Just over an hour from Kartchner Cavern State Park is Indian Bread Rocks, one of my favorite boondocking locations!
If you’re lucky on the drive up highway 10, you’ll get a little weather with wonderful clouds like we did. You’ll also pass through the town of Wilcox, which is worth a stop. It’s got a clean laundromat, a great little downtown, and a with a park statue and museum dedicated to Rex Allen. Rex Allen was an actor and a singer popular in the 1950s and 1960s. He starred in multiple westerns and is known as the “Arizona Cowboy” for a film by the same name. He was also the narrator for “Charlottes Web”.
Indian Bread Rocks is just north and east of Wilcox. It is an access point to the Dos Cabezas Mountains who’s rugged slope range in elevation from over 4000ft to 7500ft. Dos Cabezas Mountains wilderness has a total of 11,700 acres that is managed by the Bureau of Land Management but only 4 miles of trails to date. In the spring, you might see white-tailed deer, mountain lions, bald and golden eagles in the area.
Bouldering up the slopes of the rocks provides great views of the surrounding area and there are plenty of flat boondocking spots within the first mile of the main road into the area.
Indian Bread Rocks 
Other day trips in the area include wine tasting, you-pick orchards, and antique shopping but if you want to do some additional hiking head toward Fort Bowie.
In 1862 Fort Bowie was built after Apache raided a ranch and the rancher mistakenly reported it was the Choise and the Chiricahua Apache. This set off years of conflict in the area between the Native Americans and US Army. The history of the area and stories of its brutal conflicts here are told via sign boards on the 1.5 mile trail to the Visitor Center and old fort ruins.
The quiet beauty of the surrounding area, the desertion of the fort, people riding over the hill on horseback, and the US Flag central to the grounds, sat heavy with me as I stop to consider the devastation and lasting impact that the American Indian Wars had on all Native Americans. Our history isn’t always pretty, but one thing it teaches is pattern recognition so we can avoid making costly mistakes when faced with similar situations or dilemmas. Just one more reason to travel!
Fort Bowie
