What I'm Listening To: "Katie Queen of Tennessee"

 

Love a good song with my name in it.

Chiricahua Peak

7 mile hike to the top of Chiricahua Peak. Narrow trail that crisscrosses the spine of the mountains. We only saw one person but saw so many ladybugs. 

Chiricahua National Monument

Patrick and I headed on a 4 hour drive to the Chiricahua Mountains to camp. Neither of us have ever been there, so we were excited. On our first full day, we headed to Chiricahua National Monument to hike a 10 mile loop that would show us the best of the park. Lots of weird looking rocks. And lizards. Afterwards, we ate our picnic lunch with views for days.

Memorial Day Weekend on the Rim

After staying home for most of the spring, I jumped at the chance to go camping. Patrick and I drove up the Mogollon Rim on Saturday morning from Phoenix. I had never been, despite only a 2 hour drive. We passed through the cute little towns of Pine and Strawberry before taking the dirt road along the Rim. The Mogollon Rim stretches 200 miles across Arizona and is the start of the Colorado Plateau--high desert area that includes the Grand Canyon and many of Southern Utah's national parks.

We set up camp right along the Rim. Luckily, Patrick's car has 4WD and high clearance and Patrick is skilled in driving off road so we were able to get here no problem. It was relaxing to sit in our camp chairs and read books and not have any place to be. One little issue though! Our campsite was windy, which made me cold, despite the sunshine. I asked Patrick to boil me some water for tea. But our sole lighter didn't work! It was dead. So our peaceful afternoon was paused while we drove back to Pine to pick up new lighters. We needed them to cook dinner, so it was at least good we found out early!