We spent 5 nights at Lost Dutchman State Park in Phoenix. It is a beautiful park at the base of the Superstition Mountains and the Tonto National Forest. I was hoping that a lot of Spring wildflowers would be in bloom. However, the high Spring temperatures and lack of water has made for a pretty dull bloom. I was able to find some flowers, but not many.

As soon as we arrived at the campground I was helping Charlie back the RV into our spot. It was a tight fit and I needed to see how the front of the coach was doing. I walked in front of the RV, along the edge of the road. I felt something, looked down at my legs and was horrified to find that a ‘jumping’ cactus had attacked me. Seriously! I should have gotten a picture. I had about 10 thorns (similar to Porcupine thorns) in one leg and another 10 in the other. One leg had the end of a branch with thorns surrounding it, making it impossible to pull out. Every time I grabbed one thorn and tried to pull it out of my leg another one would go in. It was horrible! Charlie had to bring me some tweezers and then it was still difficult. Some of the thorns had something similar to a hook at the end so they did not want to come out at all. I now avoid these types of bushes like the plague.

The attacking cactus bush:

Our site at Lost Dutchman State Park

Like Tucson, the temperatures in Phoenix were about 15 degrees above normal. The average was in the low 90s. It was too hot for us to hike in the middle of the day so we tried to get out early and do short hikes around the Superstition Mountains.

The 4 mile roundtrip hike to the basin of the mountains is a beautiful hike. We enjoyed it, and the scenery, very much.

Pictures of the Superstition Mountains:

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Birds in the campground:

The park is located on AZ 88, otherwise known as the Apache Trail. The Apache Trail is a 40 mile road of steep, winding and mostly unpaved road past magnificent scenery of twisted igneous mountains with dense forests of saguaro. There are several deep blue lakes along the trail. It is one of the most popular sight seeing roads in Arizona. We took a day trip along the trail, to Roosevelt Lake and Dam. It was fun driving around the curves, up and down the hillside. The scenery was spectacular.

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Roosevelt Lake Dam:

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The trail ends at AZ 188, which is also a pretty drive.

After a couple days of hiking and sightseeing we decided to spend an afternoon strolling around Old Town Scottsdale. We took a trolley ride around the area and scoped out the best galleries and shops to visit. We then had a fantastic lunch at Cowboy Caoi.

We were originally scheduled to stay in Phoenix for 7 nights. However, it was so hot that we decided to head north a little early. After 5 nights we packed up and headed for Prescott. More on that later…..