From February 2022
On February 18th, we drove north and east from Bisbee for a little over an hour to the Coronado National Forest. The Stronghold Trail has been on my bucket list for a long time, and it did not disappoint.
The four mile dirt road in was heavily rutted. There is a national forest campground at the trailhead, and I spent some time talking to a Scamp owner before the hike. Even though it was a weekday, the campground was full.
It was a perfect day for hiking.
The terrain was rugged. Cochise and his group of 1000, including 250 warriors, were obviously tougher than the day hikers who spend time here now trying to capture some of the spirituality of place.
Cochise was never conquered in battle and lived in the stronghold for about 15 years. His body was secretly buried somewhere within. Sounds a lot better to me than a gravestone or a monument.
This is a 9 mile out and back trail. We just did the eastern half of it to the divide and then came back the way we came.
The last picture was where we spent some time. I like to think that Cochise's people thought this particular spot was special too.
