More Day Trips from Lost Dutchman

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

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. 

Most Saguaro Flowers are High Above

Thanks to a Downturned Arm, These are Closer

Nice Flowers

Another with Flowers Closer to Ground

Last Sunset for Us at Lost Dutchman State Park

What 2017 Might Bring

Even though we have enjoyed the last three and a half months in Arizona, we know we need to start heading away from the heat that is coming. In fact there have been weeks of above average temperatures, at times 20 degrees higher than normal. So we may have already overstayed our welcome in this regard. We had only said we wanted to head to the Pacific Northwest this summer and try to time our 10,000 geocache find with one of the more famous caches in the Seattle area. We have a little over 400 more to find so we have some flexibility in our find rate.

To try to put a little structure around our travels, we had come up with three "events" we wanted to get to get to while up that way. The first is a geocaching event in Kennewick Washington near the end of June. Then a two week Habitat for Humanity volunteer assignment in Mt Vernon Washington a little north of Seattle the first two weeks of July. The third event was to try to be near the center of the solar eclipse happening on August 21. The original thinking was to include another geocaching event near Seattle but it is only 2 days prior to the eclipse so we prioritized. 

We have asked plenty of people over the last few months about what places to see in Washington and Oregon and which route to take to get there. If you put in Phoenix as a starting point and Kennewick as an ending point (since it is our first scheduled "event") into a mapping program there are three main routes: up through California/Oregon; Nevada/Idaho/Oregon; or Utah/Idaho/Oregon. We decide that the latter one interests us the most. So with that in mind we start to plan.

We began to make some reservations at some of the more popular areas although we discovered that we should have started some of that planning weeks ago. We also wanted to have places reserved over Memorial Day and July 4th and eventually Labor Day. The general plan after Apache Junction is to travel north thru Arizona hitting the Sedona area and Page. Then cross into Utah and stop near Zion, Bryce, and Capital Reef. Then continue north to Salt Lake City before crossing over into Idaho, the northeast corner of Oregon and then to Kennewick Washington. We have only reserved at 4 or 5 spots so far. The one that we were most concerned with was finding a place to stay for the eclipse. All the campgrounds we checked had no availability for that day and everything we read about what to expect was pretty bleak if you hadn't booked months ago

But we didn't let that deter us. We had heard about a service called Boondockers Welcome and chatted with the couple that developed the program when we ran into them at one of the rallies we attended earlier this year. We had signed up a few weeks ago figuring it was just one more tool in our planning tool belt. What is Boondockers Welcome? People that have property and room for RVs will sign up for the service, offering their property as places for people with RVs to stay.  Some may have electricity, water and even a dump while others just have a spot to park the rig. So we checked out what was available in the central to northern Oregon area since this is the center of the solar eclipse. We found one that is within the area where a total eclipse will occur and it's only 20 miles south of where the peak will be. We sent an email to the owner expecting him to laugh at us for asking this late in the game. But we were pleasantly surprised when he responded that he still had a couple spots available with only two others having asked to stay so far.

Here is a map of the current thinking of our route. We have some stretches where we haven't specifically identified where we want to stay but that will be part of our future planning. Things will undoubtedly change as we proceed but that is half the fun.

CLICK ON MAP FOR DETAILS

Lost Dutchman State Park

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

We had heard of Lost Dutchman State Park and the Apache Junction area months ago and had even naively tried to get into it on short notice awhile back. Once we understood how full this place usually is and we knew what our travel plans were going to be for the various rallies we went to, we booked 9 nights here back in late January.  So now that we are done in Benson, it's time to move on north. Not that it is very far north but it will get us heading in the right direction. All of southern Arizona has been having above normal temperatures, so we expect this stop to be more of the same. 

The drive was only about 160 miles with much of it on I-10 until we get past Tucson. As we got within 10 miles of the place, our GPSr, which is supposedly RV friendly, decided to take us down a dirt road. We lucked out and found it to be quite wide so we could actually make a u-turn even without unhitching the Jeep. As you make the turn into the state park, you are greeted with an awesome view of the Superstition Mountains. It would be the view we had from our site as well. We have had some decent views, Davis Mountain State Park in Texas comes to mind, but we think this is our best so far. All the sites in our loop are pull thru spurs off the main campground road. It is possible to pull in either direction depending how you want to be oriented. We park with the power pedestal on the "wrong" side but our 50 cord reaches underneath the rig without problem and we prefer the views this way.

