June 16, 2025 • 20 mins
Note: Audio Only, Please see YouTube for Video Version
Standing among the towering hoodoos and balanced rocks of Chiricahua National Monument feels like stepping into another world. These extraordinary formations weren't crafted by human hands but by 32 million years of volcanic activity and persistent erosion. Located in southeastern Arizona near the small towns of Bowie and Wilcox, this hidden gem offers visitors a chance to explore one of America's most distinctive landscapes.
The scenic drive to Massai Point reveals panoramic vistas stretching up to 80 miles across the desert. From this vantage point, you can see the distant Dragoon Mountains—once the stronghold of Apache leader Cochise—and connect to an impressive network of trails. While the full 9-mile loop requires 5-6 hours, shorter options like the Echo Canyon Trail to The Grottoes provide accessible ways to experience the monument's signature formations. Walking through these natural stone corridors, with massive boulders suspended overhead, creates an almost mystical experience.
Chiricahua's significance extends beyond its stunning geology. Designated as a "sky island" wilderness, these isolated mountains form a unique ecological refuge surrounded by desert. The monument also preserves important human history at Far Away Ranch, where the Erickson family's homestead evolved from a primitive cabin to a working guest ranch. Walking among these historic structures prompts reflection on the legacies we leave behind—a thought that resonates whether you're admiring volcanic sculptures shaped over millennia or pioneer buildings constructed by determined hands. Whether you're a geology enthusiast, history buff, or simply seeking natural beauty off the beaten path, Chiricahua offers a profound connection to the forces that shape our world. Come prepared with water and sturdy shoes, and don't rush your visit—this remarkable landscape deserves time to appreciate its wonders properly.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, folks, I am standing in front of the visitor
center at Chiricahua NationalMonument, located in
southeastern Arizona.
The closest town would be Bowieor Wilcox.
I'm going to check out thethings here.
Talked to the ranger inside.
He said best time is lateSeptember, the tail end of the
(00:23):
monsoon season.
You get wildflower blooms andlots of other cool things.
The weather's not so fierce andthe crowds are not bad.
Probably will take a look atthe campground on the way out
and then, far away ranch also,off we go.
I think the plan is to headtowards Benita Creek campground
in Maasai point.
Let's go this spot right.
(00:44):
Here was the one I was going topick for tonight.
I did pick it on therecreationgov.
It looks like a nice site butit's going to be pretty brisk
tonight, wind wise andtemperature wise, so another
time.
But looks like a nicecampground.
I'm at the very top of thescenic drive, which is a place
(01:05):
called the side point.
It's a good overview of thewhole park.
You can connect to a bunch ofother trails.
One thing I did notice from myresearch here that you can
connect a lot of trails and do abig, giant loop which is almost
nine miles and takes about fiveto six hours, which I don't
have today.
Let's look at the map for asecond.
(01:27):
I'm up here at the top, theuppermost portion of the drive,
there's a little exhibit area.
You go down there.
I'm planning on doing the EchoCanyon Trail.
I'm working my way back down tothe park entrance and on to
Tucson.
You can add these up quicklythe side point, inspiration
(01:51):
point, heart of rocks loop,perimeter loop plus the heart of
rocks loop.
There is no further paved roadbeyond this point which loops
around and goes back down.
But you can combine things.
Definitely want to check thisout some more, but for now we're
gonna do this.
Come on Now.
All these weird shaped rocksthat you see.
(02:13):
They're very interesting.
You have columns, balancedrocks, pinnacles, all formed
through various joints and solidpieces of rock.
Over time those joints wideneddue to water, erosion and
(02:45):
weathering.
That will continue to shapethese rocks.
This is Maasai Point at theChukawa National Monument.
Nice panoramic view of thesurrounding area.
Hey, future Craig here.
If you're liking this video,make sure to give it a thumbs up
.
That's the best way for YouTubeto get it out to other people.
And stay tuned to the rest ofthis video to see this small yet
(03:07):
interesting and diverse park.
