The Peralta Trail

Hope everyone had a great holiday like I did! Anyways, I recently did one of the most popular hikes in the Superstition Wilderness known as the Peralta Trail. It’s located here in Arizona east of Phoenix. I thought I would share it with everyone since it was a lot of fun.

Starting Off At The Trailhead

The reviews I read of this trail were not lying when they said this trail is used often. There were quite a few cars in the parking lot along with a lot of people. Anyways, the start of the trail was relatively flat. It reminded me a lot of South Mountain which I have hiked a few times. The trail follows along the canyon bottom for more than a mile and then starts to get a little steeper. Eventually, you start to hit some switchbacks and the scenery gets a little more interesting.

The Freemont Saddle

After hiking about 2.5 miles, you reach the Freemont Saddle. This is where most hikers turn around and make their descent back down to the parking lot. It’s a great place to have a picnic if you decide to bring along some food. I brought along some granola bars and a turkey sandwich and was thankful for it. I was starving by the time I got to the saddle.

The view from the saddle is amazing. Here is a picture looking south from the saddle:

Weaver’s Needle

That isn’t the only nice view from the saddle. Looking north, you can see Weaver’s Needle. A 1,000 ft. high rock column that is awesome looking. Supposedly there is gold found in the Superstition Mountains and the shadow of Weaver’s Needle is said to indicate the location of it. Check out the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine to read up about it. I thought it was pretty interesting. After reading it, I was ready to go back and find the damn gold. Here is a picture of Weaver’s Needle from the the saddle:

Geronimo’s Cave

Instead of turning around at the saddle, I ended up going a little further to Geronimo’s Cave. It is located about a mile from the saddle on a unmarked trail. To find it, head southeast from the saddle and look for the cairn. What is a cairn? Exactly…

Luckily, my girlfriend was aware of what a cairn is. It’s an artificial pile of rocks that was created by someone. They are used to mark trails and summits of mountains. Pretty cool if you ask me. They were located every couple feet along the whole trail. Without them, there would be no way to find Geronimo’s Cave on your own.

Anyways, the cave was used by an Apache chief as a place to hang out and what not. It’s pretty cool when you are inside it. Here is a picture looking out from the cave:

Time To Head Back

After checking out the cave for a little bit, it was time to retrace the route back to the Freemont Saddle. From there, it was back down the switchbacks back to the car. All in all, the hike was about 6 miles in length. Not bad for a nice day hike in the winter. The Peralta Trail was definitely worth checking out.

Tune in tomorrow for the very first mustache update!

This post was published on December 1st, 2008.

PS. Don't forget to check out Life After the Cubicle.