Out of Our Rut: More Day Trips from Lost Dutchman

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There are lots of potential hikes in the area. One Chris had read about was the Peralta Trail which is effectively on the backside of the Superstition Mountains from where we are camping. The drive to the trailhead isn't the easiest. The last 5 or so miles are over a dirt road. Given how remote the trailhead is, I was amazed how many cars were parked in the lot - easily 30 of them. The weather has been quite warm lately and we should have made it to the start earlier in the morning like those already parked here. The hike is about 5 mile round trip with an elevation gain of about 1400 feet to Fremont Saddle.

On the Way Up Peralta Trail

Balancing Rocks

Interesting Rock Layers

We saw many groups of people heading down as we were heading up. There are a few larger trees along the route and we were able to take our breaks in their shade. We had bought large brimmed Tilley hats a month or so ago and they have come in quite handy to shade our head, face and necks even if they do look a bit dorky. The views as we head up to the saddle point are quite remarkable. Some of the rock formations were reminiscent of Chiricahua National Monument.

Looking Back at Where We Hiked

Posing in Front of Weavers Needle

Panorama From Fremont Saddle

There were several small groups of people at the saddle point when we finally made it there. Some of them were having snacks and all of us catching our breath and drinking water. The main view from the saddle was of Weavers Needle. We had seen this from a small viewing area back near the campgrounds but we are much closer to it now. Even though this trail continues on, we realized we don't have the energy or water to do anything other than turn back. There were only a handful of people heading up as we came down and the parking lot confirmed that fact. This was definitely a good hike. If you are up for it and are in the area, we can recommend it.

Thistles Have a Nice View

Bright Flowers Along Trail

Another full day excursion we took was head up the Apache Trail (Arizona Rt 88) towards Roosevelt Lake. This is the road right outside Lost Dutchman State Park. It continues up into Tonto National Forest. The drive through here is full of remarkable beauty. One small issue is that most of the drive is on a dirt road. It isn't so bad that a high clearance vehicle is required but plan on a lot of bumps and washboard conditions plus lots of switchbacks. Chris wasn't a fan of the narrow roads with sharp drop offs but she survived.

On the Trail

There are numerous pullouts and places to stop along the way. The Canyon Overlook Trail is just a couple miles before getting to Canyon Lake. There isn't an obvious trailhead, but thanks to a few geocaches placed along it, we knew it was there. We actually stopped here a couple days prior to making the complete drive so we had the late afternoon sun. There was quite colorful lichen growing on many of the rocks which just added to the view. It almost looked otherworldly. There is a distant view of Canyon Lake from up here.

View from Canyon Overlook

Closeup of Colorful Lichen on Rocks

Canyon Lake is the next place we stopped along the route. It was neat to see an actual lake. There is even a beach. As we were wandering around (looking for a geocache), a half dozen cars pulled in loaded with about 20 teenagers. I suspect they were going to be having an all day party here.

A Closer View of Canyon Lake

Tortilla Flat is a small "town" along the way. Okay town is probably pushing it but there is a campground, a few stores and a restaurant. We walked around a bit but we were here too early to eat lunch.

Next to Tortilla Flat Museum

Chris Finds Interesting Frame

There is a small rest stop between Canyon Lake and Apache Lake. It is definitely worth the stop even if you don't need to use the facilities there. A walkway takes you out to a great view of the mountains and canyons surrounding you. Another rest stop awaits you with a great view of Apache Lake. We didn't make it down to this lake.

View From Rest Area Along Apache Trail

Ocotillo in Bloom

Apache Lake View

The next major site is the Theodore Roosevelt Dam. It was originally built in the early 1900's but was renovated and heightened in the early 1990's. There are viewing areas on both sides of the dam - with both being worthwhile stops. Once you get here, the dirt road ends and it is back to normal paved roads.

View of Roosevelt Dam from Below

Bridge Over Salt River Just Above Dam

From here, you could choose two different directions. We picked an easterly route into the town of Roosevelt and then Tonto National Monument. This is a fee area so we got to use our annual pass to get in. There is a small visitor's center with gift shop, museum and outdoor screen playing the welcome video. The real draw of this place are the remains of the cliff dwellings used by the Salado people roughly 600 years ago. The path to the lower cliff dwelling is only about 1/2 mile of paved trail, but it's all uphill with many switchbacks to get up there.

Heading up to the Cliff Dwellings

We were greeted by Ray, a volunteer, that showed us some pictures in his notebook of how the place looked over a century ago before it was overrun by visitors. Now that the park service runs the place, they have stabilized much of the remaining structure. Having a person on site helps to keep people from causing further damage.

Closer View of Dwelling

The View from the Dwelling is Nice

The next stop was in the town of Globe. The Old Dominion Mine Park was a unique park. To us it looks like the old mine was abandoned and the town needed to figure out what to do with the property. Why not turn it into a park? There are several trails, a small playground and even a disc golf course. Many of the old pieces of equipment were placed in one area with signs describing what they are. We did a geocache that took us to several of the spots in our search for the cache. There were also a couple virtual caches in the downtown area. One was at an old locomotive that was interesting to check out.

Some of the Old Mining Equipment

The Main Mining Building

Old Locomotive in Town of Globe

We stopped for dinner in the town of Miami and still had about an hours drive back to Apache Junction. There was some beautiful scenery along this portion of the drive as well but we hadn't planned our trip to take advantage of it. We were running out of daylight and and our bodies had run out of energy. When we are back in the area during some future visit, we will need to explore this portion more.

On another day, we headed towards the Phoenix airport to a big place called Papago Park. It includes a golf course, botanical gardens and the Phoenix Zoo besides all the hiking trails. The place is also loaded with a bunch of geocaches as well. Since the above average temperatures were continuing, we went early in the morning but still only lasted a few hours before heading to lunch and the. To do some shopping at the nearby Bass Pro Shop. The park was interesting and some of the caches we did were very creative. This will definitely be on our must do list when we make it back this direction.

View of Golf Course in Papago Park

Some Rock Outcroppings in Papago Park

Our last day trip from this camping spot was to do another trail that is part of the Superstition Mountains called Jacob's Crosscut trail. Now admittedly this trail goes near the camping area at Lost Dutchman but to have done the portion we wanted to do would have been about a 3 or 4 mile walk just to get to that end of the trail. Much better to drive here and save some time. There was plenty of parking at the trailhead and the trail was only moderately uphill. We had luck with the series of caches along the trail and even decoded how to use information from 6 caches to come up with coordinates for a final puzzle cache hidden along the trail. The real treat with this hike was the saguaros were just starting to bloom. We were afraid we would head out of the area prior to seeing this take place. The only problem is that the flowers are on the tops of the saguaros or their arms. In most cases, this puts the flowers at 15 or more feet over my head. They are visible but not necessarily easily photographed. We did however find a couple of them that happened to have downward pointing curved arms that were within reach of my camera. The blooms are spectacular.