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Nancyann
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Nancyann
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PostSat Apr 13, 2019 3:26 am 
Thanks to my wonderful nephew who chose to get married in Scottsdale, I finally got to do some hiking in Arizona for the first time. My doctor, who grew up in Scottsdale, gave me a list of nearby trails she thought I would enjoy. I was so excited to see real cacti that I wanted to hug them, but my son, who flew out from Germany, and Hiking Partner pointed out that there may not be a good outcome. So instead, I just took a lot of pictures. The first day we drove past the entrance to Lost Dutchman State Park and and took the next road to a lesser known trail to Massacre Grounds, which we never did find. However, we hiked about three miles up a decent trail to a viewpoint with a great 360 view. Due to recent rains, everything had greened up very nicely, and cactus flowers were blooming everywhere.
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The next day, we drove to the other end of the Superstitions and hiked up the Hieroglyph Trail. The previous day we only saw two other groups of hikers, but this trail was relatively busy. There were many interesting hieroglyphs and petroglyphs along a creek up in a canyon. We didn’t stay long because we had a wedding to go to and it was starting to rain. Definitely a worthwhile trip!
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tmatlack
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PostSat Apr 13, 2019 4:18 am 
Great pics of some wonderful terrain. Everyone should walk among the saguaro at least once. But....did you find the gold of the Lost Dutchman????!!!! Don't hold back!!! (: (: (: Tom

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Nancyann
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PostSat Apr 13, 2019 9:17 am 
No, we weren’t able to find the Lost Dutchman this time, but we are planning to look for him again next April. lol.gif

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RichP
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PostSat Apr 13, 2019 9:22 am 
Beautiful, Nancy. It looks so much more lush there than I could imagine.

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Nancyann
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PostSat Apr 13, 2019 9:34 am 
Same here! They have had quite a bit of rain recently, so everything is unusually green. Almost like home but not quite!

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pcg
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PostSat Apr 13, 2019 9:39 am 
Thanks for the great photos of a place I've always been curious about, but never quite visited. In 1970 I was car camping/exploring across Arizona and came upon the Superstitious Mountains. When I first arrived I had dinner in a small restaurant in Taco Flats. The restaurant was wall-papered with photos and newspaper accounts of all the unsolved murders and scary stories about what had happened in the Superstition Mountains. I spent a good hour after eating my dinner walking around and reading all the articles. I had planned to pull off somewhere and camp that night and proceeded to drive up into the mountains and locate a campsite. After a couple attempts to locate a place to sleep off lonely gravel roads up narrow brushy ravines, my head was so full of all that scary stuff I'd read about that I bailed and drove a couple hours south and never went back.

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silence
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PostSat Apr 13, 2019 12:40 pm 
Nice!!!

PHOTOS FILMS Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb. – Bob Dylan
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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSat Apr 13, 2019 1:19 pm 
up.gif Looks lovely down there currently. I like the variety of cacti. This one looks like it is bearing some fruit.
Nancyann wrote:
Superstition Wilderness 4/9/19
Superstition Wilderness 4/9/19

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puzzlr
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PostSat Apr 13, 2019 6:11 pm 
Beautiful photos. My parents used to live in Phoenix so I'd always do a hike while there, preferably visiting in during the dark winter or early spring season here. The Superstitions were my favorite place, even if a little far out of town. I especially like Siphon Draw. South Mountain and White Tanks were also fun with many possibilities for loop hikes.

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Nancyann
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PostSat Apr 13, 2019 7:40 pm 
Thanks all! We did hike on the National Trail up at South Mountain today and really enjoyed it. Interesting story pcg! olderthanIusedtobe, I thought those looked like some sort of fruit also, I wonder what they are called?

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSat Apr 13, 2019 7:46 pm 
Nancyann wrote:
I thought those looked like some sort of fruit also, I wonder what they are called?
Not sure. I looked at some images online and I think you have pics of prickly pear, barrel, organ pipe and agave, but I don't have a guess on the one with the fruit.

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tmatlack
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PostSun Apr 14, 2019 3:33 am 
Nancyann and Older, That looks like a chain fruit cholla. The dangling chains of prickly "fruit" stick to wandering creatures and disperse the seeds that way. A rap with a stick or rock will dislodge a dozen of the pesky buggers. To my knowledge the chain fruit is not edible for humans. On some exposures the chain fruit cholla and teddy bear cholla look a lot a like. There is also the jumping cholla and the click bait images did not help differentiate. All the chollas are mean and prickly. This for sure: I was north of Tucson back in Feb./March and walked through a cholla forest...I'll call them teddy bear...and the windfall spiny "buttons" were so sharp and stiff they stuck into the dense Vibram rubber of my hikers. Never remove the spiny buttons with your fingers; the microscopic spines will stick in you and then you need magnifying glass and good tweezers. Scrape them off with rock or stick. The prickly pear fruit is famously edible in the jams and jellies. Tom, formerly from small mining town NE of Tucson deadcenter Sonoran Desert

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSun Apr 14, 2019 2:43 pm 
Thanks tmatlack!

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PostSun Apr 14, 2019 10:29 pm 
pcg wrote:
Thanks for the great photos of a place I've always been curious about, but never quite visited. In 1970 I was car camping/exploring across Arizona and came upon the Superstitious Mountains. When I first arrived I had dinner in a small restaurant in Taco Flats. The restaurant was wall-papered with photos and newspaper accounts of all the unsolved murders and scary stories about what had happened in the Superstition Mountains. I spent a good hour after eating my dinner walking around and reading all the articles. I had planned to pull off somewhere and camp that night and proceeded to drive up into the mountains and locate a campsite. After a couple attempts to locate a place to sleep off lonely gravel roads up narrow brushy ravines, my head was so full of all that scary stuff I'd read about that I bailed and drove a couple hours south and never went back.
Some places have a malicious presence!

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Nancyann
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PostSun Apr 14, 2019 11:23 pm 
Maybe so, although after two days of hiking in the Superstitions, mostly I just noticed a lot of beautiful things to look at and a lot of friendly people. biggrin.gif Thanks tmatlock for the cacti ID and the information on how to remove spiny buttons!

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