Fourteen members and two guests headed out from the Massacre Grounds Trailhead on a bright, chilly morning.

It had rained the day before, but there was little evidence of that on the ground. We were early and the traffic on the trail was light. There was one dog that was way ahead of its owner and seemed to want to hike in our group. This part of the Superstitions looks flat from First Water Road, until you begin a series of ascents and descents through washes and up low hills.

It was not long until those of us that were initially cold could remove our extra layers of clothes. Overall, the trail climbed up a mesa and the views improved. Four Peaks was covered in snow and partially hidden by scenic clouds.

After an hour and a half, we reached the top of the Massacre Grounds mesa. We took a long break and Michael told us the story of the miners who took the chance of taking gold out of Apache-held land and paid for it with their lives.

We enjoyed great views in all directions and Li took a group picture.

Leaving the mesa, we hiked to the Massacre Falls, although we knew they would be dry. The recent rains did not provide enough run-off water for the falls. However, it still gave us time to do a little climbing up the lower part of the falls and take some more pictures.

Returning from the falls, we stopped for pictures of an eroded cliff wall.

Now we backtracked, looking for a social trail that would lead us to our next stop, Slot Rock. We spread out looking for the trails and I used our GPS track from the hike two years ago. After some discussion, the lead group decided we were on the trail and we headed west.

We crossed several washes but kept heading in the right direction. Slot Rock is so named because of the slot which is easy to scramble up and ends in a saddle with nice views.

We took a longer break on the east side of the rock before continuing to another rock formation with small twin holes.

Bruce pointed out a canyon on the other side of the rocks leading up to another area with potential waterfalls and the option to make a difficult, scrambling hike ending at Siphon Draw.

Continuing west, we arrived at the Praying Hands rock formations and ran into the first real trail traffic. We took some pictures at the rocks and checked out a partial cave nearby.

Descending from the rocks, we headed towards the junction of Jacob’s Crosscut Trail. Taking Crosscut Trail led us back to our trailhead.

Unfortunately one of our hikers had their car broken into and money was stolen. Up to that point we had all enjoyed the hike, so we ended this hike on a bit of a down note.

Statistics: 8.1 miles in 5 hours, 10 minutes with an accumulated elevation gain of 1600 feet