From our campspot is a horizon filled with rocky mountains of various heights and a giant wall of rock stretching up to the Superstition Mountain Summit. Derek and I hiked out to and up Turk’s Head the other day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything on the internet about why it’s called Turk’s Head. It’s an easy hike out to the beginning of the mountain but then it gets harder. Our hike was 7.4 miles with 955′ of climbing which was pretty much all within .6 miles so steep!
We followed Peralta Trail out to Gold Canyon doubletrack and took that to the base of the climb. Turk’s Head looks like a sheer rock wall on the east and the trail up it is on the other side starting in the wash. This part was pretty fun. The hike isn’t an official trail on any trail map, but there is a path or cairns in spots where the “trail” is all rock. In lots of places I was hiking up rock faces. The entire way up there are tremendous views of the Superstition Mountains and everything around. Lots and lots of rocks!
I just finished the book Eat the Buddha about Tibet and now I’m reading Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West. It takes place just up the highway from where we are and is about the Native American fight against the federal government and big mining companies. We have been through a lot of mining areas and here in the Southwest, it’s a big deal.
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