The Bonita Canyon campground at Chiricahua was our home base for the last couple days. With the one way roads through the campground we had to do several turns to get into our campsite. No worries – we backed out down the road to exit! There is conflicting information about how long your RV can be – some places said 29 feet, others 24. We squeaked in, but definitely would not have fit into many of the other sites. There were several people tent camping and the campground was full.
This morning we took the Silver Spur Faraway Trail from our campsite to the Faraway Ranch. This was a leisurely walk through meadows and forests of the Bonita Canyon. We enjoyed reading all of the signs along the trail about the CCC and their work in Chiricahua.
Now for your history lesson! In the 1930s, in an effort to help solve the economic problems of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created several federal agencies. One of them was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). In 1934, a CCC camp was established here to build roads, trails and other improvements in Chiricahua. Their pay was $30 a month, room, board, and clothing. Many of the men learned a trade, or even how to read and write! During the first summer, they built a barracks, mess hall, infirmary, storage buildings and workshops. After the CCC camp shut down in 1940, many of the buildings were torn down. The surviving building became the main lodge of the Silver Spur Guest Ranch. This fireplace is one of the two remaining that stood on the site.
These are some of the CCC men who worked in Chiricahua. On a side note, my dad was in the CCC in Nebraska after his high school graduation when there were no jobs, before he joined the Navy during WWII.
Even with signs, Tobey and I weren’t very good at identifying the trees.
I thought this was an Alligator Juniper. What do you think?
As we came out of the forest we entered the meadow with beautiful cliffs in the distance.
Arriving at the Stafford Cabin we found plenty of information signs to read. The 110-year-old homestead cabin and surrounding land became part of Chiricahua National Monument in 1968. The Stafford Cabin was a homestead claim during the Apache resistance and evolved in its last decades as a guest cottage at a modestly popular dude ranch. The cabin was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
Not much further down the trail we came to the Faraway Ranch. In 1886 Neil Erickson and Emma Sophia Peterson, both young Swedish immigrants, married and set out for Bonita Canyon to homestead. The Erickson Homestead, established in 1887, soon became the Erickson Ranch as they gradually took over the smaller homesteads in the canyon. In 1903, Neil became a park ranger and had to relocate. They turned the management of the ranch over to their oldest child, Lillian. Lillian married Ed Riggs, and together they managed the Faraway Ranch. During its heyday of the 1920s and 30s, Faraway was a guest ranch.
After reaching the Faraway parking lot, we turned around and headed back to the campground.
As we got deeper into the forest, we heard shuffling in the trees and were lucky enough to spot a band of coati. They are members of the raccoon family and have a long snout. They are most active during the morning – lucky for us! Unfortunately, they blend well into the colors of the fallen logs and brush so no pictures. We saw about ten of them scampering along!
Not much further, we heard a strange noise, like someone sneezing on the hill. Pretty soon we found the source – deer! There were six or seven whitetail on the hill and one of them definitely had a cold – or allergies! 
We saw several Mexican Jays and some Acorn Woodpeckers, as well as robins as we got back to the RV. The Silver Spur Meadow trail was 2.5 miles round trip.
We finished packing up and headed back to Scottsdale stopping in Wilcox for lunch. It was a great trip and if you get a chance to visit southern Arizona – take it!
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