The sunrise was glorious on my way to Crosscut Trailhead: a band of clouds with clear sky above and below, with the black silhouette of the Superstition Mountains between us and the brightening sky.

The Indians called them the Mountains with the Crooked Top.

The clouds were golden on the bottom, merging into orange and then gray. Light, wispy clouds in the north were pink, as the sky had every shade of blue and blue-green. As I drove on, the sky brightened and the clouds turned golden yellow. Then the sun came up and clouds caught on fire! The Mazatzal Mountains glowed pink in the first sunlight.

We left most of the cars at Crosscut and drove to the Broadway Trailhead, which, despite its name, is on the edge of the wilderness. Then we started walking northeast on the trail toward Crosscut Trailhead, with coyotes and train whistles to serenade us.

The first 1¼ miles are a steady climb toward the mountains. Then there is a signpost. If you keep going straight, the trail leads to an abandoned mine. But if you turn left, the scenery changes to the loveliest two miles of Sonoran desert I’ve ever hiked in! There’s a canyon to cross – Monument Canyon – plus numerous washes. But the trail is easy and the scenery is like Arizona Highways but up close and personal.

The trail passes through several distinct vegetation zones: saguaro forest from Broadway Trailhead to Monument Canyon, sagebrush through Siphon Draw and Lost Dutchman State Park, and then saguaro, prickly pear and chain fruit cholla the rest of the way to Crosscut Trailhead.

There were crowds of people around Lost Dutchman State Park and a few hikers north of the park going the other way. Otherwise we had western edge of the Superstition Wilderness to ourselves.