Hieroglyphic Trail

On the south side of town in a little community called Gold Canyon in the Superstition Mountains is a trail called the Hieroglyphic Trail. It hikes up through the desert to a little canyon with petroglyphs on the cliffs. The trail head was a bit tricky to find but thankfully the woman at the tourist info center at the local mini storage was able to give us directions. :) 

 

Whoever said the desert in Arizona is just dirty and brown and ugly has never really been there...

It rained a bit on us while we walked but not enough to deter us from our goal...

The closer we got to the canyon the more rock formations and giant saguaros! 

It takes 70 years for a saguaro to reach only 6 and a half feet tall and produce their first flowers. It takes 95-100 years to reach 15-16 feet and grow their first "arm." If that's true than these suckers are OLD!!!

This one is old and holey! 

The boulder-filled canyon at the end of the trail was an important site for the Hohokam Indians that lived in this area up to 1500 years ago. 

Hundreds of petroglyphs are carved into the rock here.

The best part is that you can get right up close to them!

There are also pools here nearly year round...

Some of the large boulders formed a sort of cave to "explore"...

Just as we were leaving the cave and heading back down it started to rain. Then the "rain" began to bounce off the rocks. It was hailing! Not the best conditions for climbing over giant bare rocks. But ti didn't last but a minute or two and then the sun peeked out again...

What a beautiful hike!