Walt Shields
On November 29, ten SaddleBrooke Hiking Club members hiked into the Dragoon Mountains to explore the Cochise Stronghold Trail. The trail, over the course of six miles and 1300 vertical feet, traverses through some of the most spectacular cathedral of rocks anywhere in southern Arizona. Located south of Benson, the rugged natural fortress was for some 15 years the home and base of operations for the famed Chiricahua Apache Chief Cochise. From the towering pinnacles of rock sentinels, Cochise could spot enemies in the valley below and sweep down without warning in destructive raids. Following his death in 1874, Cochise was buried with his horse in an unknown location within the rocks.