stone steps and incline, but I was far from the slowest hiker on the trail.  Once we got to the summit we took a side trail to a place called Inspiration Point where we had lunch. The view from there was simply outstanding and we lingered for a while.

Along the trail we saw magnificent rock formations including some that seemed impossible. Huge boulders perched on top of tall spires. Some formations appeared to be balanced in a way that if you could get next to them you could tip them over. (Probably couldn't though).

"Big Balanced Rock"

Early in the hike we were followed by a Mexican Blue Jay that was so tame it took raisins and peanuts out of the hand of one of the hikers. It followed us all the way up the hill to Inspiration Point where he continued to beg for scraps during lunch.

Back on the trail we followed a relatively flat section along the top of a mountain until we came to a beauty loop (1-mile) that took us through some of the most beautiful and unusual rock formations I have seen, although they reminded me a little of “Tent Rocks” in New Mexico.

The loop involved some pretty aggressive steps through the rock formations and it took us about an hour to do the loop. Part of the delay was related to the many photo stops we had to make.

In the far back center is where we ate lunch

The trail was lightly used today and we only saw a   few other hikers on the trail. Following the loop the rest of the trail was pretty much a downward march to the parking lot where we left our cars. Some of the steps were steep and some of the group struggled a little with the extreme downhill portion.


Although parts of the trail were steep, it was well maintained and the 9-miles passed quicker than I thought it would.

Every time I take one of these hikes into a place like this I am moved that we have a Creator who is magnificent in his natural artwork. No human artist could create the awesome sculpture I saw today.



Coming down the mountain

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Joan was enjoying a quiet day with her “Go Bible” an audio system that contains the entire Bible on a digital player. She puttered around the trailer and devoured all her magazines. Not to mention she slept in until 10 a.m.

When I arrived home from the hike at 5 p.m. I ran to the showers cleaned up and Joan fixed one of my favorite meals – Shrimp Louie salad.

All in all another great day in Arizona. One thing I might do differently if I had to do this all over is that I might not have taken the five-mile hike into Ventana Canyon the day before doing this 9-mile adventure. Joan says I can have tomorrow off.

To see more hike photos simply scroll down.