Walking the Desert
4/22/2023: This time of year, closing in on the end of April, the cacti are in full bloom and some of the best I have ever seen. There are some flowers left and some gorgeous pictures of the mountains. If you like hiking in the desert with beautiful saguaro, cacti, mountains, wildflowers, and just stark beauty, then this is the hike for you. And there were not many people on this trail although the parking lot was full. Most people are going to the Hieroglyphics, which we did not do.
Marg’s Notes: Lost Gold Mine & Cougar Loop. 4.88 miles. We got up early to avoid the heat & left our resort @6:09. About an hour drive to the trailhead. Started hiking ~7:00. There were already lots of cars in the lot! Beautiful morning & a great starter trail. Quite a few flowers, but the most amazing things were the blooming cacti! Rood took tons of pics. We only saw about 6 people on our trail. Most folks go on to the Hieroglyphic Trail. Around 2 miles in we met a guy heading towards us who asked if we knew where we were going. Rod said yes, we were using Alltrails. He was too but had missed the look trail. Turns out we missed it too! So, we turned around & found our turnoff! We had noticed it on our way past but hadn’t looked at our map! All in all, a great trail. On the way back up, stopped at Walmart for booze & had a kerfuffle trying to buy Scotch. Not in the database apparently ☹. Back for a swim, nap & lunch. Sitting by the pool writing this.
Burritos for dinner!
Rod’s Ramblings from the Trail: At 7:15 the trailhead is already crowded with about 25 to 30 cars in the parking lot. It's a Saturday so go early. Think most of them are going to the Hieroglyphic Trail.
The cactus are blooming like crazy right now. Some of the wildflowers are starting to die off because of the heat but there certainly must have been a bunch of them.
Desert hiking could be my favorite type of hiking because of the contrast of colors.
We are in Superstition Wilderness. This is a beautiful hike and when the wildflowers are at their peak, I bet it would be absolutely incredible with all the yellow flowers in full bloom. Right now, they are pretty faded but you still get a hint of yellow in the pictures.
Lots of saguaros.
After about 2 miles in we are pretty much all alone. We saw or have seen a couple of people and they are reporting rattlesnakes ahead of us. We will see. Keep a good thought 😊.
This is an absolutely gorgeous trail with many opportunities for pictures. Fortunately, we met a guy coming towards us who asked if we knew where we were going. I said yeah…I think so. We have Alltrails. He said he did too, but he didn't pay attention to it. So, we looked and he was right: we did not know where we were going. We took a little bit of a wrong turn. So, make sure you pay attention to the trail markers, and you should be fine. It wasn’t Alltrails’ fault; I don’t like to hear the beep if I get off course so I turn the warning off.
We have yet to see a bike. But we have seen several bike tracks but so far nothing bike-wise. Still, there just aren't that many people out here, especially on a Saturday. Apparently they all do the Hieroglyphic hike.
This is a lightly trafficked trail. Even on a Saturday in late April with wildflowers in bloom and cactus going crazy in bloom we have not really met too many people once we split off from the Hieroglyphic trail.
This is the best cactus bloom I have ever seen. Granted, I have not been in the desert that much so haven’t seen many cactus blooms, but I don’t see how it could be much better than this.
We finished the hike just about 10:30 and did 4.88 miles. The hike is about 4.5 miles if you factor out our wrong turn.
This is definitely a five-star trail.
People: We met a woman who said that if we wanted a wonderful hike, then we should do Flatiron Trail. She said it was a hard hike but the views were definitely worth the effort.