On our first full day at Lost Dutchman State Park, we and our camping buddies from Colorado began our search for the lost mine of Jacob Waltz, the Dutchman. We figured ol’ Jake would have dug his mine along a trail named for him, so we began our search with a hike down Jacob’s Crosscut Trail.
Beginning off the park’s Siphon Draw trail, the Crosscut Trail parallels the face of Superstition Mountain for about five miles. The trail is relatively level and the views are stupendous with a shag carpet of brittlebush in bloom.
Finding no veins of gold, our friends turned around at the 3½-mile point. Dianne and I continued another 1½ miles to where the trail ends at some homes on Broadway Lane.
These domiciles, I suspect, cost far more than the value of all of the gold the Dutchman dug from the ground.
Here we met the Lost Mine Trail, which no doubt goes directly to Jake’s lost diggings. It’s hard to believe the mine is still lost if there’s a trail going straight to it.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have time today to hike up and recover any of that lost gold, so we turned around and headed back to our campsite. Today’s golden treasure will come in cans.
We’ve been here over a week now, and we still have not found the famous Lost Dutchman Mine. Instead of striking gold, we’ve found lots of striking reptiles.
On Saturday, we searched for the Dutchman’s lost treasure on the Treasure Loop Trail in Lost Dutchman State Park. Instead of gold, we met a fellow hiker who told us there was an obstinate buzz-worm on the trail ahead. The thing refused to move, even though they were throwing rocks at it. We wisely took another route.
On Sunday, one of the campground wallys scraped up the remains of a buzz-worm that had been run over on the pavement. The little buzzers like to warm themselves on the pavement at night, which as this one found out, can be detrimental to a snake’s health.
Monday, I took a short battery-charging drive in the Titan. When I got back to camp, I found a small buzz-worm squished on our campsite drive. I must have backed over it when I departed the campsite. I’ll look more carefully next time I walk up to the truck.
That night, we attended the Picture Perfect Wine Tasting in the park. It featured good food, ample quantities of wine that didn’t come straight from a three-liter box and raffles that we didn’t win. Walking back to our camp, we were sure to carry a flashlight and look for slithering reptiles warming themselves on the pavement.
On Tuesday, we did a pleasant 9½-mile search for the missing mine from the First Water Trailhead. The ranger there didn’t give us any clues as to the mine’s whereabouts, but he did warn us to be on the lookout for buzzers.
“They’re hungry, horny and aggressive,” he advised. “Don’t go walking through the grass.”
We only found one, maybe a 2½-footer, and it was slowly slithering off the trail looking for some shade. I don’t know if this guy was another d-back or one of the more toxic green mojaves. It may have been hungry or horny, but it sure wasn’t aggressive.
They say the Dutchman was a beer drinker, so on Wednesday, we headed into town for a few research brews (and pizza) at my favorite Apache Junction bar – Fry’s grocery store. I sure wish Kroger would build one of these super stores with an in-market bar somewhere in Grand Junction. It gives us guys something to do while our wives are maxing out the MasterCard on food purchases.
Today’s mine search was a short 5½-mile romp past an old windmill and corral.
From there, we continued up First Water Creek to Hackberry Springs. Most of the route followed the creek bed, which featured inviting pools of water along the way.
Around midway to the spring, we ran into a small diamondback right on the path. It was coiled with its head up, but it rudely didn’t offer a welcoming buzz.
Our return to the First Water Trailhead took us through Garden Valley – one of my wife’s favorite spots in the area. When we were last here, the place was truly a garden, and Dianne was eager to show it to our hiking buddies.
Unfortunately, a series of wildfires sparked by lightning and/or Jewish space lasers changed the looks of the place.
Our friends may not have been treated to a delightful garden, but at least they’ll get to say they met an Arizona buzz-worm.
“Why don’t you post pictures of pretty desert flowers instead?” she asked my lovely wife.
Well, it hasn’t been a good flower year down here, but here are shots of a few pretty desert flowers we’ve passed by on our elusive search for the Dutchman’s lost gold mine.
Our search for the Dutchman’s lost mine continues.
We figured our hunt for this lost ledge of gold might go better with a map, so we stopped down at the Superstition Mountain Museum on Friday to see what was available. This one, would probably work as well as any.
That night, all six members of our search party attended the Old Time Rock ‘N’ Roll show at Barleens Dinner Theater in Apache Junction. A fun evening of golden oldies might be as close as we’ll get to the precious metal on this trip.
The next day, we all went our separate ways in search of the lost mine. Thinking that the Dutchman might have left a clue in the rocks, Dianne and I chose to explore the petroglyphs surrounding the springs off the Hieroglyphic Trail.
We were amazed that in a location this popular, the ancient petroglyphs were little marred by modern-day graffiti. As far as we could see, the Dutchman etched no clues to his mine’s location here.
On Sunday morning, we headed up the Apache Trail to Tortilla Flat, which once served as a stagecoach stop back when the Roosevelt Dam was being built in the early 1900s. Fortunately, new restrooms have been built since then.