Thanks.
Some of these are not going toturn out on camera very well,
but this little tube here pointsout some viewpoints On the
trail.
Right there, directly acrossfrom us, which is 40 miles away,
(03:27):
is the Dragoon Mountains, whichis a stronghold for the Apache
under Cochise 1876.
Let's go left so they'll goforwards.
I can't really see it becauseit's hazy or dusty.
It's straight out there.
It's at Saguaro National Park,70 miles away, and it's like a
(03:48):
mountain 8700 feet, 75 milesfrom this point Pretty crazy.
This is the highest pointaccessible in the park called
Sugarloaf Peak.
On the top of it you canprobably see a little structure
that's a fire tower fire.
(04:13):
Look out.
Here you have the heart ofrocks trail if you follow that v
of the rocks.
Right there there's a totempole which at some point is four
feet around at the base, soit's very narrow.
One of these days is going tofall over.
If you look down to the canyonsyou can see a lot of narrow.
One of these days is going tofall over.
If you look down to the canyonsyou can see a lot of
interesting trees Douglas, fir,ponderosa thriving in that moist
environment.
Over here there is a mountainknown as flies peak, one of the
(04:40):
two highest peaks in theChiricahua Mountains.
Almost a thousand feet up thereis Aspen, indicating a cool,
wet climate on the top.
And then, lastly, there's a redtop, a formation called the
mushroom.
One thing that's happening aswe speak is the process of
weathering and a particularplant called lichen which forms
(05:03):
the green and gray colors on therock.
It's a symbiotic relationship.
It's actually a fungi and analgae that work together and
they release a very weak acidwhich contributes to weathering
of rocks.
One thing to think about is alllandscapes but it seems to be
(05:25):
more prominent in a landscapelike this are undergoing a
continuous process of change, asheat, cold, rain, wind, like
today, that just helps break upthese formations and make them
what they are today.
Some of them look like faces orheads or something, of course.
(05:49):
One thing I've talked a lotabout in previous videos is the
establishment of wilderness, theWilderness Act.
Even though Aldo Leopold wasparamount in getting legislation
to set aside the wilderness,that was a full 40 years before
(06:10):
that happened.
The Wilderness Act came aboutin 1964 and here in Chiricahua
they designated 9,440 as Class Ipristine wilderness, one of the
last strongholds of the Apachewas the Dragoon Mountains, which
(06:34):
I've already pointed outearlier, straight across over
here on the western horizon.
They were named for theDragoons, which was the cavalry
who could fight on foot andhorseback.
He often retired Cochise withhis people to hide out from the
military and when he died theyburied him in those mountains
(06:58):
and no one's ever been able tofind it Pretty crazy to think
about Rincon Peak and MicahMountain.
Rincon is 70 miles away andmicah is 80 miles away.
They're visible, maybe not onthe camera that I'm showing you
right now, but they'redefinitely out there.
We do have air pollution that iscontributing to this, so the
(07:21):
clean air act was established totry to clean up the air.
We still have lots of thingsthat contribute to impairment
Nitrates, sulfates, coarsematerials, elemental carbons,
organic matter and so on.
(07:41):
Now, inside the monument itself, there's all these different
things to check out.
Whatever time of year it is,make sure you try to check out
whatever you can.
This is a map of the monument.
We are at the east side of themonument.
In the park, plants, animals,etc.
The night sky has fascinatedpeople and you might see some
(08:10):
really cool things if you areout here at night.
So if you look here, this istalking about wilderness, which
we touched on before.
Only a very small portion ofthe monument is wilderness.
It says 10,290 acres.
The Coronado National Forest,which is also part of the
Chiricahua and is also named theChiricahua Wilderness, is
(08:33):
87,700 acres.
One thing we can do to help isthe Leave no Trace principles.
They call this a sky island.
Sky islands are places thatspecies can come as refuge.
They're more like remnantspecies, but they're isolated
(08:54):
through the surroundings andform their own ecosystem in that
particular place, which is whythey set aside Cherokee in the
first place.
