My neck starts to ping. Craning upwards, gawking at a voodoo skyline of contorting rhyolite pillars, I intake neon moss splattered columns, pinnacles and balanced rocks rising vertically thirty feet overhead. Parallel rows of washboard ripples climb the volcanic gray façades, offering weather-beaten toeholds like primordial ladders to heaven. Giant eroded stone walls conjure fantastic shapes. Canoodling lovers. The hull of a wrecked pirate ship. Baymax from Disney’s Big Hero 6. The landscape is otherworldly, and I have all 17 miles of well-maintained trails to myself. Welcome to southeast Arizona’s isolated and enchanting Chiricahua National Monument.

A hike through Chiricahua National Monument offers visitors a tour of geological wonder.

A Chiricahua Hike Begins

It’s Thursday around 6:30 a.m., and I embark on Ed Riggs Trail from Massai Point’s empty parking lot at 6,870 feet. A gray fox trots on the side of the trail in front of me, sleek, unhurried, and runs to the top of a slanted boulder three yards away, staring into my eyes with startling confidence. The pepper and auburn fox, long downy body in profile pose with magically symmetrical face pointing directly at me, pauses for no apparent reason than to show off his statuesque beauty. “Wow,” I murmur to myself. It takes me a moment to restart my march once he disappears among the spires.

I am surrounded by rockwork monoliths, grottos and castles. Everything is quiet. Tromping one and a half miles downhill through Echo Canyon’s rubble-laced slopes, I fork onto the gradually ascending Mushroom Rock Trail whose namesake formation crowns the path’s sheer gorge hundreds of feet above. Arcing two more miles south, I exit the Douglas fir canopy to Inspiration Point’s breathtaking panorama. Thousands of stone turrets congregate under dun-colored Sugarloaf Mountain like the ruined colonnades of an ancient Roman city. I take lots of pics.

Chiricahua National Monument is out there. One hundred and eighteen miles southeast of Tucson, no one accidentally stumbles upon this 11,985-acre “Wonderland of Rocks” in the heart of Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains. Established in 1924, the park spreads across Coronado National Forest’s sky island topography where thin, insulated mountain spines rise above oceans of grass and contain rich transition zone ecosystems. Chiricahua’s vast fields of rhyolite towers formed when long-forgotten flows of volcanic ash settled in layers of welded tuff. Millennia passed, and the mountain bedrock rose, tilted, cracked. Taking advantage of erosive joints, water and wind have sculpted a panoply of ever-changing earthenware effigies.

The monument’s network of well-marked trails is superimposed over a canyon-strewn landscape. Routes are rarely level and are often quite steep. The walkways are dusty and rock strewn, easy to follow but requiring deliberate footsteps. In many places, stone staircases lead hikers up and down abrupt hillsides. At one point, a web of zip-lines and rope pulleys dangles in the treetops, and a willowy park ranger appears from nowhere explaining apologetically that they are rebuilding the trail around a rockslide. I don’t mind.

Continuing along the prosaically named Big Balanced Rock Trail through an alligator juniper plateau, I endure the sensory overload awaiting at Heart of the Rocks Loop where numerous grotesque formations frame themselves perfectly against a deep blue sky. Little gray signs give antique names to the most famous: Thor’s Hammer, Punch & Judy, Camel’s Head, Duck on a Rock. It is impossible to resist the urge to dole names and personalities of my own. A bit overwhelmed, I sit down and grab an energy bar from my pack.

Descending one and a half miles down Sarah Deming Trail, I make an abrupt 180° turn within a streambed wooded with Arizona white oak. At 5,980 feet, I have reached the nadir of today’s adventures. Climbing Upper Rhyolite Canyon’s sun-bleached incline, I pass a gingerly pivoting elderly couple – the only fellow hikers I encounter. In areas not affected by 2011’s destructive Horseshoe 2 wildfire, groves of ponderosa pine shade northern slopes. Apache pine and Mexican pinyon pine cover warmer south-facing inclines. Following the trace, a magnificent claret cup cactus rockets florescent red blooms in all directions like a Fourth of July fireworks show. More pics.

In all, my route is a hair over 10 miles of seesaw hiking. Because the trail network is divided into a series of segments, specific routes and distances can be tailored to suit individual or family needs. For those looking for a non-strenuous hiking option, the flat-as-a-pancake Silver Spur Meadow Trail (1.2 miles one-way) between the 25-campsite Bonita Canyon Campground and Faraway Ranch is surprisingly picturesque.

As a national monument, the park’s facilities are well maintained, but visitation remains low despite the fact that the park quit charging entrance fees in 2014. Guests seem to be mostly Winnebago retirees looking for an overnight stopover on treks through southeast Arizona’s many scenic landmarks. The few folks I do speak with are all very nice. “So you’re from California!?” asks one. “Beautiful day,” observes another. “It’s so quiet,” I say.

Back on Ed Riggs, I slowly saunter upwards the last hundred feet through a field of gunmetal slabs. Squat yellow and white wildflowers freckle the crevices. Embattled junipers clench desiccated patches of earth. A gusty breeze picks up and feels wonderful against my sweaty back and neck. I pause on the trail to think. Three days left of my vacation from work. Shall I drive somewhere else or stay at Chiricahua? The decision is easy.

Need to Know

Information

This moderate 10 mile hike features overwhelming geologic formations and views over Arizona’s sky island landscape. The trail is well-maintained but rocky in places and features about 1,500 of cumulative gain.

Getting There

From San Diego, go east on I-8 through California and most of Arizona. At Wilcox, take AZ-186 south to the park entrance 45 minutes away.

Best Time to Go

Summer in southern Arizona is hot. Visit in late fall or early spring for better chances at more moderate temperatures. For those not averse to chilly temperatures, visits in winter avoid what few crowds may otherwise be present.

Books and Maps

For more information about hiking in the Chiricahua Mountains, read Scott Warren’s Exploring Arizona's Wild Areas. Find information on basic maps at the National Park Service’s website with the Green Trails Chiricahua Mountains map also available.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in Issue 32 of TrailGroove Magazine. You can read the original article here for additional photos and content.