Lost Dutchman State Park – Arizona

The History of Lost Dutchman State Park

Lost Dutchman State Park sits in the Sonoran Desert at the foot of the Superstition Mountains, about forty miles east of Phoenix near Apache Junction. It is a 320-acre park named after the famous lost gold mine that the Superstitions are known for, and it serves as the western gateway into that whole range. From the campground you look straight up at the mountains, and several trails run from inside the park out into the Superstition Wilderness and the surrounding Tonto National Forest.

From Desert Recreation Area to State Park

The area was first developed as a day use recreation area by the Bureau of Land Management in 1972, with paved roads, a parking lot, and picnic facilities. It became an Arizona state park not long after, and today it has grown into a full campground with around 135 sites and a handful of solar cabins. For a park this close to a major city, it holds onto a surprising amount of quiet, especially once the day use crowds head home and the light goes gold on the mountains.

The Name and the Legend

The park takes its name from the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine, the most famous lost mine in American history. The short version is that a German immigrant named Jacob Waltz, the Dutchman, was said to have found a rich vein of gold somewhere in the Superstitions in the 1800s and kept its location secret until his death in 1891. People have been searching ever since, and some have died trying. The mine is usually said to lie near Weaver’s Needle, deeper in the range. Whether it ever existed is an open question, since geologists note the Superstitions are volcanic and not the kind of rock that holds that sort of gold. The legend has outlived the doubt by a wide margin.

Know Before You Go

• Region: Southwest United States
• Location: Apache Junction, Pinal County, central Arizona
• Address: 6109 N. Apache Trail, Apache Junction, AZ 85119
• Coordinates: 33.4607, -111.4790
• Costs: Day use $10 per vehicle (1 person $10, 2-4 people $20, individual or bicycle $5); camping roughly $25-$35 per night, cabins higher
• Schedule: Open year-round for camping and day use. Day use gates locked 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Fall, winter, and spring are the best seasons; summer is dangerously hot.
• Attraction Type: State Park
• Activities: Camping, hiking, mountain biking, birdwatching, stargazing, wildflower viewing, the Siphon Draw Trail and the Flatiron, the Treasure Loop Trail, the Native Plant Trail
• Notes:
  • The park is the western gateway into the Superstition Wilderness. Several trails run straight from the park out into the Tonto National Forest backcountry.
  • Siphon Draw to the Flatiron is the marquee hike, around 5.5 to 6 miles round trip with a brutal final scramble that is steep, unmaintained, and not for beginners. Allow five to six hours and carry far more water than you think you need.
  • There are around 135 campsites plus solar cabins. Winter and spring weekends book up, so reserve ahead.
  • Summer daytime temperatures regularly top 100 degrees and nights may not drop below 80. Hike early or not at all.
  • Wildlife includes mule deer, coyote, javelina, bobcat, and jackrabbit, most active at dawn and dusk.
• Additional Resources: Arizona State Parks Official Site

My Visit

I camped at Lost Dutchman several times during my years in Arizona, usually meeting up with friends. One trip I drove up a day early just to claim a good campsite before everyone else arrived, and with the extra time on my hands I hiked the Siphon Draw Trail, the one that climbs up toward the Flatiron. It starts gentle and then tilts up hard, scrambling over rock toward the top of that flat prow of mountain you can see from camp. When you finally get up there the whole valley spreads out below you, and sitting at the top looking back down at the tiny shapes of the campground where I had started was one of those moments where the size of the place really lands on you.

Another time the park pulled me back on almost no notice. A friend visiting from Missouri called to say she was in the area with two friends, so I threw my gear together, drove up to Lost Dutchman to meet them, and set up camp late into the night by headlamp. The next day the four of us spent floating the Salt River in inner tubes, drifting along under those same mountains with nowhere we had to be. That is the thing about this park. It works as a launch pad for a hard hike into the Superstitions and as an easy desert basecamp for doing almost nothing at all, and both are worth the trip.

The trails climb from here straight into the range, and I wrote about hiking it and the legend behind it in a hike into the Superstition Wilderness.

Photos From My Trip

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