Superstition Wilderness: Peralta Canyon Trail…

After sitting in the Mayo Clinic waiting room for the last two days while getting all of our appointments taken care of I was more than ready to get out into the desert for a nice hike especially while the great weather here. Scouring the internet for a good hike in the area yielded a 4-5 mile hike in the nearby Superstition Wilderness Area. The hike I found was the Peralta Canyon Trail.

Said to be one of the most popular hikes in the Superstition Wilderness Area we decided to start our hike around 11:00 am in order to miss the early birds. The drive over to the trail took about 20 minutes and the trailhead was about 7.6 miles east of the junction Idaho Rd / US-60.  Veering left  we took Peralta Road which turned into well maintained dirt road for the last seven miles. There was a good sized parking lot at the Peralta Trailhead. There were restrooms without running water and the parking lot was pretty full.

At the top of the trail is the Fremont Saddle about 2.5 miles uphill, some 1400 feet of climb in elevation. Starting at the trailhead we encountered typical Sonoran desert vegetation. Several hikers online had rated this trail from easy to moderate. The lower part of the trail crosses a dry wash multiple times where there was some boulder hopping as we climbed.  It was 89 degrees when we started the hike and every now and then we would come upon some trees in the washes offering some much appreciated shade.   

But as we climbed the rocky trail the shade thinned out and then we began to really see all the hoodoos in the canyon. This canyon hike in our opinion  was not easy and we would rate it more as moderate. The climb was gradual but continuous along the trail and the loose rock and boulders kept it from being rated easy in our minds. The scenery was excellent and we found a great spot near the top to enjoy the lunch that we packed in.

Hiking slowly down we made our way back to the car and were pretty tired with legs that were a wee bit fatigued. We knew however, that once we got back to our park there was a hot tub just waiting for us…ahhhh such is the life of full-timers… 

Looks like we have booked two months at the Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort down in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Arriving on the 16th of November as we will leave here shortly to beat a strong cold front heading down this way for the weekend.