After a reasonable three hour drive from Dead Horse Ranch we pulled into Lost Dutchman State Park just after dark. Originally all we could reserve was a no hookups site but after calling the park we were able to change that to an electric/water site. The only catch was that we’d have to move sites after the first night, so that’s what we did. It’s always a small pain in the butt to pick up the RV and move it but we thought that would be a smaller pain in the butt than needing to worry about occasionally running the generator to keep the batteries going.
Lost Dutchman is a bit lower in elevation than Dead Horse Ranch (2000’ vs. 6000’) so the weather was a bit warmer, especially at night. There were two real standouts at this park. There are the plentiful Saguaro cacti and the impressive Superstition Mountains which draw the eye from anywhere in the park and the surrounding areas. Both of those things were extremely photogenic, as you’ll see by looking through the pictures from this location.
Our plan was to stay at Lost Dutchman for two nights and one full day. On that first night we didn’t do too much, we BBQed some dinner, walked Boomer for a bit, and I took some night photos of the mountains. The bright moon washed out the stars but did provide some great lighting for the mountains. Overall, I’m happy with how the pictures turned out. For the record, I was forced to go on a small solo hike into the wilderness to find a good spot for the photos. Fortunately I was able to avoid any chupacabras and made it back to the RV in one piece.
On our one full day we took a two mile walk to Goldfield Ghost Town and Mine which was just outside of the park. Had it not been for Covid we would have gone on the mine tour and done a few more things there, but as it was, the boys just went on a zipline ride and we walked around outside for a bit, trying to avoid people as best we could. After walking back to the park we went on a couple of hikes within the park, including a nice one right around sunset. You guessed it, time for some more photos!
On our last morning at Lost Dutchman we decided to tackle a more challenging hike, and headed up towards the base of the mountains. The hike itself wasn’t too long, but there was a decent change in elevation. Of course that gave us some great views of the surrounding areas, including Phoenix in the background. Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head back to California, with one more stop on our itinerary (Joshua Tree).
