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Non-Disney - Thanksgiving 2017 Trip to Arizona


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Evening Fiends,

 

As promised, catching up on trips I've meant to document.  But I'm behind again because we just got back from a trip with the new camper.  I guess it's not a bad problem to have.

 

Anyway, Thanksgiving 2017 we were still stationed in El Paso which is 15+ hours from either side of the family by car.  Flying isn't much of our style, so we chose to enjoy our 4-days off by seeing more of the Southwest and having turkey as a family of 4.  We set sail westward from El Paso the day after Thanksgiving towards Coronado National Memorial.  We arrived just at lunch time.  We hit the Visitor Center to get our Jr Ranger Books and ask for any recommendations from the staff.  We found our way to a picnic area and dished out some quick sammies and laid out our strategy based on what we wanted to do and what the kids needed to do for their books.

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Dad, why do you keep me crammed in the backseat for so long?

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Obligatory sign pic.  The landscape was completely surprising.  Lots of grass and trees along with the mountains.

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Get after that sammich, boy!

Coronado NM preserves the story of Coronado's expedition through the area.  There is also a cave and some nice trails and scenery to accompany that history.  We hiked up to the cave.  It was about 3/4 mile with numerous switchbacks to get to the mouth of the cave.  You need to be ready to go down...pants, boots, lights, youth (or the illusion of youth), etc to go down.  It is about a 30 foot scramble down some surprisingly slick boulders (slick because they're worn smooth from everyone climbing on them) and loose dirt to get to the cave floor.  Once inside, there are some interesting formations and it goes back maybe 1/4 mile.  Kids were a little spooked and there were two rather large and noisy families that ruined the excitement of being in the dark and quiet (there are signs posted at the entrance to be quiet to be courteous to other hikers, but I guess werds r 2 tuff 2 reed).  So we chose to climb out of the cave instead of waiting for them to beat us back to the scramble.rRA2ueF_UQipZrfZUQv6Qmdbh_G7Mti9vXoTEAeb

Switchback 10 of 500...the trail wasn't bad, just had an antsy boy that wasn't fired up to hike that day.

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From the depths below!

After the cave hike, we finished up the final activities for the kids' books at the VC before it closed and then set out on a hike.  We walked up a ridge line that overlooked a large valley and the US-Mexican Border.  The presence of USBP is staggering in the area, both on our drive in and in the park (which adjoins to Coronado National Forest, where the USBP was patrolling and surveiling pretty hard).

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Some deer showed up to the VC windows for a drink while we were looking at exhibits

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From the top of the mountain.  If you look close in the upper left background, you can see a straight line, that is the border fence

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Walking downhill is hard for little boys.  He needed a rest.  I love em, but he pushes the buttons sometimes.

We came off the hill and headed for our hotel for the night in Sierra Vista, AZ.  Coronado NM was interesting.  The terrain interested me more than the history (as seems to be the case in most of the NPS properties we visit).  If you are nearby (which not sure how in the world you'd ever be in this part of the state by chance) I'd recommend swinging by for a few hours.  

 

Coming up on Day 2 - We drive to Saguaro NP and see the DoD's "Boneyard".

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21 hours ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Yay... more of the SW!!   My brother-in-law was stationed in Sierra Vista for several years.  We visited once... decent town.  Your kiddos are so cute 🙂

They look like mom and act like dad.  

19 hours ago, wdwpoohbear...Jennifer said:

Nice start!  I can't wait to see and hear about the "boneyard".

Thanks for following

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OK, Day 2.  We woke up early in Sierra Vista and headed north towards Tucson and Saguaro NP.  For the uninitiated, Saguaro (sah-whar-o) is the cactus type that you think of when someone says cactus.  The one in the background of Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons.  They look like huge hat racks.  You'll see.  I might have a picture or two.

 

We arrived mid morning to the Eastern side of Saguaro.  Saguaro is split into 2 districts...one on each side of Tucson.  Reading around and talking to a few folks that had visited prior suggested that if you have only a day do the Eastern side.  I have no way to know if that's good info since we never made it to the Western side, but we were pretty happy with the East.  Of course we stopped in to grab our Jr Ranger books and set out on the activities.  The first of which was a Ranger program right outside the visitor center where the Ranger discussion all of the flora in the park in the garden out front.  It made our exploring much more informed as we went.

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Learning all about Saguaro cactus, palo verdes, creosote plants and more.  I love the NPS and their employees, like this guy, that talk to the kids with so much passion and care...might notice a theme in my TR destinations because of that.

We set out on the 8 mile Cactus Forest Loop Drive.  The drive has numerous pullouts, picnic areas, and trails along the way.  You also share the loop with many other motorists (it wasn't terribly crowded, but we weren't alone) and walkers/bikers that are Tucson locals out doing their exercise.  The Eastern District is much bigger than the loop, but there isn't anything paved other than the loop, so we didn't explore more than a mile by foot off the road.  It would require substantial prep and more time that we didn't have.

