Goldfield — the Gateway to the Superstitions

Welcome to the Apache Trail, and to Superstition country — and welcome aboard. I'm Ranger Quinn, and I'll be riding with you the whole way up, keeping you on the road and telling you what you're seeing. And riding along with me is Ranger Boone Merrick, who carries the tales — and friend, this mountain is absolutely stuffed with them, so you'll be hearing plenty from him as we climb.

You're starting at Goldfield, right on State Route 88, at the very foot of the Superstition Mountains — that wall of jagged volcanic cliffs rising to the east. Goldfield's a rebuilt version of a real thing: back in the 1890s a genuine gold strike here threw up a boomtown of a few thousand souls, with saloons and a school and a brewery — and then the gold pinched out, the town died, and the desert took it back. What you see now is a re-creation that keeps the flavor of those wild boom years. It's the perfect doorway to this drive, because gold — real and imagined — is the thread that runs through everything up ahead.

Here's the plan. We're driving the paved section of the Apache Trail, State Route 88, up about fifteen miles into the mountains — past Lost Dutchman State Park, along the cliffs of the Superstitions, down to the blue water of Canyon Lake, and up to a tiny frontier town called Tortilla Flat, where the pavement ends and we'll turn around. It's a slow, winding, spectacular road, so take your time.

A few things before we roll: this is a November-through-April kind of drive, because the summer heat out here is no joke — and even in the cool months, bring water. Top off your gas; there's little up the trail. And when you stop and shut the engine off, the tour pauses; tap play to pick it back up. All set? Then pull out onto Route 88 heading northeast, up toward the mountains — and let's go looking for the Dutchman's gold.