Superstition Mountains

Over the last few years a former coworker of mine has been sending me pictures of him and his buddies hitting up all the trails in California, Arizona, and Mexico. Living in Florida where it's flat I started missing the mountains and  was wondering why I didn't do more of these trails when I lived there. I did a lot of hiking/backpacking/camping when I was in scouts but after that I did about as many hikes as I can count on one hand before I left the state. Once I got my license I mostly stuck to surfing or shooting with all my free time.

In Florida the surf wasn't so good so Natalie and I would do a lot of hiking through the Everglades, cypress swamps, pine forest, coastal wetlands, etc. and I really started to enjoy taking the time to just look around and enjoy nature, even in my own backyard. It made me look back at when I was in scouts and I wondered why I didn't enjoy all my back packing trips just a little bit more. Maybe it was the company, haha? I had pictures from my adventures in scouts, and had some good memories, but looking back now if I was to do the same hikes I would appreciate it a lot more than I did back then.

Well I've decided to raise my kids right. My kids are going to know how to hike, camp, enjoy nature, and shoot guns. Anyone that knows me knows that since Adri was small she's been getting exposed to nature, learning all I can teach her about animals, plants, fruits, bugs, and of course one of my favorites in Florida, alligators.

So I started planning my first desert adventure before I even moved to Arizona. I heard from some of my scouts in Florida that had just recently moved from Arizona that the Superstition Mountains were the place to go. So I looked online and found some trails that I could take Natalie and Adri on.

I didn't waste anytime. The first weekend we were here we headed out to the trails. I decided that The Lost Dutchman State Park would be the best place to start. We got there in the early afternoon and stayed until the sunset. The park was pretty much just as I had imagined it would be since I had seen so many pictures online. But I hadn't expected so many varieties of cacti in one place. I knew this place would have the Saguaro cactus but I was surprised to see there were also a few varieties of Cholla (jumping cactus), barrel cactus, prickly pear, and a few other cacti with large spikes that I don't know the name of.

Adri knows not to touch the cactus. She always tells me "don't touch the cactus, you get boo boos". Well I decided to take a picture of her next to a barrel cactus and told her "do not touch the cactus". For some reason she decided not to listen and touched the cactus. Picture of unhappy baby below.....

Before leaving the trails I left Natalie and Adri at the bottom, told them to give me 10 minutes, and ran up the mountain as fast as I could. I blazed right past a group and made it to the first big rock. Doesn't look so far in the pictures but it's further than it looks. The group I passed took about 30 minutes to get up there. I actually passed them again about half way down. I thought I had made it pretty far up and took a lot of pictures of down below. In a couple weeks I made it so much further it was laughable that I thought this was so far.

After the trails we took Adri to the gold ghost town down the street. Natalie wanted to eat dinner there, I thought it would be over priced garbage. She walked into the saloon and right out. Haha... We didn't do any of the pay tours like going in the gold mine, we just walked around, took some pictures, saw the reptile exhibit and left. Afterwards we found a really good Mexican restaurant called Los Gringos Locos and I had the best carnitas ever.

Well a couple weeks later my dad came out to visit with two of my Nephews and we had a really busy/fun Saturday. I had wanted to do the Flat Iron hike with my dad. This is to the top of the mountain overlooking the entire valley. With my nephews I knew this wouldn't be possible. So instead we did the same trail I started but once it went down and around we went off the trail and straight up. Of course what better way to start the day than with some Gringo Locos for breakfast. Chips, salsa, and a breakfast burrito, my batteries were charged.

The hike was a lot of fun. The rocks just kept getting bigger and bigger the higher we got. The mountain didn't look so big from down below but it almost seemed like it was growing with each step we took.

My nephews surprised me on the way up. I heard a lot of whining from Jeremy, mostly because he has a one track mind and just wanted to finish hiking as soon as possible so he could go shooting. Dominic, the younger of the two, and the one who loves video games was actually the one that wasn't complaining. We made it about as far up as it's safe to go with these kids. I was focused on safety and these kids are just focused on throwing rocks. My dad had us climb up a rock for a picture and it was a hard climb with the kids. We had to hike up a steep hill with loose gravel. Since my dad was taking the picture I had to help both of my nephews up. Every time I turned around they were picking up rocks. They're slipping and instead of focusing on what they're doing they're picking up rocks. It was driving me crazy, especially since I knew the danger if they slipped. It was a long way down. So that wasn't the most exciting part of the trip. It took us so long to get down that my dad had come up to help. A lot easier getting down with one adult per kid keeping them in line.

When we got to the bottom of the hill I found a barrel cactus that I thought would look good in a picture between my legs. Bad idea. Some how I sat on a rogue cactus spike. When we got back to the parking lot I was trying to dig it out of my pants before getting in the car.

After shooting we went to the range. I had wanted to find a place to go shooting in the desert with no one around but couldn't on such short notice so we had to settle with a range. Not the best place to shoot since you can only shoot paper targets but the kids had fun. I brought my Ruger 10/22 with my 50 round banana clips and my AK47 and AK74. Jeremy liked the AKs, Dominic took one shot and was done with it.

After shooting we went back to my apartment and took the kids swimming. The pool is heated so it's still swimming season here. I put a picture below to try to persuade my sister to come out here. After that we went out for dinner and Gelato. After all the excitement that day we took the kids back to my place were I fell asleep during a movie.

I had a lot of fun that weekend. It's good having family closer. The last time I spent time with my nephew without the rest of the family around was years ago when I took him down to San Diego. I don't think I've ever spent time with Dominic without the family around. It was fun taking these kids out, corrupting them, and teaching them things that only their 3rd favorite uncle could teach them.

Adri and I under a Cholla cactus (jumping cactus)

A really big saguaro cactus

The mountain. To the left there's a big rock that looks like its at the base. That's how high I made it up the first time. The second time we made it to the bottom of the cliffs.

Being a goof ball

The gold ghost town

Someone is a little grumpy after touching the cactus. She should have listened to her own advice.

At the ghost town. The Lost Dutchman State Park in the background.

Jeremy and Dominc. This is as far as I made it the first time.

That u-shaped rock is where I took the kids.

From behind the rock we took a picture on

I shouldn't have sat there

This is that rock I took the kids up to. Would have been easy myself. Not so easy with these kids.

The hills by the shooting range.

The pool at my apartment where we spent the rest of our afternoon.