 

As we drove on the loop, we saw numerous Saguaros thinking, "wow there are a ton of these here."  We were wrong.  Towards mile 5 or 6 we understood why it's called the Cactus Forest Loop.  There was plenty to do and explore along those 8 miles.  Including a pit stop for lunch, it took us easily 4 hours to mosey along the loop.  At mid-afternoon, we found our way back to the Visitor Center got the kids' badges and headed to our hotel on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. 

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That's an old cactus. 

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Here's where we thought we'd seen tons of them 

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"Oh.  This is why it's called the Cactus Forest."  The picture doesn't do it justice.  The Saguaros engulf the whole mountainside and all over.  They are huge.  Quite a sight.

Being Active Duty military, we like to stay in military lodging whenever we can (especially Air Force and Navy bases.  They understand the finer points of not making everything miserable).  Davis-Monthan is on the SE corner of Tucson.  The main reason the base is there is to house DoD's aircraft boneyard.  This is where all types of aircraft are permanently stored when not needed, but not ready for retirement yet.  The facility is impressively large.  There are tours from an air museum just out the South gate of the base that will take you into the yard and drive you around in much more detail that what we did.  Since I have access to the base, we just drove around the perimeter fence of the yard.  The only person on the trip that would be interested beyond that was me.  So we drove the fence and found some dinner grub.

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Need a UH-60 Blackhawk or 70?

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No?  How bout some B-52s?

Driving the perimeter is nuts, but the amount of aircraft in there is staggering.  You can get a better understanding here:  https://www.google.com/maps/@32.1682938,-110.8604625,1296m/data=!3m1!1e3.  Just planes for days!

 

After grabbing some great Mexican food near the base (we got about 10 suggestions on Mexican restaurants... not too hard to find in Tucson) we hit the sack to move out on our last day of the trip.  A frontier outpost and an unscheduled trip to Colorado in Arizona.

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OK, let's finish this out.

 

On Day 3 we left Tucson East back towards El Paso.  We planned to stop at Fort Bowie NHS (boo-eee).  The fort is interesting.  It's near a spring.  Several trails ran through here, Overland-Butterfield, want to say Pony Express, maybe one more.  Either way, frontier folks transited through the area and stopped near there for water.  A small settlement started to build with a store and some other shops.  Eventually the native tribes weren't too hip on the settlers using the water and the settlement and travelers were attacked regularly.  The conflict came to a head and the Army began building a garrison to defend the water and the trail.  Not exactly the most glamorous parts of our history, but it's our history that we should learn from and teach our kids.

 

To get to the fort, you have to walk a 1.5 mi trail.  The trail isn't wildly difficult, but there isn't a lot of shade or any water for you along the way.  Come prepared.

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This is what most of the hike looked like

Once we got to the fort, it's just ruins.  The garrison was quite significant and a testament to the pioneer spirit that they could haul in all those materials to make such an large garrison in the middle of nowhere.

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The family reading about what used to stand on this foundation.

While in the visitor center, again 1.5 mi away from parking, we saw a pamphlet for Chiricahua NM.  I saw this NM when I was planning the trip, but it didn't peak my interest because it looked similar terrain to Bryce and since we saw that earlier in the summer I thought it was a pass for this quick trip.  Well the volunteer at the visitor center said it was worth the trip and my family surprised me that they wanted to go.  I said that we'd have to really boogie on the hike out and all agreed.  So we finished up at Bowie.  It was interesting.  I wouldn't surround an entire trip around coming here, but worth a stop if you're in the area.

I'm 6'5" so I have long legs.  I set a pretty quick pace that the family had to alternate between jogging and walking to keep up.  They kept up their spirits and kept up the whole way.  We piled into the car and headed south about 45 min to Chiricahua.

We pulled into the property.  Boy, was I a dummy.

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The place was really impressive.  It really reminded me of Colorado on the lower end of the park.  Ash trees everywhere, a rushing stream, cool crisp air.  Just beautiful.  At the higher elevations it does resemble Bryce some with the numerous hoodoos.  We just got a taste of the park.  We can't wait to make it back someday.  The CG looked quite nice.  That's were we would have stayed if we did it again.  If it was full, there is BLM land outside the NPS perimeter, so I assume you could disperse camp as well.

 

Like most NPS employees, the Ranger working the desk when the kids came in to get their badges was unreal.  She started talking to them and while she was talking 4 or 5 other groups came in to get a campsite or ask a question.  She politely told each group that she'd be with them as soon as she was done with the kids.  One lady said her question would just take a second and the Ranger replied something to the effect that "the kids are the future of our country and our park system, so I'll give them all the attention I can.  Please wait your turn."  Everyone in the building seemed content with that answer except the woman that attempted to but in.  I probably wouldn't have been so patient to wait as everyone else, but I certainly appreciate her passion for the NPS and the kids.

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Don't mess with this Ranger when kids are in the Visitor Center!!!

After the kids got their badges, we packed up the car and headed back North to get back on the interstate to get home.  We actually drove right by Fort Bowie again.  So if you want to do both and are coming from the West, do Chiricahua first.  Anyway, a short trip that we could've expanded to a week or more.  

 

Thanks for following.

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