Here is an Arizona hike I did for this #wednesdaywalk by @tattoodjay
This is the Chiricahua National Monument with a few different trails to hike on. We took the long trail to see the rock formations better.
The trail head is down at the bottom of the valley and gradually makes its way up in a loop to the top of the mountain with the interesting rock formations.
As you go up the trail you are surrounded on both sides by interesting weird formations. These ones sort of remind me of a group of strange people standing around with different armor on.
This group of people are wearing long coats. There is another easier trail above these rocks that lets you walk around the top of them. These things are quite tall as you can see how tiny the trees are around them.
Here is my fiance under one of the giant rock formations along the trail. This is a shorter one that works well for when it rains (rarely). Also we hiked on a rare day of snow in Arizona where it could only survive in the shade of the rocks.
We call these two the kissing stones, they even have lips.
Quite a few different critters live in between these rocks. Here is a large raven hanging out on top of one of the formations waiting for @corvidae to take his photo someday lol. This area is full of ravens and I bet they have quite a few nests in these rocks.
There are all sorts of different little arches and bridges in the rock formations. It is not recommended to hike up in between these rocks and we know a guy who works for search and rescue. He is always rescuing some random tourist who gets trapped and can't come down or gets disoriented between the rocks then gets hypothermia after spending the night waiting for the rescuers to come for them. This is in quite a remote area.
I wonder how on earth these formations were created. I suspect these mountains used to look like normal hilly mountains and the harsh winds and erosion left only the sturdiest base material behind. Almost like stone skeletons beneath what used to be a filled out mountain.
Some of these structures look quite precarious, one day a raven will land on the top and tumble everything down with just he tiniest nudge of his talon.
We decided not to the the full trail loop as the second half leads you down into the valley below and all you see are trees rather than the cool rock formations.
Now for one last little bonsai tree. Who knows what sort of soil can sustain that little thing, probably just dust that is randomly blown into the rocky cracks near it.
If you ever find yourself in Southern Arizona I highly recommend going to Chiricahua National Monument, great for hiking and there are campgrounds you can reserve at the base of the mountain too.
Happy #wednesdaywalk