Cheer-Uh-Cow-Uh National Monument

It is actually spelled Chiricahua, but I figured for the sake of my non-Southern Arizona readers I would spare them the embarrassment of mispronouncing it.

I took Wednesday off of work so we could take the kids out hiking. All of the national parks waived their admission fees in honor of Veterans Day, so we figured we'd take advantage and check out the monument. We've also been trying to walk Lesley into labor so we figured several miles of hiking would be a great family trip and help move things along. It hasn't helped with labor yet but we all had a blast.

This first shot is under a rock on the Echo Canyon Trail.

This one is of the kids hanging out in the shade. It is amazing how some of these rocks stay balanced.Here is one of Lesley and the boys over looking the canyon from Massai Point. The faint mountains in the distance are the Dragoons and Benson is just on the other side of them.If you look closely, you can see Lesley and the kids back inside the grottoes. This is on the Echo Canyon Trail. We stopped and ate lunch here.We found the rod of iron which Lehi saw in his dream. We followed it but a mist of darkness caused us to lose our way.Near the entrance of the park there is an old ranch house and cabin. Here is Parkin standing in one of the doorways.

Here are the boys hanging out in an old cattle shoot.

These Mexican Blue Jays were hanging out all over the ranch. I saw this one from the barn and thought it was post worthy.