Sunday, November 5, 2017

 I didn't post anything yesterday, as it was a football day.  The Badgers won, but they lost their ranking in the polls.  They all say that the Big 10 is a powder puff conference this year. I guess we will have to wait and see.  We did watch the thriller of Iowa and Ohio State, and it didn't hurt for us to stay home and recuperate from our previous hikes.
It was a gorgeous day again today, so we headed off to the Chiricahua National Monument to do another hike.  We are doing hikes that are progressively more difficult and with more elevation climb, to get us in shape for the Valley hiking.  Today's hike was 5 miles (4.97 to be exact) and 1,065 feet accumulative elevation.  It is a strenuous up, immediately, so that's a good thing to do that when one is fresh!  Then we hiked along the ridge line for a while, before dropping down the back side to go down into another valley.  We hiked back through the Apache Pines to our destination of the Natural Bridge.

This is our view once we reached the canyon rim, overlooking our path on the way up.  You might be able to see the burned trees from the May 8, 2011 fire that swept through here.  It was so devastating, but they did manage to save the Faraway Ranch house and several of the park buildings, including the visitor center.  They had to wrap them to prevent them from destruction.  We did notice more greenery in this area this year, so it is starting to come back.  It will take years for the larger trees to grow to offer shade.  We are just glad that we started coming here in 2006 and have beautiful pictures of how it was.  It still is a peaceful, and serene place to visit. 

This is my favorite butt shot of Jim today!  We are on the other side of the mountain and descending down into the valley on the other side, from where we started.  There are more shrubs this year, and the once green grasses from the summer, have turned a brilliant gold, that shimmered in the sunlight.  Before the fire, this was home to quite a number of black bear, and it was told to us by the ranger, that a mom had triplets and lived back here.  Before 2011, we could see lots of fresh bear dung in the area, but we never caught sight of the animal itself.  The Chiricahuas are also home to cougars, rattlesnakes, and coatimundi.  We have not seen a snake of any kind here in all the years we have been coming here. 

The natural bridge at the end of our trail is 30 feet long.  It was surprisingly untouched in the 2011 fire, as the fire stopped about 200 yards from this area. 

Jim is holding two pine cones from the huge Apache Pine Trees.  I have never seen pine cones as big as this.  The pine needles on these trees vary from 8 to 15 inches long.  This is the only place in the park, that we have seen them this long.  There is another portion of the park that we hike, and those needles are about 6 to 8 inches long.

This is the end of the line for this hike.  Now to eat lunch and turn around and go back.  It was a good day! If you can't read the sign, it says, 'End of Trail'.