This talks about nature'ssculptures.
This is what caused the volcanoitself.
In the very middle.
Here we have a little scalemodel of the monument.
Looks like a brain.
Some of these stones look likeheads.
(09:16):
This is Cochise's head.
If you look right there, he'slaying on his back.
His head is sticking up there.
There's his nose, eyebrowPretty crazy.
I'm going to continue down thehill here and go to Echo, what's
(09:37):
called Echo Canyon, to try todo a hike there.
Hope you'll join me.
So I probably spent a littletoo long at my side point, but
it was pretty amazing.
I don't have time to do theentire Echo Canyon loop trail,
but I will do it another time.
Let's take a look at the maphere.
So Echo Canyon trail goes herein a big loop with the Edward
(10:01):
Riggs trail and the Hailstonetrail making.
The entire loop goes among thepinnacles to Bonita Creek,
usually dry.
Before circling back, I need tobe in Tucson by 8 o'clock.
I just go to the Grottos whichis showing on the map here.
One mile, 40 minutes, so it'shalf mile in half mile back and
(10:22):
save the Echo Canyon loop foranother time.
Just running out of time today,definitely want to be prepared.
Carry your 10 essentials,plenty of water there is no
water available out here Stay onthe trail and be aware of
changing conditions.
Plus, leave everything that youfind undisturbed.
Okay, let's go down, go to theGrottoes.
(10:45):
It's about four tenths of amile or .6 kilometers.
Upper Rhyolite Trail, 1.6,hailstone 1.6, ed Riggs, .2, and
then Nature Trail .5.
(11:05):
Alot of choices.
I think I'm going to go thisway to the Grottoes and check
that out and see how it goes.
I don't anticipate it'll takeme too long to get to the
grottoes, but we'll see.
Even though it's off season, wehad a lot of nice people on the
trail today.
Pretty cool indeed, but I thinkthis is probably going to be
(11:26):
enough for me today.
I have to come back sometimecamp camp in the park and do the
entire loop.
I just met some guys that weregoing over the entire loop and
that was pretty wild.
They did every mile of trailthat there is in the park and
that's pretty neat.
I feel like I'm walking pastmonoliths from Easter
(11:49):
Island or something.
The big giant heads.
Look at this.
This is crazy.
See a sign down there.
It says Grottoes.
Let's gocheck it out.
You have Grottoes here.
You've got these big old giantboulder looking things.
It's really not a boulder, it'sjust like the wore down parts
(12:14):
of the rock.
You can go in here and check itout.
I'm going to do just that.
I'm going to walk up in hereand see
where it goes.
I'm not sure how far it goes,but this is wild.
Look at this boulder justsuspended up here.
There's a rock just up there.
This goes back down to thetrail.
(12:35):
There's some further stuff uphere.
I hope the big boulder doesn'tfollow me.
There's a little crack there.
Some cracks lead back tothe main trail.
Here's some more areas overhere.
This is wild y'all so wild andthere's another boulder just
hanging out.
(12:55):
This is the way out, so we'regoing to take that.
This is so crazy to think about.
This is the end of the grottohere.
Turn it around, you've got thebig rock up here, actually got a
couple of big rocks that arehanging out, so to speak.
(13:17):
And then look over here we havea beautiful view.
Look further down this waythere are some more rocks up top
and there's the trail downthere.
So I'm going to head out.
I don't know if this is afamous balanced rock, but it is
a balanced rock.
There's some other pentaclesout here.
(13:38):
It's really cool.
If you look close enough anduse your imagination, you can
probably imagine shapes or faces.
This one kind of looks like acat or a lion sitting up, like
one of those Chinese lions.
That thing is just crazylooking.
I wish I had more time to dothe entire Echo Canyon Trail,
(14:02):
but I have to waitfor another day.
If you're looking over the topof my vehicle, this material was
ancient stream beds that wasdeposited 32 million years ago,
ready for oxidation or rust withthe iron in the soil.
