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Published: February 3rd 2019
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Bluff Springs Trail
View looking back toward the trailhead. Miner's Needle Loop: Sunday morning we had a good breakfast at the motel, then drove about 30 minutes to the Peralta Trailhead on the southern edge of the Superstition Mts. The Peralta Trailhead is reportedly the most popular in the area around Phoenix and when we arrived at the trailhead around 9:00 AM it certainly looked like it. There were at least 50 marked parking spaces in the lot, and I think we were lucky to get # 49. #50 was taken by the car behind us. And there were several overflow lots below the main lot that were almost full. We were sure we would have wall to wall people sharing our trail, but we were pleasantly surprised at how few people we saw. While we didn’t have it totally to ourselves, we did have long stretches where we did not see anyone else. Our trail was an 8.5 mile loop with a 1,200 foot elevation gain and loss called the Miners Needle loop that utilized the Bluff Springs and Dutchman trails. We hiked it in a clockwise direction up the Bluff Springs portion initially which got the steepest portions out of the way first. This southern edge of
Peralta trailhead
Looking back down at the parking lot at the trailhead. No parking along the roads but there are overflow lots back down the road. the Superstitions borders the Sonoran desert, and it was surprising as to how much water we saw along the trail as we climbed up to the actual Bluff Springs. We were never real sure where the spring was, but there was a surprising amount of water flowing down the canyons, especially considering that 2018 was a below average rainfall year. Average in that area was 8.3 inches per year while in 2018 only 4.1 inches fell. While there were beautiful views of the surrounding mountains all along most of the trail, the Miners Needle wasn’t sighted until about mile 4.8 of the hike. There we topped a saddle at an elevation of 3, 200 feet, and we could look down on the desert valley in the distance with the Miner’s Needle rock formation in the foreground. We stopped at that saddle and climbed a small knoll off the trail where we had lunch with a really impressive view. From the saddle, we hiked down about 2 miles through the lower elevations to the desert floor. The rest of the hike was a relatively flat walk through the desert back to the trailhead. All in all one of the better hikes
Peralta Canyon
The Bluff Springs trail climbed the rim of this canyon. Lots of people took the easier trail into the canyon. of the trip.
Last Day: On Monday, our last day before flying out of Phoenix, we drove about 30 miles to the Butcher Jones Recreation Site in the Tonto National Forest where the Salt River has been dammed to form the very pretty Saguaro Lake. The Butcher Jones Trail is a 2.7 mile one way, in and out, hike around a portion of the shoreline of the lake. It is a pretty easy trail with several ups and downs comprising the overall 225 foot elevation gain/loss. It would have been a very nice, relaxing hike to end the trip on except for the fact that this Monday was Martin Luther King Day, a holiday for lots of people, and lots and lots and lots of people were on this trail. Hiking out to the end of the trail wasn’t too bad since we started out fairly early, but the return to the trailhead took a long time. We had to stop every few minutes to let some other group of hikers pass us going the other direction. Not our favorite type of hike.
After returning to the trailhead, we drove to our final
Peralta Canyon Panorama
Peralta canyon to the right with our trailhead on the left. lodging facility for the trip near the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Filled up the car, got dinner, packed the final time, and turned in. Up around 3 AM to get breakfast at the motel, then drove to the rental car return facility, turned in the car, then to the airport for our flight home. All flights were on time and we got home around 4:00 PM, tired but glad to be back.
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