The Snowshed Trail in the Chiricahua Mountains

The Snowshed trail #246 is one of those trails that climbs into the high country in the Chiricahua mountains, but the lower part of the trail is fairly gentle as it slowly climbs out of Cave Creek Canyon.  I had the opportunity to walk part of the trail yesterday along with entomologists from the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum who are currently in residence at the Painted Pony Resort on their annual collecting trip.  The goal was to do some collecting as well as recover a trail camera from last years collecting trip.   A warm sunny afternoon with a few scattered clouds and it up the trail from an access point just across the road from the trail to Chiricahua Crystal Cave.  A slow assent brought the group to some open meadows full of junipers and large stands of grasses, mostly Hairy Grama grass.  With the reds rocks in the background the views were typically spectacular.  The trail camera was recovered and with over 3000 images there should be some interesting wildlife captured in images.

Red rock cliffs from the Snowshed trail

A view south back into Cave Creek Canyon

The image above is the same outcrop in the photograph below, taken last year from the McCord trail.  In this instance the view is looking up canyon while the above image is looking down canyon.

Same outcrop as above but viewed from further down canyon.