Hike report for June 1, 2023:

Many of us have glorious photos of the Chiricahua National Monument, but we always have to take more!  What a beautiful place to hike!!!  Seven of us met this week to carpool over there, and we had a wonderful day.  I will include some historical, botanical and current links.

  

It was unusually cool for June 1 with some cloud cover, so very comfortable hiking weather.  We did not find running water, but there were still some pools (also unusual for June 1 in my experience) and we enjoyed the wonderful rock work done by the CCC.  Here’s a link about that:   http://www.georgewright.org/1512pinto.pdf.

  

A couple of hikers were recovering from different things, and there were also a couple of new hikers (at least to the Monument) so we took our time this week.  We parked one car at the Visitor Center, drove up for part of the Echo Canyon loop and hiked back down from there:  about 4 miles total with a blissful lunch stop.

One agenda on this hike was to find an unusual plant:  Apacheria chiricahuensis, a plant that was not described to science until 1975!  I am very impressed with Charles Mason, from U of A for finding it, and Vince Roth (then Director of the Southwestern Research Station) (plus others) for working hard to keep track of populations.  Here’s a link:  https://www.jstor.org/stable/41426060 .  We found a number of plants, and they were blooming due to our unusual May rain.

  

There is a proposal to change the Monument to a National Park.  Here is some information from the Chiricahua Regional Council:

https://www.chiricahuaregionalcouncil.org/2023/05/21/natl-park-bill/  

I think that the Friends of Cave Creek Canyon will also weigh in on this soon.  The hiking group just hikes, but I wanted to give you some information, as it will probably impact our area.

Next week, we will resume our second Thursday trail work day!  We really want to repair the tread on the cliff above Rucker.  We will do what we can up there, and beyond.  Meet at the Silver Peak trailhead parking lot at 8 AZ time, 9 NM.   If you would like to help with trail work, wear boots, bring gloves & eye protection (sunglasses OK).  We will provide helmets & tools.  See you there.

Hike report from Elaine,  photos from Carol & Elaine 

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