A rocky day...

Getting to the end of the Arizona trip photos, then it's back to your regularly-scheduled bees and chickens.

Here are more pictures from gorgeous Chiricahua National Monument.

Love on the rocks, ar ar ar. Or maybe not, as it's our 18th wedding anniversary next month.

Gordon and Roger, two intrepid hikers fuelled by Dos Equis.

Can you see the head in this rock formation? It actually has a name, but I'm damned if I can remember what it is.

Ahhhhh...

This formation is known as "Punch and Judy." I think the reasons are obvious!

Yarrow's Spiny lizard, trying to warm up in the sun.

Stunning rock formations, as far as the eye can see.

The trail.

And near the end of our hike down the mountain, a Two-tailed Swallowtail landed on Gordon. It is Arizona's state butterfly.

Next it landed on me, no doubt disappointed to discover that all these bright colours were yielding NO nectar!

Then Gordon professed his love for an Alligator Juniper growing out of a rock.

Near the end of our something-like-ten-miles hike, I started hallucinating and seeing cars where there were none, but eventually we did reach the visitor centre parking lot, where we changed out of our hiking boots and coerced some innocent bystander into taking our photo!

Then we headed back to Tucson. But in the grasslands near Chiricahua, we saw more range cows:

We kept a sharp eye out of for snakes in the road. This poor Gopher snake was squashed by a car before we got there..

However, Roger rescued this lovely one from the middle of the road before it could come to harm...

I wish I could have held it, but I did get to touch it! Gopher snakes are not venomous, but they will pretend to be one if threatened, by flattening their heads to look the triangular head of a rattler. They hiss and shake their tails in a very good imitation of their venomous kin.

Gorgeous snake! I'm glad we didn't squash it. Roger is an expert with reptiles and amphibians; don't try randomly picking up snakes unless you know what you're doing.

After this, we stopped for Mexican food and tequila. A good time was had by all! Well, I abstained from the tequila. Tequila and I were last acquainted in 1990, followed by the mother of all hangovers. Never again!

Here are some cool vintage postcards from Chiricahua.

Be kind to snakes!