They were buried by volcanicash from the eruption that
(14:25):
formed what we know asChiricahua National Monument.
There's those white veins overthere, which is interesting.
I thought they were roots atfirst, but they're actually
gypsum, which is used to makeplaster of Paris.
That was deposited aspercolation through fractures in
the stream deposits.
Over time it precipitated fromthe water-filling cracks,
(14:46):
probably difficult to see in thebright sunlight.
But there's a formation upahead called China Boy.
It formed from erosion from thelayered rocks which had
volcanic eruptions millions ofyears ago.
There was another volcanocalled Turkey Creek 10 miles
south.
That erupted at least ninetimes.
So you had a lot of differentlayers that were popped out, the
(15:09):
final depth of about 2,000 feet.
Howcrazy is that?
Here's a graphicalrepresentation of it on the sign
China Boy up on the top righthere.
I'll try to get a little closerso you can see it.
Right here they're trying toshow us a sea captain which is a
shape up there.
If you look way up there, letme zoom in.
(15:29):
Right above, where the treegoes, looks like there's a face.
He's up there going argh.
They're calling this the organpipe formation and I can see why
.
Look at those massive columnsof rock there.
It's justwild to me.
It's getting dark but I wantedto go to the Farway Ranch real
(15:56):
quick.
I won't be able to make it toall the little stops here.
Let's look at the map.
Here you have the ranch home.
It's a round-trip hike of halfa mile.
Probably have time to do thatone.
You have the stafford cabin,built in 1880.
(16:24):
That's about a mile or 20minutes, so I might be able to
go to that one.
That's probably about as far aswe go today.
But this is the historicalstory of people here the
prehistoric, the chiricahua,apache, the spanish people, the
buffalo soldiers, ranchers,civilian conservation corps
they've all been here and thistrail you can take your dog on,
(16:46):
but you have to have them on theleash at all times.
This talks about the deal here.
I definitely want to go to theranch house.
I wanted to go to the furthestone first because I want to try
to get back to my vehicle andit's still somewhat okay.
Look, there's a deer over theregoing across the road.
(17:07):
I don't know if you can seethem.
There's a couple of them.
There's some that I came acrossby the main house, which I'll
talk aboutin a minute.
Stafford built this cabin witha dirt floor.
In one room.
Additions are made.
You can see on here.
They built the cabin using logscut from the canyon here.
(17:31):
Originally it was unpeeled logs, squared, notched corners,
chinked gravel with mud.
There was a Sonoran earthquakethat shook the chimney, knocked
it down in 1887.
The Eriksons purchased it fromthe Stafford children in 1918,
which that'sFarway Ranch people.
Let's take a look at the cabin.
(17:52):
You can see some of theadditions.
The wooden part on the side isan additional room that was
added on.
The original wood was theoriginal part.
How would you like to havelived in that cabin back there.
Leave me a comment and let meknow what would be your worries,
(18:13):
fears and expectations.
There's Farway Ranch, almostlike something out of a
Hollywood movie.
The Eriksons owned that.
They actually operated it as aworking ranch, a dude ranch, for
many years until it was sold tothe federal government to make
the park in the 1920s.
There's a closer view of thehome.
Look at this old bathtub.
(18:34):
That's crazy.
Bet a lot of you out there havenever seen a bathtub like this.
Yep, just like the other home,it evolved.
It was a primitive structureand they built around it,
increased its size.
They called it Far Away Ranchbecause it was so
far from everything.
Over here we have someoutbuildings.
(18:56):
I believe some of these werecabins for the dude ranch
operation.
Of course you got barns,stables, that type of thing.
This was probably a pump houseor an outhouse, that stone
building.
Here's a beautiful view as weget close to finishing up.
Look at this old windmillblowing the breeze.
But that windmill's seen somethings.
(19:17):
Whatdo you think?
Now we come back full circle tothe Erickson's Cemetery.
They were pioneers on this landas far as making permanent
European settlements.
