To dodge the Apaches he hid in a high cave inside the arch of the bridge for two nights, and on the third day ventured out to find an exquisite green valley, and he claimed squatters rights. Today visitors can poke around the historic lodge in the valley that is now the Visitor Center. Take a short but steep trail into the ravine to see the caves. Or, there's a lookout at the top. Both views of this strangely carved geologic wonder are spectacular.
Rainbows shimmer through the waterfall that tumbles from the top of the bridge to Pine Creek below.
The park's 160 acres lie in a narrow canyon surrounded by the lush Tonto National Forest. By moonlight in Lost Dutchman State Park. Local legend has it that in the 1880s a German, Jacob Waltz, hid a fortune in gold in the rugged Superstition Mountains. Legend says Waltz would disappear into the mountains, and reappear with gold, and he always out-foxed followers by traveling at night. Today, rangers lead full-moon hikes in the winter months, weaving through silhouettes of a classic desert landscape, and Saturday hikes beginning in November.