Hiking the Lost Dutchman State Park

The Superstition Mountains have been a source of mystery and legend since early times. The area is dotted with ancient cliff dwellings and caves, many showing signs of former habitation by a number of different Native American groups, up until the 1800's. We visited the cliff dwellings on our drive through the mountains.

During the 1840's, the Peralta family of northern Mexico supposedly developed a rich gold mine in the Superstitions. According to legend, an Apache ambush ended the family's last expedition, and the gold remained in the area. In the 1870's, Jacob Waltz ("the Dutchman") was said to have located the mine with the aid of a Peralta descendant. Waltz and his partner, Jacob Weiser, worked in the mine and allegedly hid one or more caches of gold in the Superstitions.

After Waltz's death in 1891, several people attempted to seek out the Lost Dutchman's Mine, all without luck. Later searchers sometimes met with foul play or even death, contributing to the superstition and legend of these mountains.

So this seemed like an excellent spot to go for a closer look at the mountains. There are several hikes on the park's map with varying degrees of difficulty. We chose the Treasure Loop Trail - a 2.4 mile hike to an elevation of 2580 feet. Rated as moderate it seemed very do-able to us.

The "X" marks our goal

So we put on our hiking shoes, took water and a walking pole and off we went.

The saguaro cactus Arch is standing by is pretty scarred and pretty old. These huge plants are found only in Arizona and Mexico and weigh about 100 pounds per foot.

The views on the way up were spectacular:

And the trail was very well groomed:

X marks the top of the trail

And there were a couple of rest spots

But near the top it got pretty tricky:

Phew! We made it:

Top of the trail

The way down was much easier:

But you still need to be careful and the walking pole helps a lot. We bought the poles at a swap meet (the Arizona term for a flea market) for $7 each. And so far they seem to be every bit as good as the $100 a pair ones we buy in Canada. Time will tell.

We met these horseback riders on their way up:

That is the state park camp ground in the left of the picture. You can just see the top of the RVs parked there. A beautiful spot.

The views in this area are so vast and spectacular. One never gets tired of them. So different from the "small and incredibly beautiful" landscapes we are accustomed to in Nova Scotia.

Half-way down the trail. 

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A Day in the Superstition Mountains

Apache Junction, Arizona is situated at the base of the Superstition Mountains.

Sun setting on the Superstition Mountains

These mountains have long been a place of unexplained paranormal stories and thus the name. We set out to explore them as soon as I returned from Montreal. First stop was a museum that explained the history of the area. While there we met a couple who told us the best way to see the mountains was to take a 100 mile circular drive through the mountains with a side trip to see the world's largest copper mine. (We've learned that everything is the "worlds largest or best" here in the US).

 So off we went into the mountains:

First stop. The copper mine. The mining company was kind enough to provide a viewing area where we could get a good look into the mine and some information panels telling us about the mine.

Below is a panorama of the mine 

It was impossible to get a picture of of the complete mine with my camera. Below is a photo showing very large trucks working down in the mine. They are like the huge trucks used in the oil sands.

And this is a fly over photo of the mine from one of the panels:

It is large indeed!

We left the mine, and headed further into the mountains and the Tonto National Forest. There were a lot of mining operations along our drive:

And then we came to the Tonto National Monument. An area preserved by the Federal Government because it contains cliff dwellings occupied in the 13th, 14th and early 15th centuries. 

It looked like a long way up but worth the climb:

Cliff dwellings are at the red X in the upper left corner

So after reading these rules we were off:

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The saguaro cactus in this area are huge:

As we were at a pretty high altitude stopping for a lot of breaks was a must:

About half way up

Finally close to the top. The people on the trail in the lower right will give you some idea of the size of the cliffs.

You can see the rooms inside the cave

It was very impressive to see what the Salado did with so little.
Then we headed back down to the car:

And on to Roosevelt Lake. You can see the lake in the distance above. When we were driving across the Arizona desert towards Phoenix a truck pulling a fairly large boat passed us:

We couldn't help but wonder what they were going to do with a boat in the middle of the desert. Now we know:

Roosevelt Lake is located in the Tonto Basin and was created by the Roosevelt Dam:

A beautiful bridge spanned the entrance to the dam area. Its story is very interesting:

I hope you can read the information. Left click to enlarge. Or read more about it's construction here.

 My photo of the bridge:

We then crossed the bridge and headed back to Apache Junction - a beautiful drive through the mountains.

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