These days, it’s a popular tourist trap that serves great food. Not one member of our search party finished his or her breakfast.
Monday morning, we hiked up Peralta Canyon, named for the Mexican family who supposedly once mined gold in this area.
We stopped atop Fremont Saddle. Below us stood Weaver’s Needle, long a center of attention for Dutch hunters.
In East Boulder Creek Canyon below the Needle, well-armed, rival groups led by Celeste Jones and Ed Piper both searched for the Dutchman’s, Peralta’s or Jesuit’s lost gold. Fortunately, we did not have to fight any of our fellow hikers over the golden views.
It’s Tuesday morning, and our two-week stay at Lost Dutchman State Park is rolling to a close. Today is pack-up and drain the tanks day. Tomorrow, we hitch up and tow our home back to Colorado where the weather reports say it’s currently snowing.
Our ongoing search for the Dutchman’s Lost Mine will continue with a return trip sometime in the future. After all, that mine has to be around here somewhere, and we intend to find it.
The neighborhood is getting a bit crowded. We’ve gone all winter without anybody even close to us at the RV Resort where we’re staying. A few days ago, another trailer took the spot two sites over.
Today, we got a next-door neighbor, who’s parked about three feet away. The view out our dining room window now faces straight into one of their windows. Dianne’s unhappy that she can’t see what’s happening around us.
Parking lot-style sites is why we’re not fond of RV parks. Fortunately, we’ll be leaving here and heading south on March 1st. After bunking down in RV parks for 165 nights, we’re finally going to go “camping.”
Our destination for this camping escape is my old home state of Arizona.
We’ll start at Monument Valley and work our way down to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on the Mexican border with stops at Petrified Forest, McDowell Mountain, Picacho Peak and Tucson along the way.
We will then end our 45-day Arizona vacation with two weeks of camping with friends at Lost Dutchman State Park east of Phoenix.
Look for a blow-by-blow account of our trip under “trips” elsewhere on this site.
Jeff has the living room and kitchen floors pretty much completed. We’re liking the play of colors between the flooring and cabinets.
Bathroom and shower tiles are slowly coming along. This is the guest bath. The master bath was delayed a bit while Jeff waited for the shower seat platform piece to be delivered.
Outside, crews are putting up the siding, beginning with our neighbor’s front porch. Color appears to be gray with a slight bluish tint. It looks more blue in the photo because this was shot in the shade.
The cabinets are in now, which means Jeff, the floor guy, can get to work on the laminate flooring. He hopes to have it done by the end of the week. Cardboard from the cabinet boxes have been laid down to protect the fresh flooring.
This is the entertainment center in the living room. A 46-bottle wine cooler goes in the cavity to the left. CD storage drawers fill the cabinets on either side of the gas log fireplace. The cabinet on the right will hold the stereo gear. Bookcases will sit atop what is now Jeff’s tool bench.
Our TV will sit or hang between the bookcases above the fireplace. A brand new leather recliner will sit in the middle of the room, centered on the fireplace. Wine glasses, filled with a locally vinted beverage freed from the 46-bottle wine cooler, will occupy our hands.
We love our trailer, but we are so looking forward to moving into a real house.
The cabinets came in Thursday and on Friday, Dave, the installer, was busy screwing them into place. The wood is maple. We chose to go with a lighter stain that wouldn’t dampen the airiness of the rooms. We’re pleased with the color.
All the drawers and cabinet doors are soft close. Dianne has a slide-out spice rack/cabinet built in. It’s cute, but it doesn’t look too practical for spices. I suspect she’ll fill it with her herbal teas (and if I’m lucky, my coffee). The spices will probably end up on a rack in the pantry.
Jeff, flooring guy was also busy. He had to get the bathroom tile down before Dave could install the cabinets. We’ve now got the floor tile laid in the bathrooms and the washer/dryer closet. I’m eager to see what the grout Dianne so painstakingly picked out will look like when he finishes the job.
With the floors done, Jeff’s now starting to tile the tub enclosures. The laminate hardwood flooring throughout the rest of the house comes next. Countertops apparently won’t arrive until next month.
We’ve ordered new dishes for the kitchen and have a new loveseat recliner reserved for the living room. We meet with a blind salesman tomorrow to give us a bid for our 11 windows. I hope he brings his seeing-eye dog.
While our new home is being built here in Colorado, we’re staying in our trailer at a nearby RV park for the winter.
I’m not an expert, but here are a few things we’ve done to survive temperatures that are consistently in the teens or lower at night (Fahrenheit) and seldom reach the 40s in the daytime.
The first thing we did was buy a heated water hose. This one, made by Camco, has a temperature sensor and has not failed us yet.
To insulate the connection into the trailer, I attached a 90-degree brass fitting onto the trailer input and covered it with a foam pipe insulating elbow, which I bought for a few dollars at Lowe’s.
