Chiricahua National Monument

The rain arrived as forecast as I was leaving the Dragoons and I started looking for another location to explore before White Sands. I had read that the adjacent Chiricahua mountain range was another very rugged, historic Apache homeland. And the map showed that they contained a Chiricahua National Monument which might prove to be interesting. I drove in on the park's lone road, climbing through a narrow and deep canyon. Through the rain I could just barely make out fantastical rock formations above me. The road then climbed out of the canyon, up into the clouds (aka fog) where I resigned myself to a day without views or photographic possibilities. But after a rainy lunch and brief nap, I woke to lifting clouds and those rock formations arrayed below me. So I had a great hour of shooting before the rain returned. I then drove back down into the canyon and spent a rainy night in the park's campground.

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