Stronghold

Hi all,
 As we follow the crazy cold and snowy weather across the US we sure hope everyone gets a nice early spring!
 This week we found our adventure about 80 miles southwest. Cochise Stronghold Recreation Area was the destination. This is located in part of the Coronado National Forest.

 The area was a natural built fortress and hideout for Apache and Chiricauan Clan Indians led by Cochise. The story goes Cochise was being forced to reservation land after being wrongly accused of raiding and kidnapping a Mexican boy.
 It is also believed Cochise is buried somewhere here.

  The area is laden with many large rock outcroppings and some valleys with springs made ideal hideouts.
 We took a nice hike on The Cochise Indian Trail. It seemed busy to us, with quite a few people arriving when we did. I guess as we get closer to the Tucson/Phoenix area we should expect that.  Once out on the trail we did not encounter that much traffic.
 This is a out and back trail that you can take for 5 miles. We did about 2-1/2 (5 mi hiking) and thought we had enough. We made it through most of the rock areas while the balance of the trail looked to continue to valley passes.

 Wendy had made us some nice chicken and avocado sandwiches for our lunch. Usually we get the old Pb n J but this was a great treat for the hike.
 Our duty schedule changes next week as we got another host joining us. We will move to 3 days doing maintenance and only one day in the visitor center. This should not be to bad as the temps are slowly rising and the days are noticeably getting longer.