Everett and I starting our morning putting on warm clothes, filling camelbacks with H2O, and making turkey sandwiches to take on our first hike together. I decided I wanted to take him to the Chiricahua National Monument out past Wilcox Arizona because I had been there a few times with my family growing up and thought it was a perfect place for a beautiful hike.
We drove about an hour, when we got there we were expecting to pay to enter the park, but no one was at the toll booth. We drove in expecting to be able to drive to the end where you are able to do sightseeing from your vehicle then go on your hike. Nope, the road was closed. I was upset knowing we wouldn’t be able to see the rock formations unless we spent our whole day on a nine mile hike that we weren’t prepared for. We were prepared for about a 4 mile hike at most that day.
So come to find out, we were reminded of the Horseshoe 2 fire that had swept over tons of land back in May. The roads were closed because the guard railings had been burnt down which made the roads to dangerous to drive on. No wonder we didn't have to pay a toll. So we found a small trail to hike, that would not lead us to the rock formations, but we decided to hike anyway.
Everett got a little excited, decided to run at full speed onto a large 80 degree angle rock to see how far he could make it up the rock (man), and whoops! What happened? The man ripped his pants down the crotch at the beginning of our hike. He tied his sweater backwards to cover the breeze and we pressed on. Not without taking a sexy picture first =).
As we hiked up the mountain we saw nothing but devastation of burnt down trees and plants drowning in ash. Once in a while we would see a plant emerging from the ground desperately trying to regrow the beauty that comes from nature.
Then halfway up the mountain we met another couple hiking. Paul and Anna, they were also from Tucson on their first trip to the Chiricahua's. Paul talked off Everett's ear from being a boy scout to convincing Everett that camping is fun. (Obviously Everett doesn't think so). Then they finally continued n their hike on the trail, when Everett and I decided to make our own trail. We walked through deep layers of ashes that hugged our shoes and ankles as we made our way though. I of course was capturing it all in photos.
After about two hours we headed back down the mountains, which only took about thirty minutes down. We talked, sang, and laughed at several stories of each other’s; we even skipped to make fun of each other because we know how goofy we both can be.
This first hiking trip together was an overall success, even though we didn't get to see and learn about everything we came there for, but that’s okay, it gives us an excuse to go visit this magnificent marvel another time. On to the next Adventure!
