Massacre Grounds from Lost Dutchman
Leader: Ted Tenny

Proof of Concept

How would you like to have invisible cairns mark the route for you where you have never hiked before? Push a button and see the distance and direction from where you are to any one of them? Welcome to GPS hiking! Read your map carefully. Write down the latitude and longitude of each of the waypoints along your intended route, and program them into your GPS receiver (Global Positioning System). On your hike, choose the next waypoint. Push a button and it shows you the way, continually updating the distance and
direction.

O.K., O.K., I admit it: I cheated by scouting the Massacre Grounds hike and putting up some rock cairns to mark our first canyon crossing east of the Praying Hands. But we could have gotten there with the invisible cairns provided by GPS.

The Hike

15 golden hikers enjoyed the cool, pleasant weather and enthusiastic company: Steve Shaw, Joe Michalides, Curtis Parker, Hal and Reba Heazeltine, Stacey Brown, Holly Johnson, Tom and Jeannie Van Lew, David Cummings, Bruce Rasmussen, Shirley Clark, Glenn Kappel, Stephen Trombitas, and hike leader Ted Tenny.

We started southeast on the Treasure Trail from the Cholla Day Use Area. At first, it looks as if you could simply walk up the slope to the Massacre Grounds. But there are canyons in the way. We left the Treasure Trail by the red rocks where an unmarked trail branches off to the east. The unmarked trail fades out, and soon we have to cross the first and largest canyon.

From there it's cross country to the pass south of peak 2759, then southeast along a smooth ridge from the pass to the Massacre Grounds. At the top of the Massacre Grounds we stopped for group pictures. Ted brought a favorite book, The Story of Superstition Mountain and the Lost Dutchman Mine, by Robert Joseph Allen, and read the story of the Peralta massacre.

We hiked back to Lost Dutchman State Park the same way and enjoyed a picnic lunch at the Cholla Day Use Area.

The above listed trip reports--documenting day hikes, backpacking trips, and car camping trips organized and arranged by the Arizona Trailblazers Hiking Club, Inc.--are meant to be more of a record of the various events performed by the hiking club and are not meant to be the only guide for anyone else wishing to do the same hike or backpacking trip. Instead, they should only be used as a supplemental to an official guidebook that addresses that specific hike or backpacking trip. Natural changes (floods, fires, windstorms, etc.) can occur and change and alter the landscape. The Forest Service sometimes changes the routing of a trail. Trail junction signs can be removed or altered. For these reasons, the hiking club's trip reports and even the official guidebooks may no longer be totally accurate in describing the trail and its layout. There is always the possibility, however remote, of a hiker sustaining harm or injury while on any hike, no matter how safe it may initially seem. The Arizona Trailblazer's Hiking Club, Inc., as well as any of its officers, directors, representatives, and designated hike leaders, disclaims any liability or responsibility for accidents, injuries, damages, or losses whatsoever that may occur to anyone using the trip reports that are available on our website. The responsibility for good health and safety while hiking, backpacking, or camping, ultimately rests with the individual.