Second Water Trail

Ever since that long hike many years ago, I've thought about going back to some of those trails, especially the second water trail. That was the last leg of my journey and I was pretty tired by then. I wanted to get a look at it when I wasn't exhausted. So Saturday I hiked down to Boulder Meadow. According to my Superstition Wilderness map, it would be 7.4 miles round trip. That's a long way for me, but I remembered that there was not a lot of elevation change involved.

I was a little surprised at how many people I encountered along the trail. I saw over 40 during the day. Most were within a mile of the trailhead. The last 3 that I saw were camping at Boulder Meadow. I did not see anybody from there all the way back to the trailhead, probably because it was so late and most people know better than to hike then.

Hikers near the trailhead.

I put 133 pictures on the web album for this hike. However, I will probably never see the first picture I took on the trail. Can anybody figure out why?

I saw a lot of lizards and got pictures of a few of them.

There are two lizards on this rock.

Blue polka dots.

This one must be standing on a hot rock.

This one has some colorful markings. It's a shame he wouldn't pose out in the open.

I also got pictures of a red tailed hawk.

Some parts of the trail looked a little different than I remembered them.

I remember this area as being covered with giant chollas. I don't remember the mesquites and palo verdes.

There are a lot of chollas.

There were lots of flowers all over the place.

I was just thinking how nice it was to be able to walk along and not have to watch where I put every single footstep when I got to the rocky part of the trail.

I think this is why my feet hurt today.

Magnets stick to these rocks.

I eventually got to a spot where there were puddles of water in the creek bed. As I approached the water I heard splashing noises, but I couldn't see anything. Not even ripples. I did finally see what was making the splashing noises, though.

Can you find the frog in this picture?

Frog eggs.

There were toads, too.

I finally got a picture of one of the frogs.

Here's an unusual looking animal.

The intersecting creek at Boulder Meadow had lots of water flowing through it.

I had a snack as I listened to this "waterfall".

I got several more pictures of the shy frogs here.

I was in a hurry on the way back, so I didn't take quite as many pictures. I did get some nice sunset pictures.

At the trailhead, there is a log book for visitors. One purpose of the log book is so rangers can tell if somebody went out but didn't come back. I don't know if it's really used for that, though. Anyway, when I got back to the trailhead, I saw that somebody had signed me out at 2:30. Good thing nothing happened to me.

2009_03_21