You had several Eriksons thatwere buried here.
It just makes me think as Iapproach my 50th birthday, what
(19:41):
legacy am I going to leave onthe earth?
Hey, future Craig here Left youwith a deep thought, didn't I
Think about that legacy thatyou're going to leave on the
earth?
Is it going to be somethingmeaningful?
I hope so.
I hope I myself will do thesame thing.
If you like this video, give ita thumbs up, think about
(20:03):
subscribing to the channel andif you have any questions or
comments, leave those below.
Thanks, got more content comingthat I think you will enjoy and
you don't want to miss that.
I do appreciate you watching.
I do appreciate your commentsand your likes and everything
that you do to help me, and hopethat you're having a great year
(20:26):
so far.
Until next time, watch one ofthese videos and I'll see you on
the trail.
Okay, bye.
Okay, folks, I am standing in front of the visitor
center at Chiricahua NationalMonument, located in
southeastern Arizona.
The closest town would be Bowieor Wilcox.
I'm going to check out thethings here.
Talked to the ranger inside.
He said best time is lateSeptember, the tail end of the
(00:23):
monsoon season.
You get wildflower blooms andlots of other cool things.
The weather's not so fierce andthe crowds are not bad.
Probably will take a look atthe campground on the way out
and then, far away ranch also,off we go.
I think the plan is to headtowards Benita Creek campground
in Maasai point.
Let's go this spot right.
(00:44):
Here was the one I was going topick for tonight.
I did pick it on therecreationgov.
It looks like a nice site butit's going to be pretty brisk
tonight, wind wise andtemperature wise, so another
time.
But looks like a nicecampground.
I'm at the very top of thescenic drive, which is a place
(01:05):
called the side point.
It's a good overview of thewhole park.
You can connect to a bunch ofother trails.
One thing I did notice from myresearch here that you can
connect a lot of trails and do abig, giant loop which is almost
nine miles and takes about fiveto six hours, which I don't
have today.
Let's look at the map for asecond.
(01:27):
I'm up here at the top, theuppermost portion of the drive,
there's a little exhibit area.
You go down there.
I'm planning on doing the EchoCanyon Trail.
I'm working my way back down tothe park entrance and on to
Tucson.
You can add these up quicklythe side point, inspiration
(01:51):
point, heart of rocks loop,perimeter loop plus the heart of
rocks loop.
There is no further paved roadbeyond this point which loops
around and goes back down.
But you can combine things.
Definitely want to check thisout some more, but for now we're
gonna do this.
Come on Now.
All these weird shaped rocksthat you see.
(02:13):
They're very interesting.
You have columns, balancedrocks, pinnacles, all formed
through various joints and solidpieces of rock.
Over time those joints wideneddue to water, erosion and
(02:45):
weathering.
That will continue to shapethese rocks.
This is Maasai Point at theChukawa National Monument.
Nice panoramic view of thesurrounding area.
Hey, future Craig here.
If you're liking this video,make sure to give it a thumbs up
.
That's the best way for YouTubeto get it out to other people.
And stay tuned to the rest ofthis video to see this small yet
(03:07):
interesting and diverse park.
Thanks.
Some of these are not going toturn out on camera very well,
but this little tube here pointsout some viewpoints On the
trail.
Right there, directly acrossfrom us, which is 40 miles away,
(03:27):
is the Dragoon Mountains, whichis a stronghold for the Apache
under Cochise 1876.
Let's go left so they'll goforwards.
I can't really see it becauseit's hazy or dusty.
It's straight out there.
It's at Saguaro National Park,70 miles away, and it's like a
(03:48):
mountain 8700 feet, 75 milesfrom this point Pretty crazy.
This is the highest pointaccessible in the park called
Sugarloaf Peak.
On the top of it you canprobably see a little structure
that's a fire tower fire.
(04:13):
Look out.
Here you have the heart ofrocks trail if you follow that v
of the rocks.
