Faraway Ranch is one of six location-specific hotspots within Chiricahua National Monument. Use the general Monument hotspot when you have a checklist that includes multiple locations.

This hotspot stretches from the Faraway Ranch parking area on the west to the Stafford Cabin in the east, or possibly a bit further east up the Silver Spur Meadow Trail to its crossing with the unpaved East Rhyolite Creek Road to  Monument administrative headquarters. For most of its length, the hotspot is bounded on the north by Bonita Creek and south by the old ranch road, though birds may be observed in or soaring over the mountains beyond. 

It is possible to enter the hotspot from the east, coming west on the Silver Spur Meadow Trail from the Monument Visitor Center or campground. However, birders will typically enter the hotspot by walking east from the Faraway Ranch parking area on the flat, easy trail between the windmill and corrals, through the ranch buildings, to Newton’s Wash. As well as the ubiquitous Mexican Jay, Dark-eyed Junco are present in this area November through April. You can cross the wash where the trail meets it, or head south and cross at the small footbridge. Either way, be sure to circle the two-story ranch house completely, as the surrounding vegetation can offer some unusual birds. The elms on the south side seem to be favored by Red-naped Sapsucker September through January, with sightings of Painted Redstart here in fall.   You may then continue east on the two-track ranch road past the bunkhouse on the south. The meadow, or old orchard area, is located on the north, occasionally hiding Gould’s turkey. Be sure to examine the remaining persimmons at the side of the road. Approaching the Stafford Cabin, you will likely circle around on its east side to double back to Newton’s Wash and the ranch buildings via the creekside trail, looking for Brown Creeper in streamside trees. But before you do, check out the cypress trees on the west side of the cabin for nuthatches and titmice.

Among USFWS-designated Birds of Conservation Concern for the Sierra Madre Occidental, Sonora Desert, and Chihuahua Desert regions, the following species have been listed multiple times for the hotspot:  Broad-tailed Hummingbird (April-May), Gila Woodpecker (October-February), Arizona Woodpecker (September-April), Olive-sided Flycatcher (September), Plumbeous Vireo (April-May, August-September), Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay (all year), Verdin (December-May), Cactus Wren (December-May), Curve-billed Thrasher (November-May), Phainopepla (November-February), Scott’s Oriole (April-May), Black-throated Gray Warbler (April-May, August-September), and Pyrrhuloxia (November-April).

Other than Broad-tailed, black-chinned is the only other hummingbird species listed with frequency. 

Elf Owl, along with Western Screech and Great Horned, have been reported in spring.

Acorn is the is the most frequently observed woodpecker species, followed by Northern Flicker and (during fall and winter) Red-naped Sapsucker.

Flycatchers, like vireos and warblers, appear during migration months of April-May and August September. Painted Redstart linger into late fall.

Mexican Jay is much more frequently observed than Woodhouse’s, while Steller’s Jay are also occasionally listed.

Birders may want to brush up on the calls of Chihuahuan vs Common Raven;  although Chihuahuan are observed considerably less often, both species are listed. 

Both Dark-eyed and Yellow-eyed Junco are observed November-April.

Faraway Ranch Historic District is located in east-west oriented Bonita Canyon, through which in the 19th century, Bonita Creek flowed perennially. By 1879, Ja Hu Stafford and his wife Pauline were homesteading the east end of the canyon and built a log cabin. Within the next 6 years, they had planted an orchard and vegetable garden, selling produce to the cavalry unit stationed slightly west of their property, as well as to nearby Fort Bowie and ranchers outside the canyon.

