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Weekend Warriors Arizona Hiking Guide
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If a short, steep climb through the Superstition Wilderness to a great view appeals to you, this is your hike. This hike is located in the Superstition Wilderness East of the Phoenix area. From the Phoenix area, take US-60 East, leaving the city limits. After leaving Apache Junction, continue about 8.5 miles, turning left onto signed Peralta Road (FR 77). After starting out as a paved road, this quickly turns into a maintained dirt road. After 5.6 miles, you'll stay left at the signed junction that heads towards the Peralta Trailhead. Go another 0.6 miles and park at the unsigned parking area and trail on your left. If you reach the obvious Peralta Trailhead, you've gone too far. Be Aware of: Route finding, scrambling 30 yr old Recommendation: This is a short but nice climb to some great views from the ridge of the Superstition Mountain range. If you enjoy the Peralta Trail hike, but are looking for something a little more secluded, this is a good pick. This is a Moderate difficulty hike. Elevation change: about 1400 ft steep ascent to the view
[Elevation change from the parking area to the top of the ridgeline] Distance: 3.6 miles round trip. Time: It took us two hours to complete this hike. Time of year: Fall, Winter, Spring (or really early morning in Summer) Solitude: Much better than the nearby Peralta Trail. Expect to share this trail with perhaps 5 other people. Map: Click here for a map One way to escape the crowds at the beautiful, but popular Peralta Trail hike is to stop short of that trailhead and hike up the Carney Springs trail. This trail is not nearly as easy to follow as the Peralta Trail, but it does have significantly fewer people on it. From the parking area, follow along the wide, closed dirt road heading towards the Superstition Wilderness. This old road used to lead to the Carney Springs campground, but has since been closed to cars. You'll soon arrive at the site of the old campground and a fence marking the wilderness area (marked WB on the map). On the other side of the fence, the road goes away and you'll follow a faint and rocky trail for the remainder of the hike. From this point, the climbing starts in earnest. Since the grade is so steep, there are a number of sections where it could be easy to loose the trail. There are cairns to mark the trail in these sections, so keep an eye out for them and use those route finding abilities. There are some minor scrambling sections as you climb as well. Make sure you turn around once in a while to enjoy the views as you go up. After about 1.8 miles of hiking, you'll reach the ridgeline. The trail continues along the ridgeline and goes all the way to the Flat Iron. However, for this hike, this ridge makes a nice place to rest and enjoy the views. When ready, return the way you came.
[Looking towards the ridgeline from the old dirt road section of the trail]
[An old Saguaro with a great view]
[Looking into Superstition Wilderness from the ridgeline] This hike was completed in November, 2009
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