Often touted as a “wonderland of rocks,” Chiricahua National Monument, in southeastern Arizona, is known for its “unique landscape of rhyolitic rock formations created by massive volcanic eruptions and the subsequent erosion of that rock by wind, water, and ice over millennia,” said Naaman Horn, a spokesperson for the National Park Service. A paved, eight-mile scenic drive and 17 miles of day-use hiking trails crisscross the 12,025-acre space, bringing visitors face-to-face with miles upon miles of towering pinnacles and delicately eroded balancing boulders. The monument is also an historic Apache Homeland.
There are currently two active bills aiming to change the title of Chiricahua, the latest of which was introduced in the House of Representatives in February 2022. Support for this park designation has already passed in the Senate, and so far, the Department of the Interior has supported both bills and is working to establish a Tribal Commission to ensure the protection of and access to traditional plant and mineral resources, as well as historic cultural and religious sites. A formal vote by the House of Representatives is still needed to designate the unit.
“Upgrading” Chiricahua to Park status is a terrible idea, pure hype. It’s got one 25-site campground, its “Big Loop” trail is under ten miles. It would get hammered by increased visitation, especially as I don’t expect the designation would come with a sufficient budget increase.
In general, the American National Parks concept is being watered down in recent designations. White Sands and Pinnacles are wonderful places (can’t speak to Indiana Dunes, but it seems small; Gateway Arch is a joke), but they don’t have anything like the diversity or landscape-scale protection of bigger, older parks. New River Gorge is the only one of the recent designations that makes any sense to me.
Yes, and they are likely to get smaller as population rises and land shrinks. In the first book of the expanse sci-fi series they were down to 25 Montana acres with a world pop of tens of billions.
A hike in Chiricahua National Monument