Right there there's a totempole which at some point is four
feet around at the base, soit's very narrow.
One of these days is going tofall over.
If you look down to the canyonsyou can see a lot of narrow.
One of these days is going tofall over.
If you look down to the canyonsyou can see a lot of
interesting trees Douglas, fir,ponderosa thriving in that moist
environment.
Over here there is a mountainknown as flies peak, one of the
(04:40):
two highest peaks in theChiricahua Mountains.
Almost a thousand feet up thereis Aspen, indicating a cool,
wet climate on the top.
And then, lastly, there's a redtop, a formation called the
mushroom.
One thing that's happening aswe speak is the process of
weathering and a particularplant called lichen which forms
(05:03):
the green and gray colors on therock.
It's a symbiotic relationship.
It's actually a fungi and analgae that work together and
they release a very weak acidwhich contributes to weathering
of rocks.
One thing to think about is alllandscapes but it seems to be
(05:25):
more prominent in a landscapelike this are undergoing a
continuous process of change, asheat, cold, rain, wind, like
today, that just helps break upthese formations and make them
what they are today.
Some of them look like faces orheads or something, of course.
(05:49):
One thing I've talked a lotabout in previous videos is the
establishment of wilderness, theWilderness Act.
Even though Aldo Leopold wasparamount in getting legislation
to set aside the wilderness,that was a full 40 years before
(06:10):
that happened.
The Wilderness Act came aboutin 1964 and here in Chiricahua
they designated 9,440 as Class Ipristine wilderness, one of the
last strongholds of the Apachewas the Dragoon Mountains, which
(06:34):
I've already pointed outearlier, straight across over
here on the western horizon.
They were named for theDragoons, which was the cavalry
who could fight on foot andhorseback.
He often retired Cochise withhis people to hide out from the
military and when he died theyburied him in those mountains
(06:58):
and no one's ever been able tofind it Pretty crazy to think
about Rincon Peak and MicahMountain.
Rincon is 70 miles away andmicah is 80 miles away.
They're visible, maybe not onthe camera that I'm showing you
right now, but they'redefinitely out there.
We do have air pollution that iscontributing to this, so the
(07:21):
clean air act was established totry to clean up the air.
We still have lots of thingsthat contribute to impairment
Nitrates, sulfates, coarsematerials, elemental carbons,
organic matter and so on.
(07:41):
Now, inside the monument itself, there's all these different
things to check out.
Whatever time of year it is,make sure you try to check out
whatever you can.
This is a map of the monument.
We are at the east side of themonument.
In the park, plants, animals,etc.
The night sky has fascinatedpeople and you might see some
(08:10):
really cool things if you areout here at night.
So if you look here, this istalking about wilderness, which
we touched on before.
Only a very small portion ofthe monument is wilderness.
It says 10,290 acres.
The Coronado National Forest,which is also part of the
Chiricahua and is also named theChiricahua Wilderness, is
(08:33):
87,700 acres.
One thing we can do to help isthe Leave no Trace principles.
They call this a sky island.
Sky islands are places thatspecies can come as refuge.
They're more like remnantspecies, but they're isolated
(08:54):
through the surroundings andform their own ecosystem in that
particular place, which is whythey set aside Cherokee in the
first place.
This talks about nature'ssculptures.
This is what caused the volcanoitself.
In the very middle.
Here we have a little scalemodel of the monument.
Looks like a brain.
Some of these stones look likeheads.
(09:16):
This is Cochise's head.
If you look right there, he'slaying on his back.
His head is sticking up there.
There's his nose, eyebrowPretty crazy.
I'm going to continue down thehill here and go to Echo, what's
(09:37):
called Echo Canyon, to try todo a hike there.
Hope you'll join me.
So I probably spent a littletoo long at my side point, but
it was pretty amazing.
I don't have time to do theentire Echo Canyon loop trail,
but I will do it another time.
Let's take a look at the maphere.
So Echo Canyon trail goes herein a big loop with the Edward
(10:01):
Riggs trail and the Hailstonetrail making.
