Chiricahua NM, Arizona
3.3 miles round-trip, easy
We’ve crossed miles of southeastern Arizona desolation to arrive at this place the Apache called Land of the
Standing-Up Rocks. Chiricahua NM rises up from the desert floor, a geologic incongruity born of block-faulting
and volcanism, a sky island sited at the confluence of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts, the Sierra Madre and Rocky
Mountains.
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| Along the Echo Canyon Trail. |
Our hike begins at the Echo Canyon
Trailhead, elevation 6784 feet. We will
follow a counter-clockwise loop, one cobbled from three trails that showcase
the sequestered beauty and biodiversity of sky island environments. We duck to the southwest across a rugged
mesa and into a stand of increasingly imposing rock formations, many
embellished with vibrant chartreuse lichen. A half-mile along our way, we detour through the cave-like Grottoes, scrambling up and down, down and up, in the shadow of erosion-sculpted boulders.
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| On the Trail, Amidst Sculpted Rock. |
Wending and winding in comfortable
descent, we encounter fantastical hoodoos, graceful spires, and improbably balanced
rocks at every turn. Echo Canyon does indeed reverberate with raucous
chatter and riotous footfall; fortunately, the trail is lightly traveled this
late-March morning, allowing peaceable appreciation of the ever-modulating view.
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| Echo Canyon Trail: Hoodoos, Spires, and Balanced Rocks. |
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| Wall Street. |
Close to the mile mark, we come to
Wall Street. Generations ago, Civilian
Conservation Corps exploited and expanded existing rock fractures, creating a magnificently claustrophobic,
sheer-walled corridor through the rhyolite.
In time, splendid rock formations give way to wooded
terrain as the trail bottoms out in Echo Park, a tranquil copse of cypress and
fir. We traverse seasonal Bonita Creek and
trace our way through riparian forest before emerging on an exposed ridge.
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| Rhyolite Canyon, the Desert Beyond. |
The Echo Canyon Trail concludes at a 1.6-mile
junction. As we turn onto the Hailstone
Trail, the landscape alters once again.
We amble along a dry, south-facing slope, taking in views of Rhyolite
Canyon, noting distinctive flora and fauna of this sun-drenched stretch of
trail: agave, yucca, prickly pear, and hedgehog cacti... lizards exercising
territorial push-ups or skirting under rocks.
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| On the Ed Riggs Trail. |
Near the two-and-a-half-mile mark, we
merge onto a trail named for CCC construction foreman Ed Riggs. We ascend a pine-filled
ravine, returning to the mesa top and completing the loop. A haughty, complaining call amidst the pinyon
pine, a flutter of wings against the blue morning sky: we have startled a
gray-breasted jay from a favored perch. It
rushes away, a lovely, fleeting reminder of the wonder and diversity of this transcendent
island suspended above an arid sea.
