Coronado National Monument

May 28, 2024 – Trip Day 58

Catching up on the backlog continues!

Starting off – a quick overview of postcards from some other places that we sent out.

 We drove down to Coronado National Monument, about 2 hours from our Air BnB in Tucson.

They had a small visitor center that was focused on the Coronado expedition. They had a display of chain mail and helmets.

 While the kids worked on their Junior Ranger books, we hung out by their observation window. They had some chairs set up by a water feature. We were graced with some deer that came up to the watering hole.

 Randal was very interested in the Day of the Dead display at the Visitor Center.

 Ducky explored the touch and feel science station while Jarek worked on his book.

 After completing their books, they received their Junior Ranger badges! Meagan and Randal looked at post cards.

After their books were complete, we drove up a short distance and prepared to do the hike to the cave. The cave is an unprepared cave – that is it is in it’s natural state and has no stairs, hand rails, paths, lighting or similar installed in it.  

The hike was fairly aggressive, but short up a ravine.  

 We passed a cool rock formation that the kids thought looked like a lion, I thought it might be a Sabertoothed Rock!

 Evan poses by the entrance to the cave.

 To enter the cave, you need gloves and lights. Properly equipped, we began our descent into the cave. The entrance is a fairly steep slope covered in boulders.

 I worked my way down with a sleeping Duck while the kids waited at the bottom of the incline.

The kids all took a pose by this stalactite formation. The lights that I got were very bright and helped out a lot with the photos!

On our way out, we saw some of the ancient graffiti – from the 1890s made with candles. The graffiti marked the passage of previous travelers through the cave.

Complete with our cave adventure, we prepared to head back down the trail before the park closed.

 We were rewarded with a beautiful view of the valley as we descended through the sunset.

Back at the bottom. Ducky was a bit grumpy, and Randal was out.  

 Back at the AirBNB, Duck and Randal were both out for the count!