The Lost Dutchman State Park is a 320 acre patch of paradise sitting near the base of the Superstition Mountains in the Sonoran Desert.  The Superstition Mountains got their name from Pima Indian legends. The Sonoran Desert is so different than the desert we found in Nevada. Far from the desolation of the Nevada desert, the Sonoran Desert is filled with an abundance of plants and animals that have adapted to survive.

Who’s the Lost Dutchman? Well, there are several different versions of the Dutchman’s story. In all of the stories, the Dutchman is Jacob Waltz. A popular version of the tale states that Jacob and a friend found a lost gold mine and hid several caches of gold in the Superstition Mountains, but Jacob was killed before he could properly claim the gold. Now, there are a few more theories as to how Jacob met his demise. The two version I found the most were that Jacob was killed by the Apaches or he was killed by his friend. Either one of those ways, wouldn’t be a nice way to go.

We did as many of the hikes as we could. The hiking trails were wonderful!

We could see all the way across the valley to Phoenix.

And then there were the views of the mountains. I could have found a spot and just sat there looking out at the views for hours.

I mentioned the cholla cactus to you before…the way the spines will fall off of the cactus with just a light brush and embed themselves into things like skin…

At the Lost Dutchman State Park, there are Chain Fruit Chollas. If you look at the bottom of the cholla in the picture above, you can see the little balls of spines that fall off of the cholla cactus. Those sneaky little balls are a menace!

That’s Jerl’s hiking boot. He nudged the cholla ball very lightly. When he kicked to try to get the cholla ball off, it moved it’s way to the top of his boot. He had to use a rock to remove it. Talk about tenacity!

See the spines it left in his boot? That’s hard rubber, guys. Just imagine what those spines would do to skin.

There are a good number of saguaro cactus’ here too. They still amaze me.

I thought I would show you what the inside of a saguaro looks like.

The Native Americans use the saguaro ribs to get to the saguaro fruits that grow way up on the top of the cactus. Pretty ingenious if you ask me!

We found this really cool sun dial on one of the hikes. It was pretty accurate!

Now, I’ve shared with you our foodie find, but I’ll put it in this post too just in case you missed it. It’s known as The Burger House and it was a 45 minute drive (one way) from where we were staying.

We went there twice in the seven days we stayed at the Lost Dutchman SP. Both times I got the same thing…the Green Mix Burro, Enchilada Style.

Now these are the French fries enchilada style. They were a gooey cheesy mess of yum, but they weren’t as good as the Green Mix Burro.

I have a confession. Until our time here at The Lost Dutchman, I wasn’t impressed with Arizona. I mean, yeah, it was pretty and yeah, I was seeing new things…but, I hadn’t seen anything that really made me say “Oh, wow!”. Plus, I hadn’t found any truly amazing Mexican food. And, they call their burritos burros…doesn’t burro mean donkey in Spanish? I’ve always wanted to go to Arizona, and I was pretty disappointed with my experience. Our time at Lost Dutchman SP changed that though. I feel like Arizona has redeemed itself some…which is good since we still have a month left in Arizona!

See y’all down the road!