Superstition Mountains - Beauty, Tragedy, and One Heck of a Hike!

Planning my road trip from LA to Denver I wasn't really sure where to start. I knew we'd be taking the southern route since it's winter and I don't trust my mountain snow driving skills. My natural instinct is to look for national parks and national forests so taking Highway 10 South I was drawn to Tonto National Forest. As I started looking up photos of Tonto I was immediately excited to explore for myself. So I found a nearby campground that was open and didn't think much of it...

And then we got to the Lost Dutchman Campground. Not only is this a beautiful and ridiculously clean campground but it's at the base of Superstition Mountain. We rolled in to set up camp late in the day and had to film at the nearby Goldfield Ghost Town before the sun went down but I was already blown away.

By the time we got back to camp it was dark out. I was so in love with this campground it seemed a shame to just leave first thing in the morning for our next location. We made the last minute decision to scrap the original shooting schedule and stay an extra day to explore the Superstition Mountains. We had no idea what to expect or what we were getting into.

The park ranger told us to plan on at least 6 hours for the hike to the top and to bring water with us but that was about all we knew when we set out on the trail the next day. From camp the Siphon Draw trail is a 4 mile trail that’s pretty heavily trafficked. We were cruising along as the day was warming up and trail began to get more strenuous and rocky. I started to worry about my small dog Millie in the heat and climbing up the giant boulders although she seemed to be having the time of her life.

After about an hour and half of climbing we started talking to other hikers who had chosen not to continue on and other hikers who were heading down and mentioning the more difficult rock scrambles up ahead. Millie was panting pretty good by this point and not taking in much water so I decided to head back to camp because the last thing I wanted was for something to happen to her further up and not be able to get down in time. Kristin decided to push on to the top and continue filming.

Being completely unprepared for this hike, the one thing we didn’t realize was that the top (or the Flat Iron) was an additional 1.8 miles of rock scrambling on an undesignated trail. At one point she came to a rock wall and had to make her way over it to get to the top. Down at camp, I was getting worried as the day got later and she wasn’t returning. Around sunset I headed back out on the trail to see if I could meet up with her. When I did, she explained how with no trail to follow, her, and many other hikers, kept getting turned around and how the hike down was very slow going over the rocks.

We later learned a bit more about the incredible Superstition Mountains. First off, this hike is considered strenuous and only for experienced hikers so it’s definitely a good thing I turned back with Millie (and heck yeah Kristin for making it up to the top!) Secondly, there are a lot of spooky things that seem to happen in this place! It all began with the legend of the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine.

Supposedly the German immigrant Jacob Waltz reveled the location of a lost treasure to be in the Superstition Mountains on his deathbed in 1891 and people have been on the search ever since. Some say as many as 600 people have died in search of the gold and many have gone missing. The Apache believed in these mountains lay a hole that led straight to Hell. And in 2011 a father and his three children crashed their plane and died on the summit. A week after we left, two men were airlifted out after being lost overnight on the trail.

Truth or legend, these mountains seem to be no joke! Surrounded by beauty and mystery, Superstition Mountain is an incredible visit like no other.