The entire loop goes among thepinnacles to Bonita Creek,
usually dry.
Before circling back, I need tobe in Tucson by 8 o'clock.
I just go to the Grottos whichis showing on the map here.
One mile, 40 minutes, so it'shalf mile in half mile back and
(10:22):
save the Echo Canyon loop foranother time.
Just running out of time today,definitely want to be prepared.
Carry your 10 essentials,plenty of water there is no
water available out here Stay onthe trail and be aware of
changing conditions.
Plus, leave everything that youfind undisturbed.
Okay, let's go down, go to theGrottoes.
(10:45):
It's about four tenths of amile or .6 kilometers.
Upper Rhyolite Trail, 1.6,hailstone 1.6, ed Riggs, .2, and
then Nature Trail .5.
(11:05):
Alot of choices.
I think I'm going to go thisway to the Grottoes and check
that out and see how it goes.
I don't anticipate it'll takeme too long to get to the
grottoes, but we'll see.
Even though it's off season, wehad a lot of nice people on the
trail today.
Pretty cool indeed, but I thinkthis is probably going to be
(11:26):
enough for me today.
I have to come back sometimecamp camp in the park and do the
entire loop.
I just met some guys that weregoing over the entire loop and
that was pretty wild.
They did every mile of trailthat there is in the park and
that's pretty neat.
I feel like I'm walking pastmonoliths from Easter
(11:49):
Island or something.
The big giant heads.
Look at this.
This is crazy.
See a sign down there.
It says Grottoes.
Let's gocheck it out.
You have Grottoes here.
You've got these big old giantboulder looking things.
It's really not a boulder, it'sjust like the wore down parts
(12:14):
of the rock.
You can go in here and check itout.
I'm going to do just that.
I'm going to walk up in hereand see
where it goes.
I'm not sure how far it goes,but this is wild.
Look at this boulder justsuspended up here.
There's a rock just up there.
This goes back down to thetrail.
(12:35):
There's some further stuff uphere.
I hope the big boulder doesn'tfollow me.
There's a little crack there.
Some cracks lead back tothe main trail.
Here's some more areas overhere.
This is wild y'all so wild andthere's another boulder just
hanging out.
(12:55):
This is the way out, so we'regoing to take that.
This is so crazy to think about.
This is the end of the grottohere.
Turn it around, you've got thebig rock up here, actually got a
couple of big rocks that arehanging out, so to speak.
(13:17):
And then look over here we havea beautiful view.
Look further down this waythere are some more rocks up top
and there's the trail downthere.
So I'm going to head out.
I don't know if this is afamous balanced rock, but it is
a balanced rock.
There's some other pentaclesout here.
(13:38):
It's really cool.
If you look close enough anduse your imagination, you can
probably imagine shapes or faces.
This one kind of looks like acat or a lion sitting up, like
one of those Chinese lions.
That thing is just crazylooking.
I wish I had more time to dothe entire Echo Canyon Trail,
(14:02):
but I have to waitfor another day.
If you're looking over the topof my vehicle, this material was
ancient stream beds that wasdeposited 32 million years ago,
ready for oxidation or rust withthe iron in the soil.
They were buried by volcanicash from the eruption that
(14:25):
formed what we know asChiricahua National Monument.
There's those white veins overthere, which is interesting.
I thought they were roots atfirst, but they're actually
gypsum, which is used to makeplaster of Paris.
That was deposited aspercolation through fractures in
the stream deposits.
Over time it precipitated fromthe water-filling cracks,
(14:46):
probably difficult to see in thebright sunlight.
But there's a formation upahead called China Boy.
It formed from erosion from thelayered rocks which had
volcanic eruptions millions ofyears ago.
There was another volcanocalled Turkey Creek 10 miles
south.
That erupted at least ninetimes.
So you had a lot of differentlayers that were popped out, the
(15:09):
final depth of about 2,000 feet.
Howcrazy is that?
