Hieroglyphic Springs is one of my favorite short hikes to take people on that don't know too much about the desert or even those who do that I want to offer a treat. The trail heads north about one mile and is mostly along the top of a shallow ridge with a wash/creek to the west and fabulous views as it rises up an alluvial fan. The trail then enters a narrow mouth of a wide and tall canyon in the Superstition Mountains where there are numerous pools of water with small waterfalls, cascades and seeps. It's a great place to have lunch and enjoy the beautiful scenery. The name of the spring is derived from the large numbers of petroglyphs that cover the western wall of the canyon near the water.
I used my Canon EOS 20D digital camera with an exposure of 1/15 second at f/22. The camera was set to ISO 100 in RAW mode. The lens was a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM set to a 160mm focal length. Adobe Photoshop CS was used for the RAW conversion and image processing. Photograph by Rick Scott.
Updated: 6 April 2005