Exploring Chiricahua National Monument
We tend to get very excited about three or four things at every contract. One of them in this Arizona contract is the Chiricahua National Monument area. This unique area is full of one of our favorite things, ROCKS! Not just any rocks though; it’s a zone with thousands of acres of hoodoos (or tall rock towers), with trails twisting and turning around them. Amity’s co-worker, Katie, joined us for the adventure. With the national monument being over 2 hours away, we decided to camp and make a weekend out of it! This will be our first camping trip of 2026! Time to pack up the car, hit the road, and Live Rad!
Mile: 84,112
Quote of the Blog: “There’s wonder and awe enough in the real world. Nature’s a lot better at inventing wonders than we are.” - Carl Sagan
Song of the Blog: “Like A Rock” - Bob Seger
The national monument’s closest town is Wilcox, AZ. We found a KOA in the area where we could reserve a campsite. We all set out towards Wilcox and rendezvoused about an hour outside of Tucson before heading slightly south and off the path to check out another area of the state. Amity and Katie had found a zone called Cochise Stronghold. We drove along some desert dirt roads up into the foothills of a rugged mountainside and small canyon. We passed some off-grid houses and spent a good amount of time wondering what it was like to live off-grid in the desert in the summer. This area was very green, which means there is a water source somewhere, but it has to be some of the more rugged off-grid living. At the end of the road is a small campground. We parked right next to a truck with Montana license plates, which was rad! The area was so lush, green, and covered in fairly large trees. This was not the typical desert scenery and made it clear why this area is a recreation hub! As we set out on a small hike around the area, I split off from the girls and flew my drone around. As I did this, I found a path up some large rocks jutting out from the ridgeline. I made my way up there and found a really cool spot to look over the valley. It wasn’t long before Amity and Katie found me and hiked up to join me. We took some pictures and headed back down to the car. We still had another hour or so to get to Wilcox. Arizona is full of hidden surprises!
Once we got to Wilcox, we wanted to get our camp set up before we headed out for dinner. Amity had read that the KOA was close to the highway, which wouldn’t be the first time we have been at a KOA like this. The bigger shock was that we were right between the highway and a very large interstate gas station and overnight big-rig parking lot. The gas station had a very large (30’x30’) LED sign right above the campground, which proudly shined LOVE’S and the outrageous gas prices. I have seen a lot, but this was something on a whole different level! Long story short, this KOA should not have campsites and should just do RVs! After getting things set up, we headed to another reason people travel to Wilcox: vineyards! We had a reservation for dinner at a vineyard called Tirrito Farms. We had a little time before the reservation, so I found a quick trail we could walk out to an “animal viewing area.” Wilcox is right next to a massive dried lakebed called the Wilcox Playa. The hike was more comical than enjoyable. We walked through some areas where cows were grazing and eventually got out to a spot where there was a random bench in the middle of nowhere. The best part about it was that we saw two signs there. The first said “The Most Beautiful Views In Arizona,” and the second said “Do not walk out on the dry lakebed.” This spot couldn’t be further from the most beautiful spot in Arizona. I think we have all seen better views of nature in downtown Tucson. We learned that they don’t want you to walk out onto the playa because it is littered with unexploded military munitions from training and testing they used to do out there. Kind of sketchy, but BEAUTIFUL! HAHA! Once we got to Tirrito Farms, we were pleasantly surprised by the area. They have small domes you can rent, a nice pond, and lots of space for guests. We loved dinner! Everything was delicious, and knowing that it all came from this farm was really fun. After dinner, we walked around the area, and I met a farm cat. We became friends! After chasing the sunset down to the playa walk we did earlier, we headed back to our LED-illuminated campground. Before heading to bed for the night, we sat around chatting. At this point, we all saw an owl sitting on a post under the LOVE’S sign. I tried to get a photo of it before it flew away. A little bit later, we saw another owl, or the same one, land in a tree next to us. We were impressed that it was hanging around such a loud and bright area. Pretty cool to see some wildlife in a place like this! That night, we all got a little bit of an LED light tan as we slept under the big bright light!
It was not hard to wake up the next morning and get going. We had about an hour-long drive to get us into the Chiricahua National Monument area and up to the trailhead we had planned. We had planned to do the largest loop in the park, which took us all around the rock formations and allowed us to see as much of the area as possible in a single day. The hike was called The Big Loop. It was a slightly cloudy and chilly start to the hike—quite a nice change of pace for Arizona hiking! The hike started up at the top of a ridgeline and worked its way down into a valley, up across to another ridgeline, and back around to where we started. The rock formations started right away and only got better as we moved along the hike. They were formed by accumulating volcanic ash stacking on top of itself. With time, wind, and rain, they slowly eroded into the towers that now exist. The landscape is otherworldly!
After we made it through the first section of the hike, we found ourselves hiking down into a large valley between the ridgelines we were hiking along. The trail quickly shifted from winding through gigantic rocks to running through trees and lush green undergrowth. One of the biggest things we are going to take from our time hiking in Southwestern Arizona is how green it is here! It’s truly crazy to be hiking along and have ferns on one side of the trail, prickly pear cacti on the other, and pine trees jutting up everywhere. We did not expect this element! As we worked our way back up the other side of the canyon, we came across a fork in the trail. The path was supposed to go right, but we decided to take the left and add a quick loop to our hike. The loop was called the Heart of the Rocks Loop. There was an older lady resting on the trail at the beginning. As if she was the gatekeeper of this zone, she told us, “You are going to want to do this.” She was not wrong! This was by far the coolest zone on the entire hike! At one point, I was just walking around the hoodoos and formations, not knowing or caring if I was on a trail. The route took tight turns, worked between twenty- to thirty-foot-tall rock formations, and up onto a mesa in the middle of the trail. The maze ended up taking us all to the same place, and we took some time to snap some group pictures and take it all in. There are a lot of legends in the desert about mazes and getting lost, only to truly find yourself. I felt this along this hike several times.
As we made our way out of the loop, we made it back to the original trail and headed past some of the larger balancing rocks in the area. It is crazy that we are living in a moment where such geological features exist for us to observe! As we continued along the trail, we passed the old woman again, and we all thanked her for enticing us to add the loop to our hike! The rest of the trail worked through some high-elevation desert zones. We were surprised by the lack of people along the trail. We only ran into around six other groups all day long. This area is still under the radar enough that it is not overrun with people yet. That might end soon, as the organization overseeing the national monument has made plans and gained government approval to make the Chiricahua National Monument into the newest National Park in the country. While that will be cool and give it funding for more trails and maintenance, it will put it directly on the map and make it a tourist target! We are very happy to have been able to see it in the way and at the time we did! We eventually made it back to the trailhead where we started. The only problem was that Amity and I forgot to get a picture of us together with the rock formation. So, we added another half mile to our hike and continued on the trail to some of the first formations we saw in the day. After snapping some pics, we made it back to the cars and completed an absolutely EPIC hike in Chiricahua National Monument!
Before heading back, Katie, Amity, and I headed into the Chiricahua National Monument Visitors Center. This is a must for us. We picked up a rad sticker for our cooler and grabbed a Christmas ornament for whenever we decide to have a Christmas tree again! We are so grateful for Katie joining on this adventure! Our hikes are typically so quiet. Having her with us gave us endless conversations and a great trail partner! This is a reminder to anyone reading this: if anyone suggests hiking in Southwestern Arizona, say yes & Live Rad!!!