Karl took Jim (works at Vanguard in Malvern) and I to hike this awesome little mountian called Superstition Mountain in the Lost Dutchman park. Legend has it that some guy had a mine out here and would bring gold into the Phoenix. When he died, nobody could find the mine! Gotta love this stuff!!

Here's a picture of the entire mountain. There are two Flat irons on top. I have learned that Flat Irons are everywhere. They are basically parts of a mountain with a high iron content that does not erode. Boulder has some and if you look very hard in the Boulder Park picture, there is one in the background.

ABOVE: I actually got this effect on the mountain by putting Karl's sunglasses (amber, polarized lense) over my camera lense as an experiment. It turned out very cool.

I had never seen a Joshua tree before and this one had some personality. While I crouched for a pose, the tree wispered to me it's secret wish- to be a live Christmas tree up north. Go figure!

Like a bunch of 3rd graders, Carl and I started to lift up rocks to see what we could find. We even got Jim doing it a little bit.

Below: Check out the scorpion and the baby Gecko. Yes, we put all rocks and organisms back in their original orientation (and I am totally serious about that)

There were some really neat rocks to play on. Carl and Jim didn't want to hike all the way up to the 4800 pinnacle, but we had a good hike around a lower loop. [I actually hiked up to the top today (3-5-01). The hike took me just over 3 hours and I was beat. Coming down was fun and tricky. I slipped and watched myself fall into this patch of vegetation. I thought I was toast because most of the vegetation has very thorny edges, but luckily nothing got cut or bruised, except my ego.]

The flowers out here are gorgeous. Check out the pics below- yes, I took them myself!:)