Gila Cliff Dwelling (NM) & Cochise Stronghold (AZ)

We decided to take one last trip before the big Alaska trip in May. We also wanted to answer some questions regarding the type of camper we use while on these trips.

Camping Info:

We've tried it all .. tent travel trailer, 5th wheel, motor home; then we got smart. We use a Lance pickup camper that slides into our Ford F350 short bed. We have all the comforts of home, just on a much smaller scale. We've also found this to be the most fuel efficient of any camper we've had going from a high of 5 MPG with the coach to an average of 12 MPG. We can get close to where we want to photograph while at the same time being comfortable.

Gila Cliff Dwelling:

The Gila Cliff Dwellings are no more than an hour drive North from Silver City New Mexico and offers an opportunity to crawl around inside and out an old cliff dwelling. The hike is about 1 mile total and at times up a steep trail. The trail is well maintained.

Cochise Stronghold:

Cochise Stronghold is in the heart of the Dragoon Mountains about 30 miles southwest of Wilcox AZ. This was the home to the Chiricahua Apache Chief, Cochise. Cochise and about 1,000 of his followers were located here. This area is rich in history offering various trails and camping opportunities.

We met a very nice couple, John & Kathy R. from Durango CO while overnighting at the campground. Great folks - thanks again for sharing your camp fire!

This will be the last update till we head out in May for Alaska. We hope to be able to update the blog every couple days supplying information as well as images. As always please leave a comment or email us directly. Please don't forget to visit our galleries at Iron Creek Photography.

Be safe

Sandy & Don

April News

It’s almost mid April and we’ve fallen behind in posting. Nothing new going on here in Tucson, we’re getting ready to go to the Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico next week; this will be our last short trip before we head out to Alaska in May. This trip represents a way for us to get out of town for a couple days as well as making sure our truck and camper are set for a 9000 plus mile trip in May.

Speaking of May and Alaska … We plan to keep a travel log of sorts here documenting our journey from here through Utah, Idaho, Montana, Canada and finally into Alaska so keep checking back every couple days to see where we are. The plan for Alaska is to stay in the Fairbanks area for about 8 days (one of which will be spent at the Ford dealer) then move down to Denali National Park for another 8 days the off to Homer Alaska for yes you guessed it, 8 days. We plan on updating the log and adding images whenever we get a chance and an internet connection.

You have two ways of keeping in touch with us. One is via our email – use it to contact us if you have a question, comment or concern. The other is to use the comment button found at the bottom of this post. Use the button, post a comment and we’ll see it and respond as well as we can.

Sandy’s new Canon 1Ds III has turned out really great and we expect to capture many great landscape and wildlife images with it. We’ll continue to post a couple images here on the blog however the really good ones will go on the website for sale.

That’s it from our end….


Sandy & Don