Day 13 & 14 Chiricahua

Yesterday was a do nothing kind of day. We did however, go to Walmart and buy a new camera. It's a piece of junk, but we couldn't go up to Sedona and the Grand Canyon without one. The Walmart here in Green Valley (a retirement town) has at least two hundred handicap parking spaces. Once inside it's quite an experience. You're virtually assured of getting run over by a crazed senior citizen driving a shopping cart. They really shouldn't allow so many of us in any one place at the same time.

Today though we decided to take a long drive over to Chiricahua National Park. A woman who operated a deli in Bisbee told us it was "THE best hidden treasure in Arizona." Seeing as she was born and spent 40 years living in the lower east side of NYC she had to be right. The drive to Chiricahua was 120 miles through desert with nothing in between to stop and see. The last 40 miles, through a secondary road, we didn't see more than two or three cars. It was very interesting though. It turns out that this area was the traditional home of the Chiricahua Apaches, the tribe of Cochise and Geronimo. The woman from Bisbee was absolutely right on. The park was truly spectacular (click on the picture to get a better view). The pictures can't begin to capture the experience. To do it right, we would have to spend three days there -- two to hike the area and one to visit both Cochise's Stronghold and Fort Bowie. The problem is that there's no place to stay for 100 miles. We did the best we could and left after a few hours and managed to find the Horseshoe Cafe in Benson and have refreshments. We got back to Green Valley in time for dinner and went to the Mayan Mexican Bistro ( how can this be possible?). I had as good a lamb chop as I've ever had. It was a very good day.