Chiricahua National Monument Sunday Drive

Yesterday Bill and I spent the day visiting Chiricahua National Monument, which is one of my favorite places to go around here. I say “around here” loosely, since we drove over 225 miles yesterday, so it is not exactly close by.

We packed a lunch and ate at the visitor’s center. It had rained earlier in the day, so the creek near the visitor’s center actually had water in it!

These are some of the rock formations near the visitor’s center:

Then we drove to Massai Point, elevation 6875 ft. The last time we visited, we were unable to drive up the mountain due to the 2011 wildfire. Even though they’ve completed repairs to the road, evidence of the wildfire was everywhere, as you can see from this tree:

One of the reasons I so enjoy going to the monument is that the drive there takes us through the Sulphur Springs valley, an area that includes irrigated farm land and grazing pastures that green up beautifully during the Monsoon season.

As we headed towards Bisbee from Douglas, the sun was covered by a cloud, which certainly made driving easier, since we were heading west, directly into the sunshine. It always made a spectacular picture:

All in all, it was a pleasant day. We haven’t taken a day trip like that in several months, so it was a nice diversion from our usual weekend routines lately.