Sam And Saundra's Second Time Around - Part 40

Sam And Saundra’s Second Time Around – Part 40

Arizona

3/1/11- 3/15/11 – Tucson - Chiricahua National Monument

Grace also belongs to a camera club.  We all decide to go with the club on their trek to the Chiricahua National Monument, about two hours from Cactus Country.  Maybe a little longer, especially if you include a Mickey Dee stop at Wilcox.  This is definitely another ‘must see’.  The freeway is the same one that Sam and I took on our previous trip to Pharr, Texas.  This time, we turned off at Wilcox and after a short break, took a right and went towards Cochise’s stronghold of yesteryear. (That is not that long ago.) The rock formations get interesting.  We enter the park, using Wayne’s National Park Pass.  Thanks Wayne.  We go to the highest, most long-far away parking lot/trail head and all pile out of our vehicles. 

Gathering Of Tribal Leaders

We follow the short Massai Point Nature Trail to a ‘crow’s nest’ built at the side of a canyon. It overlooks a gathering of tribal elders who are meeting and planning. We climb the steps to the lookout and immediately surrender to the scenery.  A metal pipe (about 3 feet long and 3 inches in diameter) is attached to a round 2½ foot metal ‘pie shell’ plate. At various locations around the pie shell’s rim are notched half-circles where the pipe end fits perfectly. As you rest the pipe in each of the notches, it forces you to look at a particular area and under each notch is the name of what you are looking at.  As you look through one end of the pipe, you see only the area that a small hole at the other end allows you to see.  This gizmo is not a telescope as I know them, but is an eye limiter.  It limits the view that an eye can see, forcing the eye’s owner to focus on one wonder at a time, in a field of many wonders.  Very helpful here.  One of the focal points was a very tall, slender rock ‘totem pole’, that is actually hard to notice with the unaided eye.  Sure, it would have been easier to describe it as a modified, rustic, telescope that had a pin hole for focusing attention instead of a lens system.  But that is just wrong. Besides getting excited about the thingamajig, just watching those elders decide how best to win the next conflict, was inspiring.  We watched and watched, never understanding what was said, just admiring the balance and character of how it was being said.  These free-roaming rocks really had a lot to say.

Sam, Me, Grace, Wayne And Eye Limiter Gizmo

Walking back to the parking area and around to the exhibit building, we see a mountain ridge made of rock right over there. Luckily it was placed behind an information placard that tells us that the ridge is a natural ‘statue’ of the reclining Chief Cochise, complete with headdress and an eyelash (100 foot Douglas fir).  

Chief Cochise