We visited this little spot in southeastern Arizona a couple of years ago and liked it then, so here we are again. It’s one of Arizona’s “Islands in the Sky” – mountains that pop up out of the desert here and there. This particular one has quite unusual rock formations and a few very nice trails that wander down through the canyons around these rock formations. As an added bonus, the Park has a shuttle van service. They will pick you up at 8:30 in the morning, drive you the several miles to the top of the mountain from where you can spend part of the day hiking back down to the valley bottom along the trails.We were the only people to take the shuttle service today and met no other hikers on the trail we selected. Just under 5 hours to hike about 16 km. We saw one Arizona Woodpecker, a new one for us, and otherwise had a scenic, quiet hike.
The trail we hiked was constructed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (the CCC). This was a project designed to help the unemployed and destitute during the Great Depression (part of the "New Deal") . About 3.5 million people were signed up during the time of the project, from 1931 to 1942. They were used for road and trail construction, fire fighting, and many other works. During our travels in the USA, we've seen many examples of their work. Certainly a lasting legacy for a cost of 2 to 3 billion dollars at that time.
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