First Time at Cochise Stronghold

My favorite type of desert has rocks and trees and when I mentioned this while playing cards one night an avid hiker recommended we drive to Cochise Stronghold. I was really missing nature so the next Saturday we took the drive, which was beautiful and out in the middle of nowhere. Cochise Stronghold is part of the Coronado National Forest and there is one campground there which is what we put in our GPS. The road was super rural with tons of pistachio trees and farms and then turned to dirt road as we headed towards the mountains.

I will say I was super relieved when we saw a National Forest sign and we kept following the road until we reached the campground proper. We parked near the restrooms and followed the paved path on a short walk which had many signs showing the history of the area.

The basic story behind the area is that Cochise was a local chief and was initially friendly to the white settlers but an army lieutenant took him hostage during peace talks and made him an enemy. Subsequently Cochise and 1,000 of his followers located in the stronghold which was at 5000 feet, had water, and was easily defensible. It is a beautiful area and we walked the nature trail which is a little rough (wear hiking shoes) but had wonderful signage about the local plants and what the natives used them for. Jack loved it and so did we.

There was also a beautiful bridge (Jack hates bridges so we had a little trouble getting him to cross and a wonderful monument to Cochise at the end of it. He is buried somewhere in the Stronghold but the location was kept secret by his followers and his one white friend Thomas Jeffords.

It was a lovely walk with tons of history and much cooler at the higher elevation. Even though it is a bit of a drive I highly recommend the visit.

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