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).

OK, OK, 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. On your hike, choose the next waypoint. Push a button and it shows you the way, continually updating the distance and direction.

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.