Joe's Canyon

Hiked Joe's Canyon up to Coronado Peak yesterday, a short 7 miles round trip. Nice views of the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico as well as the Patagonias. Lots of switchbacks on the trail that comes quite close to the Mexican border.

Mount Ballard and Mount Fissure

View west from Fissure Peak.

Nice hike up to Mount Fissure today with my friend Ira. Pretty much all up hill to Mount Ballard, then a decent into the saddle separating Ballard from Fissure, and a scramble over rocks to reach the top. Quite a rocky path for this last part. And some tremendous views from the top of Mount Fissure.

Ballard on the left; Fissure on the right.

Ira looking west at Fissure Peak.

Fissure from Ballard.

Fissure from Ballard.

The path to Fissure begins behind this rock outcropping

Ira beginning climbing around a rock wall on path to Fissure.

Cairn marking the summit of Fissure.

View of the Huachucas range west of Fissure. The high peak on the left is Miller Peak; the one to the right of Miller is Carr.

Miller Peak (left); Carr Peak (right).

Cacti or cactus?

The hike begins behind this stele commemorating the use of slave prison labor to build the road over Mule Pass (Hwy. 80). It also incorrectly identifies this as the Continental Divide, which actually lies 120 miles to the east in New Mexico.

Ridge Trail to Juniper Flats Roa

Hiked around rural Bisbee today, a round-a-bout jaunt to Juniper Flats and back, with a little bushwhacking involved as we got off the path in a couple spots. Managed to espy the house we're living in from the ridge trail as we left town (yellow circle and then zoom closeup). The most interesting part of the hike was when we stumbled upon a series of structures designed and built by local architect and artist Todd Bogotay, one called The Shrine, and the other, the Shrine Keeper's House. 

Zoom close-up of the house we're staying in.

Bisbee.

Juniper Flats.

The Shrine

The Shrine Keeper's House.

View of Tombstone Canyon Road (former route 80, before the tunnel was built in 1958).

Repair of Tombstone Canyon Road several years after the road was washed out making it impassable to cars.

The Dragoons

Today I went for a 5-hour hike in the Dragoon Mountains just north of Tombstone. This was my fourth hike with the Bisbee Mule Team hiking group. The highlight of the hike was the pictographs, thought to be from the Mogollon peoples who lived in the area around 1,000 years ago. The Mogollon are the same tribe who moved north and inhabited the Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico.

Ancient alien eggs waiting to hatch, or Mesozoic granite rocks—you decide.

Cochise, the fearless leader of the Chiracahuan Apache people is believed to be buried somewhere in the Dragoons. The grave has yet to be found.

The White House Ruins, adobe walls from a horse ranch, probably last used in the time of Cochise.

Council Rocks, where Cochise and a general of the U.S. Army met to work out a treaty to end hostilities.

A shelter occupied buy the Mogollon people a thousand years ago.

Mortars for grinding grain (Mogollon, 1,000 CE).

Mogollon petraglyphs.

Part of Council Rocks.

Mogollon petraglyphs.

Mogollon petraglyphs.

Council Rocks.

The return featured grasslands.