Our Rig with Superstition Mountains

Superstition Mountains Near Sunset

One of the things we wanted to accomplish while we were here was to find the oldest geocache in Arizona. So far we have found the oldest in about 17 of the states. As the crow flies, it's only about 8 miles away, but we aren't crows. Fortunately Chris read about the area where the cache is located - Bulldog Canyon. The dirt road is gated and would be about two mile hike each way if we were to park and walk to it. But the area has a permit system in place that allows you to drive on the roads and gives you the gate lock combination which is changed each month. We fill out the online form and expect to wait for the 2 days it mentions before getting the pass. Low and behold, it shows up in our inbox in just a couple hours. We print it out and plan to head there the following day. 

When we arrive the next morning, I enter the code and sure enough the lock opens. After we get in, I lock up so no unauthorized people can get in and we head down the road. The area is probably better suited to off road vehicles but not any problem for our Jeep. In fact there is a truck and small trailer parked in one of the early pullouts since free camping is permitted there. We are positive our rig won't make it over this road, so we don't even think about it!

Inside Bulldog Canyon Area

There are several other geocaches along the route prior to getting to our main destination. There were many desert plants in bloom and it turned out to be a very pretty area. We were able to park within about a quarter mile of the oldest geocache. There isn't any trail to the cache but the desert vegetation isn't too dense so it is fairly easy to get there. There were two helicopters circling above as we made our way there. It wasn't clear why they were there, but they didn't seem to be following us. After finding the cache, we came back to the Jeep and continued down the road for another half mile or so before we decided we better head back before we find ourselves stuck with nobody around. 

Prickly Pear in Bloom

Hedgehog Cactus Blooming

The state park had a couple walks scheduled while we were here. A geology walk one morning and a nature walk the next. They took place at 8 AM so it was still somewhat cool. What ended up being nice is that each walk was on a different trail so we were able to experience different sights along each one. The geology hike was led by a retired physics teacher that volunteers at the park. He took over for the previous geologist. His descriptions of volcanos were memorable if not technically accurate.

Our Geology Walk Group Learns Something

Nature Walk Takes a Break and Talks

View of Apache Junction from Partway Up Superstition Mountains

One of the day trips we made was to the Scottsdale area to visit Taliesin West. This was Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home in his later years. It is now run by a foundation that offers various tours of the buildings on the 600 acre property. We picked the 90 minute tour. Our guide led the group of 20 around the many buildings in the complex. Part of the buildings still house an architectural school. They offer this tour every 15 minutes, so we seemed to either be waiting for the tour ahead of ours or being pushed by the tour behind. 

Interesting Art at Taliesin West but Not a Wright Design

Part of Artwork Installed on Property

Nice Landscaping

The grounds between the various buildings were pretty and well maintained. Most of the buildings were rather unique if not quirky. Many of the entrances were quite short and I felt the need to duck. The guide told us this was because Frank wanted to force people to move into or out of the rooms without lingering in the entrance. Mission accomplished! Supposedly Frank was on the shorter side of the scale so the entrances were just right for him. When we got to the building where the students have their desks, we weren't allowed to speak or take photos for fear of interfering with their creative juices. We did have a bit of a distraction along the way. A fairly long snake was wandering the grounds. According to one man in our group it was a rosy boa. 

Wonderful Setting for a Home

Our Tour Group Listens to Stories About the Man

Snake Sneaking into Our Tour

Theater Room

Prospector Park and the surrounding desert land was not very far from the state park. We discovered that there were some of the best caches we have done in quite some time. Although none of them were listed as true puzzle (or mystery) caches, many of them had some sort of trick to get into the cache and sign the logbook. There were several interesting designs that I would try to duplicate if I was still had a home and my full allotment of woodworking tools. Admittedly some of the designs that work acceptably well in this type of dry desert air, may be a bit more problematic in the wetter environments. 

Cache Found Hanging

Had to Figure Out Which Nails Could Be Removed Using a Magnet

With Container Open, Log Inside

One of the more challenging ones (at least for us) led us to a pair of trees about 20 feet apart. In each tree was a small birdhouse. They both looked identical. Opening either of them up, you were greeted with a small container with the word "DECOY" written on them. Supposedly the actual cache was within 20 feet so we looked all over. However we kept going back to the birdhouse suspecting something was up with them. Chris noticed that the back of each birdhouse had a much thicker wall than was required and I eventually discovered the trick to opening the hidden compartment, letting the cache container out. If you happen to enjoy fun (and challenging) caches like this, we suggest you try them out.