The Chiricahua Apache referred to this remote area of southeastern Arizona as Land of the Standing up Rocks. Homesteaders and pioneers called it a Wonderland of Rocks. I call it simply astonishing. Within Chiricahua National Monument are the eroded remains of an enormous ancient volcanic explosion. Here, 27 million years ago, thick white-hot ash from a nearby caldera cooled and hardened into a 2,000-foot shroud of rhyolitic tuff. Millions of years of erosion afterward created in the compacted and cemented tuff a landscape of geological marvels—spiraling pinnacles, balancing rocks, columnar labyrinths, deep canyons and a natural bridge.
Gary L. Clark; CC BY-SA 4.0
Mexican Spotted Owl
Chiricahua’s geology is the monument’s main draw, but this 12,000-acre national park unit 35 miles south of the small agricultural city of Willcox preserves rare flora and fauna too—as well as sacred and historically significant grounds and artifacts. The national monument sits in the Chiricahua Mountains which rise high above the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. With their forested summits, cooler and wetter environment, and incredible biodiversity; the Chiricahuas are among Arizona’s famed lofty mountain ranges known as sky islands. These mountains teem with plant and animal species more associated with Mexico’s Sierra Madre. Ocelots and jaguars have been sighted in this range. The birdwatching is legendary—one of the few places in the country home to elegant trogons, Mexican spotted owls and violet-crowned hummingbirds.
These mountains take their name from the Chiricahua Apaches who inhabited this region for hundreds of years. In the late 1800s, they were forcibly removed by the U.S. Army in one of the longest and costliest of the Indian Wars. A band of Chiricahua Apaches led by warrior leader Geronimo made these mountains a stronghold. Famed Buffalo Soldiers were stationed at a camp below, in what is now the national monument in the campaign to capture Geronimo’s resisting band. Ultimately it took 5,000 US Army Calvary soldiers to subdue the band of 70. In September of 1886, Geronimo and his men were captured and exiled to captivity in Florida.
Public Domain
Chiricahua Apache Prisoners
With the removal of the Chiricahua Apache, more settlers moved into the region. Swedish immigrants Emma and Neil Erickson homesteaded in what is now the monument and established Faraway Ranch. Here guests hiked and horseback rode into the Wonderland of Rocks. The Erickson’s daughter Lillian and her husband Ed Riggs were instrumental in convincing President Coolidge in 1924 to establish this geological curiosity as a national monument. In the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corp developed roads, trails, buildings and a campground making the park more accessible to visitors. The CCC’s elegant and landscape-conforming infrastructure remains today as well as Faraway Ranch with its fireplace made of stones carved by Buffalo Soldiers.
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Mark W. Lipczynsk
Chiricahua National Monument
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Craig Romano
Chiricahua National Monument
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Craig Romano
Chiricahua National Monument
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Clay Gilliland; CC BY-SA 2.0
Cochise's Head
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The allure of Chiricahua National Monument begins as soon as you enter it after a long broad desert valley approach. Suddenly a forest of pines, junipers and oaks encompassing processions of rock pinnacles are revealed. Upon passing the ranch (open for visitation) reach the park’s small visitor center in a forested grove at the head of two canyons. Beyond, the park’s 8-mile-long Bonita Canyon Road climbs to 6,870-foot Massai Point with views that’ll leave you spellbound. Admire below you a maze of hoodoos, spires, columns, clefts and gravity-defying teetering boulders. The views are stunning, too, out to desert valleys and high mountain ranges in neighboring New Mexico and the Mexican state of Sonora. Cochise Head to the northeast is particularly striking resembling the profile of the Chiricahua Apache chief Cochise. And while the drive to Massai’s scenic overlooks is a highlight, to truly appreciate the scale, grandeur and intricacies of this wonderland, you need to get out and hike some (or all) of the monument’s 17 miles of trails.
Mark W. Lipczynski
Chiricahua National Monument
A 1.8-mile roundtrip trail leads from high on the ridge to 7,310-foot Sugarloaf Mountain with its CCC-built fire lookout. Here, savor a golden eagle eye’s view over converging canyons cradling columns and hoodoos that appear as giant petrified mushrooms. A 4.8-mile roundtrip trail leads through quiet pine forest to the monument’s sole natural bridge, where you may be its sole admirer. If you have the time and ambition, the 5.4-mile roundtrip hike to Inspiration Point with its panoramic view of the wonderland of rocks and the 7.3-mile roundtrip hike to the Heart of Rocks are classics. The latter passes by the park’s signature standing balancing rocks. It’s a hike straight out of a fairytale setting.
The monument operates a seasonal hiker’s shuttle from the visitor center to Massai Point allowing for one-way (generally downhill) hikes back to your start. Inquire at the visitor’s center about how to earn the unique Hike for Health Rock the Rhyolite pin. It’ll have your fellow hikers wondering about this wonderland. The park is open year-round, although snow can restrict road travel and make trails challenging. And while Chiricahua is one of the more lightly visited of the Southwest’s national park sites, there’s currently a move to reclassify Chiricahua from national monument to national park—which will most assuredly mean an increase in future visitation.
Chiricahua National Monument is a two-hour drive from Tucson. Learn more at nps.gov/chir. Plan your Arizona travels at visitarizona.com.