It was chilly! We had to wear jackets until the sun was all the way up and we had walked enough to warm ourselves.

The map says “Jeep Trail”, but it’s actually a confusing maze of trails from the trailhead to Bulldog Canyon. We stay near the highway and then near the bend in the river before following a washed-out trail down to the canyon.

From here it’s a walk in the woods as Ted leads us eastward, upstream, toward the Four Peaks. There isn’t a well-defined trail.

The vegetation is dense in places. We walk along the river, then sand-slog on a road, then rock-hop over rounded cobblestones washed up on the river bank by eons of flood waters.

Finally we pass under the power line. “Watch for the third canyon on the right,” Ted advises.

Thick forest blocks our view of the canyon. We follow a faint trail that has evidently had recent horse traffic. Finally we reach the third canyon. But where’s the trail? After climbing up on a river terrace we are above the forest and in Sonoran plant community of cholla, prickly pear, and palo verde.

Rounded river rocks, up here? It must have been some flood, half a million years ago, geologists say.

The trail, at last! We’re up on the north side of Gateway Canyon heading toward the place where Rhyodacite Canyon flows in from the other side.

Just below the junction we stop for a snack break. There’s a cave in Rhyodacite Canyon, about a half mile upstream, that seems to fit the description given by Hank Brown in “What We Found”, Superstition Mountain Journal, vol.8, 1989. The cave’s location wasn’t clear from the article.