21 Dec Peralta Canyon / Superstition Wilderness

Wednesday Dec 15

I woke up early and decided to finish up some quick work things from the previous couple days. 2 hours later, I was cranky, irritated that we weren’t already on a trail and that things seemed to be taking longer all the time. Aaron was unphased and got busy making sandwiches for our hike. I had picked out a 9-mile loop and was now having serious doubts about having enough time to attempt something that long. 

I stepped outside the van for the first time in the daylight and gasped — we were in beautiful wide open desert, with steep canyons and mountains in the near distance, surrounded by huge saguaro cacti and tons of other desert flora. After learning about the Saguaro a little the day before while driving – it was thrilling to have the opportunity to camp among them in such numbers. 

All my frustration melted away and I remembered one of the golden rules of #vanlife – LOOK OUTSIDE. Look where I am! Working for two hours so that we can have a long hiking afternoon on a Tuesday! We drove up the road to the trailhead and got more and more excited the closer we got to the canyons. We made breakfast, studied the large trail map at the sign, and finally set off on our hike at noon.

We started on our chosen loop, saving the decision to do the whole loop or not until a few hours later when we could check our progress. We started up the hike in reverse, tackling the steepest climb first which took us strait up a canyon wall. The views of the neighboring valley and mountains were incredible and we both settled into an easy pace after the hardest climbing was over (~1 mile). The trail brought us along a dry riverbed and offered ever changing views of the surround cliff formations and distance mountains. 

 

 

By 2p we were over 1/3 of the way through the hike, with only 1 small climb remaining before the final 4 miles of mellow downhill trail to finish the loop. We were enraptured by the landscape, and reassured that the sun set later in AZ than we’d been used to in CA – and decided we could easily finish the hike before dark, and we felt good enough to keep going.

We took a break onee we finished our final ascent, having a quick snack before starting our long downhill. The shadows grew long but our progress was swift, and we finished our 9 mile, 1500 ft hike in about 4.5 hrs. It felt so good to tackle some miles again! We both agreed that trying to fit 2 hikes / week while on the road was a good target – and so far, achievable! 

Before we left the trailhead – I watched a foolish woman for 10 minutes or so attempting to sneak up on a group of bighorns with her cell phone camera — the herd slowly moving upward the steep, cactus-heavy terrain and away from her at the exact pace she was following 😂… Anyway from the parking lot I got out my telephoto and snapped a quick shot of them!

We drove back down the road a ways to a pull off we had noticed on our way up that seemed to have the best views of the canyon. We raced the setting sun and I was able to get my tripod just in time to snap a last-light shot of the canyon and sea of cacti.