Today Matt and I took McKenzie Rae, Khloee and Wynston to the Superstition Wilderness area to check out a new trail. We chose to try the Hieroglyphic Trail, as it was said to be a fairly easy, short hike. Well, it turned out to be not so easy.
There were a lot of people at the trail head today. It makes sense, being that Saturday is probably the busiest day, but I wasn’t expecting crowds so late in the day (around 9am, which is late for hiking in AZ when temps are hitting near 90° in the afternoon).
It was a picturesque morning. The trail itself was fairly easy to hike. Some areas had rocks to climb over and other parts of the trail did not have much flat ground. The girls were enjoying themselves and Wynston liked jumping over boulders when he had the opportunity. However, it got hot very quickly and Wynston started panting unusually soon. We were well equipped with a lot of water but we took an occasional break in the shade of desert landscape.
On our way up the mountain, we encountered a ton of people and a few dogs. There was one particularly obnoxious hound dog that definitely shouldn’t have been on the trail. He started barking and lunging aggressively at my dogs. Sigh. If you know your dog acts that way toward other dogs, please leave them at home…
We had walked about a mile and a half when we decided to take another break. Although I had been giving Wynston water on our way, he was still panting a lot and seemed abnormally tired. He was sitting down, which is something Wyn just doesn’t do when we’re on an adventure. As we were sitting down to rest, Wynston stepped on a loose piece of cactus. He had cacti spines an inch long coming out of his back paw. Luckily only one was stuck in his fur but lord help me…it was bad. Of course the one time I don’t have a towel on me, one of my babies has an incident. Matt took his shirt off and pulled out the spine. Wynston seemed to be fine. There was no bleeding and it appeared like the spine didn’t puncture Wyn’s pad.
The girls could have kept going but since Wynston was tired, hot and now potentially hurt, we turned around. I ended up carrying Wynston most of the way back down the mountain so I could avoid irritating his foot. We didn’t make it to the Indian petroglyphs that we were hoping to see, but that’s what happens when you get a cactus spine stuck in your toes.
As we headed back down, we encountered a gorgeous Great Dane. He was absolutely beautiful and we all stopped to chat. His owner said that it was the dog’s first hike. He seemed awfully excited! Wynston was happy to greet him and as they touched noses, I noticed that Wyn’s entire body was the same size as the Great Dane’s head. It was a cool moment. I adore how dogs are loving toward each other, no matter the size.
We started approaching the parking area when my kids were rushed by one more dog – a Golden Retriever. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that breed get aggressive. The owner wasn’t paying attention and when we walked by, the dog started lunging, barking and growling. For real? Leave your crazy dogs at home people!
Matt and I plan to go check out the Hieroglyphic Trail again. Since we didn’t reach the Indian Petroglyphs, we want to go back. We may do it alone or take the girls. If we take Wynston, it’ll have to be much earlier when it’s cool.
This is a good trail for dogs and kids. There are other paths directly surrounding it if you’re looking for a more intense journey. You can check out more Superstition Wilderness area trails here.
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