Cochise Indian trail, Coronado National Forrest, AZ, 10/21/19

Joined our Copper Canyon, Mexico, companions for five days of hiking east of Tucson, Arizona.

First hike: Cochise Indian trail, southeast of Tucson, located in the stronghold area of Apache chief Cochise, who defended his people for 15 years against the incursion of US Army in the mid 1800s.  

Century plant.  

Plant too tall to take in one shot.  

Called "century" because it bloom after 100 years and then dies. 

The trail is 5 miles long and starts at the East Cochise Stronghold campground, winding its way up to Stronghold divide.  We made it up to the divide, a 6-mile round trip. 

Ellis/10K/Survey trails loop, Sandia Mountains, M< 10/9/19

NM Mountain Club Wednesday hike, 5-mile loop hike., 9 participants.

 Fall colors in full display.

This tree stump caught my attention:
Note the small branches on the outside of the tree and the corresponding large "spikes" on the inside of the stump. 

Pow wow around a medallion tree.

This Douglas Fir started growing in 1455!

Palomas Peak, Sandia Mountains, NM, 10/3/19

First NM Mountain Club Wednesday hike since late June.  A very short hike, ~ 3 miles round trip, to a very familiar spot on the East side of the Sandias: Palomas Cliffs.
Palomas means doves in Spanish and refers to the limestone bands seen on the cliffs.
See posts 8/5/18 and 7/18/15 for pictures of the cliffs. 

I
nstead of relaxing on the beautiful lower edges of the cliffs, we headed towards the top of the cliffs, curiously named Palomas Peak.  

Short side trip to find a Medallion tree. The medallions are identification markers placed on very old trees.  Apparently, in the 1920s an unknown person took a core sample ancient trees, dated them, and placed a marker on the tree, 84 of them in total. 

The tree above started as a seedling the year Mississippi became the 20th state. 

It's fall: mushroom season!

  An oyster mushroom found on the side of the trail. A little dry; will be delicious rehydrated.