1MoKast Adventures: Lost Dutchman State Park

I was reading an article in our local newspaper a few days ago about how the state budget deficit was forcing several of the state parks to close, including the Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction. This park will close in June, 2010. We were looking for a place to do our second adventure for the month, and after doing a little research, it seemed this place would be neat to check out. Only about 30 minutes from the house and a $4 entry fee.

We parked at the Saguaro Day Use area and headed out. The park has several nicely maintained trails. We had only planned to hike the native plants trail which is 1/4 mile long but once we got started we ended up going a different route. Our destination ended up being the "Green Boulder" which was a mile from the car. It was a relatively flat hike except for the last 1/4 mile. All of the kids did good and we plan on going back again before the park closes to hike a few more of the trails.

On this day we hiked the "Treasure Loop" trail, as referenced by the trail sign. From the moment we drove into the park we were looking up at the giant buttes in front of us. It was almost distracting. The very tope of the of the mountain is called flatiron posible because the face of the the butte looks like a the Flatiron building in NYC. It does a a triangular shape to it. There is even a trail that goes all the way to the top but we'll save that for a future trip.

The trail was well marked and very groomed. Much better footing that the previous trail Tom and I hiked. The weather was overcast and breezy the whole time so it made for very comfortable conditions. We stopped a few times along the way and looked for creosode bushes, the kind of bushes that "smell like the desert when it rains" according to Tom. Tom even brought some back for Max to smell.

Whoever created this trail had the foresight to put benches in along the way so we stopped at each one to take a water break and look back to survey our progress so far. On our last hike, Tom only had a worn out pair of high tops which didn't afford him much traction. The lack of traction led to a few spills during the last hike. Before this trip we made sure to get him some good boots. Problem solved - Tom led the group a good part of the way explaining to his sisters that he's done this kind of thing before.

In the distance, at the foot of the granite, our target is becoming visible - The Green Boulder. Just to the left of the trail in this picture, the Green Boulder is a massive rock about 60 feet tall and as big around as a house. The closer we got to the destination, the more detail emerged on the face of the butte. Cracks and crevices as well as natural caves which caught the eye of all the kids, mainly because we had briefed them on the Lost Dutchman's Legend. They had gold on their minds.

From the parking lot, the green boulder is nearly invisible it blends in so well with its surrounds but as this picture shows, the closer you get, the more it makes itself known. It almost looks like there is a cross carved into the green lichen on the face of the rock.