At the end of September’24, hoping that the summer heat was over in Arizona, we flew to Tucson to see Chiricahua National Monument and the Saguaro National Park. As soon as we got off the plane, we found out that there was a heat wave in effect, which limited our outings in nature to early morning and late afternoon. We had to get creative with the rest of the day.

We arrived at Chiricahua National Monument in the evening. The temperature was more comfortable because the park is situated at a higher elevation. This national monument is on the short list of monuments to become a national park. While that decision is still to be made, we enjoyed the park almost to ourselves.

We had time to do a couple short hikes to get closer to the strange rock formations for which the park is known. 

Echo Canyon Grottoes (1 mi) provides a great introduction to the wilderness area of the monument and the opportunity to walk among the rock formations.

Massai Point Nature Trail (.5 mi) is a short loop leading to a nice viewpoint.

On the following day, we revisited Saguaro National Park. The West side is denser in saguaros and the loop drive around the park is a good introduction to the park when the temperatures are too high for hiking.

Sunset from Signal Hill is not to be missed.

During the day, we visited Gadsden Pacific Division Toy Train Museum and it was a hit with S. They had a lot of elaborate and interactive miniature train model layouts where kids could push buttons to make something move.