Peralta Trail

As a young girl, I was always intrigued by the Superstition Mountain. My grandparents bought me a few books on the lost Dutchman and other mystery books regarding all of the legends of the mountain. I remember being determined to be the one to find gold (a girl can have dreams right?) I first hiked the Peralta trail at the age of 10 or 11-ish. Since then I probably hiked it 2 or 3 more times. I haven't hiked that trail in 20 years, until today.

It first Saturday in months we had a free day. No soccer games, no church meetings, no birthday parties, bottom line NO PLACE TO BE. Because the weather has cooled down (significantly to us anyway) I thought it would be a great idea to take the kids out hiking. Afterall, we have gorgeous desert mountains that surround us with only a short distance from home. I knew it would be challenging having Luke and Weston in tow, but that didn't seem to stop my determination to hike together as a family unit.

view from the parking lot

They all started out excited and ready to hit the trail. However, not more than 500ft on the trail, the complaining began and truthfully never stopped (unless distracted by a song now and again).

Just starting out (hence all the big smiles)

It also wasn't long after we started Doug became a mode of transportation for Weston. Complaints soon turned into his feet not being able to go any further. This of course was followed by a full blown melt down on the rocks. Lovely.

Weston and Daddy

With the trail only being 2.25 miles we thought for sure we could at least make it more than half way to the top. I had to chuckle when Doug said this is a good test of our trek and being patient with the youth if they start to complain. I fear I am SO not prepared.

Encouraging Luke that he CAN do this.

We hit the 1 mile mark and that was it. The little boys were just too tired, so Jared and I decided to try and go as far as we could. Jared was a big trooper and didn't complain the entire time. We were probably still a good 1/2 mile from the top, but we didn't want to leave dad behind so we headed back down.

Jamming to his ipod to "Allstar" (his favorite song)

Despite us not making it quite to the top, the views were still breathtaking. There is just something unique and beautiful about the Arizona desert. Lesson learned, next time we'll leave the little ones behind and we WILL get to the Weavers Needle lookout point.