Flatiron Hike - Superstition Wilderness

It has been compared to hiking the famous Camelback Mountain twice in a row. Lucky for me I haven't yet hiked Camelback so I went into the hike being as naive as possible about the grueling and strenuous trek I was about to begin. I've done a couple of "exploring" hikes in South Mountain Park where my friends and I have hiked and boulder hopped for 6+ miles at a time. I decided that those experiences should be enough to prepare me for the roughly 6.2 mile round trip hike to the top of Flatiron and back. Oh did I mention we'd be climbing up nearly 2700 feet during the hike? Ummm... Yeahhh...



Our hike began promptly at 1:14pm and with a starting elevation of 2058 feet. We may have been able to start a few minutes earlier but the lady who took our payment for parking insisted upon warning us about our hike. She tried to tell us it would take 6 hours to complete the journey, which would have put us in the dark for the last mile or so (that's not good). Both Chris and Jon, who went with me, have done the hike before and knew this woman was crazy. The hike starts out very innocently with a leisurely walk along the Discovery Interpretive Trail. The trail is through your typical Sonoran landscape of cholla, creosote, saguaro, ocotillo and paloverde.

The good times start to pick up once you hit the Siphon Draw Trail where the actual hiking begins. About 1.7 miles into the hike is a great place off the trail for a shaded rest. Two rather large boulders create a cool area to sit and catch your breath before beginning the first tough part of the hike. After our break we continued on the Siphon Draw Trail which ends at the bottom of a slick rock basin. At this point a number of people would probably turn around and call it a day, but only hiking to this point doesn't give you the full feeling of accomplishment that you get from the top of Flatiron.

While making the trip up the basin we were pleased to see running water in a lot of places. It had last rained about six days ago but apparently the rain was still making its way down the mountain. It's not something often experienced in the dessert so we took some time to just stop and listen to the running water. At the top of the basin (the saddle) is another great place for a break. From here you can look down and take pride in the awesome hike you've just accomplished. Unfortunately, you can also look ahead and see a seemingly impossible climb to the ridgeline that takes you to Flatiron. There are actually three possible routes here, but I'm told the narrow canyon to the right is easiest (at the least it's closest to the Flatiron.) We dip down briefly before starting a 1500+ foot climb that covers less than 1 mile in distance.

(That rock formation near the middle-right of the photo, shaped like the front of a ship, is Flatiron)

The climb from here was rough. I found it easiest just to keep doing hand and foot scrambling the majority of the time. At this point you really have to watch where you're putting your hands or a cactus or snake might just "greet" you. With only a few hundred feet or so remaining we realized that if we could really push it we might complete the climb in 2 hours. I always enjoy a good challenge like that so I took the lead and just started blazing up the canyon. We were all very fatigued but all of us managed to push through it on our way to the top. I was moving along pretty well when I suddenly had to stop. The top was within view, but there was a 10-12 foot nearly vertical climb that stood in our way. At first I looked to the left where there was a tree I thought might work well, then to the right was a series of steep, jagged-looking, rocks. I decided the jagged rocks would probably provide better places for gripping and foot holes. It wasn't too bad really, but from the bottom of it I could have sworn our hike was over. Finally, after that climb and a short quarter-mile walk, we were standing at the edge of the Flatiron. It was roughly 3:10pm and our elevation was 4722 feet.












We relaxed and took in the amazing view, our reward for finishing the climb. It was very peaceful at the top and I could have probably spent hours there just looking around and taking everything in. Unfortunately we needed to be heading back down so after 20 minutes we began our descent. We followed the same path we had taken up but since we were going mostly down it didn't take long at all to reach the bottom. With there being some moisture on the rocks we all had our moments where we slipped or slide a little. I nearly buckled my knee, Chris rolled both of his ankles and somehow Jon managed to slide all over the place at one point without actually hurting himself.

We finished the hike, sore and bruised but feeling great about the accomplishment. Being out in Arizona and seeing things like this on a regular basis is just so much different from the flat farmlands I grew up around. I look forward to hiking Flatiron again sometime, once my body recuperates from this time!

Hike Stats
Starting Elevation: 2058 feet
Highest Elevation: 4722 feet
Total Distance: 6.2 miles
Total Time: 3hrs 50mins