Here's a graphicalrepresentation of it on the sign
China Boy up on the top righthere.
I'll try to get a little closerso you can see it.
Right here they're trying toshow us a sea captain which is a
shape up there.
If you look way up there, letme zoom in.
(15:29):
Right above, where the treegoes, looks like there's a face.
He's up there going argh.
They're calling this the organpipe formation and I can see why
.
Look at those massive columnsof rock there.
It's justwild to me.
It's getting dark but I wantedto go to the Farway Ranch real
(15:56):
quick.
I won't be able to make it toall the little stops here.
Let's look at the map.
Here you have the ranch home.
It's a round-trip hike of halfa mile.
Probably have time to do thatone.
You have the stafford cabin,built in 1880.
(16:24):
That's about a mile or 20minutes, so I might be able to
go to that one.
That's probably about as far aswe go today.
But this is the historicalstory of people here the
prehistoric, the chiricahua,apache, the spanish people, the
buffalo soldiers, ranchers,civilian conservation corps
they've all been here and thistrail you can take your dog on,
(16:46):
but you have to have them on theleash at all times.
This talks about the deal here.
I definitely want to go to theranch house.
I wanted to go to the furthestone first because I want to try
to get back to my vehicle andit's still somewhat okay.
Look, there's a deer over theregoing across the road.
(17:07):
I don't know if you can seethem.
There's a couple of them.
There's some that I came acrossby the main house, which I'll
talk aboutin a minute.
Stafford built this cabin witha dirt floor.
In one room.
Additions are made.
You can see on here.
They built the cabin using logscut from the canyon here.
(17:31):
Originally it was unpeeled logs, squared, notched corners,
chinked gravel with mud.
There was a Sonoran earthquakethat shook the chimney, knocked
it down in 1887.
The Eriksons purchased it fromthe Stafford children in 1918,
which that'sFarway Ranch people.
Let's take a look at the cabin.
(17:52):
You can see some of theadditions.
The wooden part on the side isan additional room that was
added on.
The original wood was theoriginal part.
How would you like to havelived in that cabin back there.
Leave me a comment and let meknow what would be your worries,
(18:13):
fears and expectations.
There's Farway Ranch, almostlike something out of a
Hollywood movie.
The Eriksons owned that.
They actually operated it as aworking ranch, a dude ranch, for
many years until it was sold tothe federal government to make
the park in the 1920s.
There's a closer view of thehome.
Look at this old bathtub.
(18:34):
That's crazy.
Bet a lot of you out there havenever seen a bathtub like this.
Yep, just like the other home,it evolved.
It was a primitive structureand they built around it,
increased its size.
They called it Far Away Ranchbecause it was so
far from everything.
Over here we have someoutbuildings.
(18:56):
I believe some of these werecabins for the dude ranch
operation.
Of course you got barns,stables, that type of thing.
This was probably a pump houseor an outhouse, that stone
building.
Here's a beautiful view as weget close to finishing up.
Look at this old windmillblowing the breeze.
But that windmill's seen somethings.
(19:17):
Whatdo you think?
Now we come back full circle tothe Erickson's Cemetery.
They were pioneers on this landas far as making permanent
European settlements.
You had several Eriksons thatwere buried here.
It just makes me think as Iapproach my 50th birthday, what
(19:41):
legacy am I going to leave onthe earth?
Hey, future Craig here Left youwith a deep thought, didn't I
Think about that legacy thatyou're going to leave on the
earth?
Is it going to be somethingmeaningful?
I hope so.
I hope I myself will do thesame thing.
If you like this video, give ita thumbs up, think about
(20:03):
subscribing to the channel andif you have any questions or
comments, leave those below.
Thanks, got more content comingthat I think you will enjoy and
you don't want to miss that.
I do appreciate you watching.
I do appreciate your commentsand your likes and everything
that you do to help me, and hopethat you're having a great year
(20:26):
so far.
Until next time, watch one ofthese videos and I'll see you on
the trail.
Okay, bye.
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