Greenhouse Trail

On my last day here in the Chiricahua's, I decided to go on a long hike on the Greenhouse trail. I would say that of all the hiking I've done around here, this one is by far the nicest. Its quite strange actually, because the trail goes up the mountains, but travels along a creek within a valley, so you get to see all sorts of different flowers and plants. And its not very desert like, there are huge pine trees so it reminds me more of BC. The trees provide some pretty good shading, so its a nice hike on a hot day.

In 1994 there was a forest fire in the area, so there are many fallen and dead trees, a good lesson in succession. Very strange to walk through though, its amazing how long it takes for the forest to come back

The tour guides in the area are friendly, but dont say much. They seem to just get freaked out by your presence and run down the mountain.

A columbine, they grow in large numbers near streams

By the streams, there were many different kinds of butterflies, though generally they were flittng around too much to get good photos.

And last but not least, I was lucky enough to run into one of these big boys, but it couldn't have cared less that I was there, so it provided a good photo opp.

In total, I hiked about 10 hrs, up to Fly's Peak, at 9660 elevation (thats higher than Silver Peak), sadly the view at the top was all forest, but Im glad I did it (even if my feet are not). I highly recommend this place to anyone interested in a good hike, the trails are not prefect, often they are rocky or falling apart in some cases (due to cattle), but it seems that no matter where you hike here, there is always an amazing view and something totally different from other parts of the area. I hope that I can come back here again soon and hike to more of the many peaks within this national park.