Southeast Arizona: Coronado National Forest

South Eastern Arizona in the San Simon Valley – we dispersed on BM land near the town of Safford. We did not get a storm but enjoyed the clouds playing with the sun.
Gila Box was a very beautiful area! We stayed at a BLM managed campground which was excellent.
View of the Gila river walking back to our camp site.
We found the skeleton of an old Model T buried in the pebbles – Don’t you wonder what was the story behind how it got here?
Sunset on another beautiful day.
Our Thanksgiving Feast at Stockton Pass, south of Safford in the Penaleno Mountains. Pass is named after Stockton Clanton, father of the brothers known in Tombstone.
It is roasted chicken but we have turkey gravy, fresh bread, and nice Colorado wine.
Cochise Stronghold – our favorite dispersed campsite in the Dragoon Mountains of Coronado National Forest.
Is Batman overlooking the grave of Cochise? That is one of the mysteries of this mountain range. Here is the link to photos from last year’s hike and camp http://tealsky.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1691&action=edit
We hiked again to the  Stronghold Divide – much better weather than last year!
Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area had a lot of cranes already here for the winter. This was amazing to see and hear so many of them.
The cranes fly in to spend the night after feeding in the fields all day. They leave pre-dawn so we did not see any the next morning – we were too lazy to get out in the cold before our coffee.
View of Mexico from Coronado National Monument – this was a challenging 3 mile drive to the top of the pass but great views. We spent a few nights near Sierra Vista in Miller Canyon and then Gardener Canyon.