March 2011 - Hieroglyphic Trail

Our last hike on this trip was Hieroglyphic Trail, a 3 mile round trip hike up a valley in the Superstition Mountains.  It is accessed from Gold Canyon, which is a charming little town just east of Apache Junction / Phoenix off Highway 60.  It is a popular and well used trail.  The elevation gain is about 500 feet, which makes it a good little hike that most people should be able to do.

We found the parking lot no problem but it wasn't obvious which direction to set out in.  There were a couple of good old boys unloading horses, so I went up to them and said "You fellas look like you might have been here before ..." They got a kick out of that and they gave us good directions and good wishes for an enjoyable hike too.

Most everyone stops at the pictographs but you can continue on up the valley, which gets steeper and turns to the right.  We stopped about there but it looks like you could push right on up to the top of the ridge above if you wanted to.

At the trailhead

Hieroglyphics/pictographs/petroglyphs/whatchacallems

A toadfrog

Above the pictographs and around the corner, a pretty little canyon

I was not really this tired

March 2011 - Peralta Trail

In March 2011 we stayed at the vacation home of our friends Tilley and Frank.  This was in a 55+ community in Mesa.  It was a bit odd staying there but I actually really liked it.  Pool and hot tub, shuffleboard, tennis courts that no one else was strong enough to use ... What more could you want?  We scored a couple free bags of grapefruits off a fence in Apache Junction, and I enjoyed grapefruit margueritas all week long.  Michele wasn't so thrilled by the lifeless empty house (Tilley and Frank had just bought it and hadn't even used it yet) but we both liked the neighborhood.

Peralta Trail is in the Superstition Mountains, accessed via the community of Gold Canyon which is just east of Mesa / Apache Junction on highway 60.

Coming back down on a trail to the east of Peralta trail -

 involved a bit of bushwacking