When we lived in Tucson, Arizona we made many weekend trips to Chiricahua National Monument. It has a nice, shady campground with everything spaced out just enough so that campers are not right on top of one another. There is a rustic visitor center, and ample parking at the trail heads in that area.

A hike through the Heart of the Rocks is a must for any visit. It's quite a climb from the bottom, but if you have more than one vehicle it works out great to shuttle around to the top and hike down. It's a spectacular area with unusual formations and great views out across the Sonoran Desert landscape. The Chiricahua Mountains are one of the many "desert islands" that rise up out of the desert basins to provide a more hospitable climate for a wide range of wildlife and plants.

There are several different trails within the monument, but other than the Natural Bridge Trail they mostly cluster around the Heart of the Rocks area. The Chiricahua Mountains also have many longer trails that run north and south throughout the range and are more suited to backpacking.

The Faraway Ranch Trail is a short trail that leads from one end of the campground toward both the Visitor Center and the Faraway Ranch. This is an easy trail, mostly flat, that runs down through a meadow. The Ranch is a protected historical site, but you can wander around and peek in windows and see what life must have been like back in the rough old days.

There is also an amphitheater near the campground and during the peak tourist season the park rangers give evening campfire talks there, ranging from the geology of the area, through the wildlife and plants, up to the human history of the surrounding country.

At the end of the Sugarloaf Mountain Trail there is a Fire Lookout that is interesting to explore. We've never met a ranger up there, but the peak sure provides great views of the surrounding area, in all directions.

Most of the trails leading down from the top have their heads in either the Echo Canyon parking area or the Massai Point parking area. There is a half-mile long connector trail between the two lots; it runs just below the rim.

On one of our hikes, as we were coming down the trail through Rhyolite Canyon, we were startled by a thin green snake gliding through the branches of the nearby trees. It was maybe three to four feet long and not much thicker than a pinky finger. It was incredible to watch it slide along from thin branch to thin branch as if it were moving along the ground. We've also seen Mule Deer in the lower part of this canyon, in the more forested, piney area.

The trail system in the Echo Park / Heart of Rocks / Inspiration Point area can be a little confusing, but if you watch for signs and keep your eyes open the trails are not hard to follow. It would be hard to hike the entire trail system in one hike without covering some of the ground twice. But you can catch most of it in one day.