Monday, January 31 brought a light rain as we headed to the meeting point at the flagpole to begin our hike. Here in Arizona, because of the very low humidity, upper atmosphere rain often does not meet the ground. This is called "virga" and I had never heard of this in the northeast. This morning, the rain in the air made for a lovely rainbow as we drove to the trailhead. We began the hike in the Superstition Mountains at the Jacob's Crosscut Trail. We headed to the Broadway Cave. We could see the cave as we began on a fairly level trail. Most of the trail followed a "wash" (course of water when it rains - because of the hard dry ground, water does not penetrate and runs off fast carrying the rocks down the hillside). Gradually, we began climbing - the last part was 380' up to the cave - quite a large one with good views of the city at our feet and lots of stately saguaros.
Inside the cave was a tunnel hacked out by a miner looking for gold. The story goes: a couple found some gold coins stashed in the back of the cave. When they told others of their find, they were murdered for the gold. Many have dug and looked for more - to no avail.
We ate our lunch here, then scrambled our way back down via another path. On the way we found an old fireplace - all that was left of a home of a miner or rancher??
The day stayed overcast and cool for Phoenix - we are in for a few days of this. - But the rest of the US is suffering under snow and freezing rain so we are content with sunny 55F days!