With the end of the Apache Wars in 1886, and the transfer of the cavalry unit out of the canyon, Swedish immigrant Neil Erickson filed claim to homestead the 160 acres west of the Stafford property. The homestead included a small, two-room cabin built by a squatter named Newton, just east of the wash that still bears his name;  Neil and his wife Emma began living in the cabin in 1888. Over the next fifty years, the Ericksons and their descendants made many improvements to the homestead, digging wells, planting an extensive orchard, and constructing numerous buildings, along with making additions to the original Newton cabin. This structure eventually became the center of a large guest ranch. The guest ranch business had initially been run by the Erickson daughters Lillian and Hildegard utilizing the cabin built by Stafford, whose homestead Lillian acquired in 1918 upon his death. Lillian married Ed Riggs in 1923, who developed  trails to carry horse-riding guests into what became Chiricahua National Monument a year later. Though Ed died in 1950, Lillian continued to run the guest house until her own death in 1977. Two years later, the property was acquired by the National Park Service and became part of the Monument, allowing the park entrance to be moved west to its present location. The area was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Faraway Ranch Historic District in 1980.

The District can be thought to comprise 4 main areas, whose Park Service designations are useful in making notes about where you’ve observed birds within the hotspot. The area containing the highest concentration of structures -- including tack room, tool shed, barn, garages, corrals, fences, reservoir, and windmill – is known as the Working Ranch.  Most of this area is located west of Newton’s Wash, with just a few buildings on the east. Only slightly further east, the Main House area encompasses the two-room Erickson ranch house, as well as adjacent fenced and domesticated landscape areas, along with the bunkhouse (until the 1920’s, an addition to the Stafford Cabin) south of the ranch road. The Meadow area lies between the Main House and Stafford Cabin, and is bordered by Bonita Creek on the north and the ranch road on the south. The meadow is a flat grassy field now spotted with junipers, used at various times prior to the 1950s as market garden, orchard, and pasture.  The primary feature of the Stafford Cabin area is of course the cabin itself, with a row of Arizona cypress directly west. The Silver Spur Meadow Trail leads east from the cabin, along the south side of the creek bed.

The bed of Bonita Creek, now ephemeral, runs along the north side of the hotspot. North of the creek, the mountains’ south face with sparse desert vegetation rises quickly, although the stream bed is lined on both sides with brush (notably manzanita) and deciduous trees such as live oak and Arizona ash. Vegetation along the creek and, to a lesser extent, Newton’s Wash, was damaged by the Horseshoe 2 Fire in June 2011.  Within the historic district, native vegetation consists primarily of alligator juniper, one-seed juniper, Arizona cypress, buffalo grass, blue grama, sideoats grama, soaptree yucca, sotol, agave, and prickly pear cactus. Invasive exotic grasses such as buffelgrass are also present. Of the orchards, a few persimmon trees remain along the ranch road on the north side.  Surviving ornamental shrubs in the ranch yard include periwinkle, pyracantha, spirea, and cotoneaster. A couple of Siberian elms are located at the southeast corner.  Hills delineating the boundary of the hotspot rise sharply, south of the ranch road, to a rocky ridge some 150 feet above the canyon floor. These hills, having a north face, manifest different vegetation -- particularly oaks and junipers -- than the more desert-like south-facing hills across Bonita Creek.

A “Wonderland of Rocks” is waiting for you to explore at Chiricahua National Monument. The 8-mile paved scenic drive and 17 miles of day-use hiking trails provide opportunities to discover the beauty, natural sounds, and inhabitants of this 11,985-acre site. Visit the Faraway Ranch Historic District to discover more about the people who have called this area home.

The Silver Spur Meadow Trail (1.2 miles) may be accessed from the Faraway Ranch Picnic Area, Monument Visitor Center, or by a 0.2 mile spur, Bonita Creek Campground. Pets, on a leash of 6 feet or less, are permitted on the trail.

Beginning at the Faraway Ranch Picnic Area, this leisurely walk leads you east through the Faraway Ranch Historic District, with structures dating back to the 1870s. Though not part of the hotspot, east of the Stafford Cabin is Silver Spur Meadow, home for Civilian Conservation Camp NM-2-A, Company 828 during the 1930s. Two large fireplaces here are remnants from the lodge of the Silver Spur Guest Ranch in business from 1948 to 1968. The meadow is more likely to have standing water (and bears) when the rest of the streambed is dry. Stream crossings can be hazardous during spring snowmelt or the summer rains.