At the other end, I wrapped one-inch, pipe insulation from Lowe’s around the hose to help retain some of the heat and provide a bit more protection where it lies on the ground.
The pipe insulation doesn’t bend easily, so I only put it on the top 2/3 of the hose length.
The second thing we did was put Styrofoam insulating panels around the trailer undercarriage. We went with ½-inch panels to begin with, but had to add a second layer of one-inch panels in places. The thinner panels did not hold up to high winds. They’re held together and to the trailer with white, three-inch Gorilla tape.
Temperatures in the insulated “crawl space” under the trailer (left thermometer) have been consistently eight to 10 degrees warmer than the outside temperature (right thermometer), seldom dropping below freezing. That means less heat loss through the floor and warmer temperatures on bare feet at night.
I noticed that others in the RV park who put up undercarriage panels did not leave a place to access the slice valves for their gray and black water tanks. Even though the experts say not to do so, my neighbors just left the valves open. We did the same. Our sewer hose is extremely short and has a steady drop. Whenever we flush or drain water, it goes straight to the sewer. It’s worked perfectly for us, with no icing up and no poopsicles yet, but this is Colorado, not Minnesota.
To keep warm air from escaping up through the air conditioner, a neighbor insisted we should put a cover on the AC unit. I’m not sure it helps, but it doesn’t hurt and didn’t cost much.
Inside, we put these covers over the Maxx-air fan openings. They’re held on with magnets taped to the inside of the vent frame. They can be loosened or removed if need be to reduce condensation. At $40 each, they’re pricey but they seem to work.
To keep the water pipes, which run near the outside walls, from freezing, we keep the pantry, water pump and water heater doors open. (We removed the panel the factory has inside those bottom compartments a long time ago.)
To protect the outdoor shower nozzle from freezing, I placed a piece of thick foam between the door and the plumbing. It’s not elegant, but it’s worked. Best of all, if I want to bathe outdoors in frigid weather, I can simply remove the foam pad and turn on the shower.
To heat the place, we have the factory furnace, which has been burning up about a gallon of propane every day. Fortunately, our RV park offers discounts on propane refills with free pickup and delivery to our trailer.
Adding to the furnace heat, we use a small space heater. It can be moved around, allowing us to put the heat wherever we want it. Those of us on monthly space rentals pay for electricity, so space heater heat doesn’t come free, but it sure is handy.
Another problem we’ve had to deal with is condensation. While the trailer can be 70+ degrees inside, the walls hover around 50 degrees or lower. Damp walls from condensation could be found in closed areas such as the inside of closed cabinets. We now keep all cabinet doors ajar during the daytime and wide open a at night.
Since the area behind the Murphy bed is closed, we now prop the frame open just a bit at the top, which seems to help. The pillow jammed in there is to keep it all in place. Yes, we could just leave the bed down all day, but we like having the couch to sit on.
I found condensation building up in one of the storage compartments. To help keep it at bay, I added a small, 110-watt heater that runs 24/7 in the starboard storage area. It also helps to keep the wine from freezing.
And finally, to help mitigate condensation, we’ve added a small dehumidifier. We’ve also changed a few of our moisture-adding activities. Instead of showering in the trailer, we now use the RV park’s facilities and I try to refrain from doing dishes until my wife, the chef, threatens me with bodily harm if I don’t wash up her favorite spatula.
One final piece of equipment that has helped us survive the winter is the padded cover we placed over our front window last summer. We installed it to protect the glass from rock chips and breakage on the road. I thought about removing it while we remain stationary in the RV park, but my wife suggested we keep it on for its insulation value. To reward her thoughtfulness, I’m going to wash up both of her spatulas.
Rail fans that we are, last night we drove into the city to catch a Grand Funk Railroad concert at the Historic Avalon Theatre, which is located on Main Street in downtown Grand Junction.
The theater, built of bricks in the Romanesque Revival style, originally opened in 1923. Over its early years, it hosted speakers and performers including John Phillip Sousa, Carl Sandburg, Ethel Barrymore, William Jennings Bryan and more. In the late 1940s, it was renamed “The Cooper” and remodeled into a movie theater. It continued showing films into the late 1980s. The theater was then abandoned and fell into disrepair.
A money-raising effort began in the ‘90s to restore the theater to its former glory. Done in steps, the Avalon has become a modern, 1,096-seat performing arts venue with state-of-the-art acoustics and accoutrements. As a travel journalist, I was given a private, backstage tour of the facility shortly before the theater reopened in 2014.
Performances at the Avalon range from orchestral symphonies to bubblegum pop concerts, with a healthy dose of geezer rock thrown in for old folks like us. Grand Funk, who had maybe two or three memorable hits in the ‘70s, was one of those AARP-aged groups. They put on an excellent performance with literally non-stop rock for a good 90 minutes.
We bought tickets near the front of the lower mezzanine. They were cheaper, offered a good view of the stage and were far enough away from the speakers that we could leave with our eardrums still intact.
