Hiking buddy and I went on an adventure in Superior a few weeks ago along a section of the LOST trail. That an acronym for Legends of Superior Trails, not a warning of what’s about to befall you once you set out. We hiked (walked, really) the Claypool Tunnel section, which runs from downtown Superior up a vertiginous road to the old tunnel.

This section of highway, an engineering marvel of its time, was constructed between 1919 and the highway’s opening in April of 1922. Its purpose was to cut down travel time between the Miami, Globe and Superior mining interests and the agricultural areas of the Salt and Gila valleys near Phoenix. One of the road’s nicknames is the ‘Convict Highway’ because convict labor was used to build a portion of it, including the Claypool Tunnel, our destination on this hike.

The path starts out easily enough, but about halfway along there are a series of switchbacks to accommodate the climb. The views are ever more spectacular as one gains altitude. The new highway, built in 1952 to replace the dangerous road which we were hiking, is never far from view. From our vantage the ‘new’ bridge leading to the ‘new’ tunnel was quite a stunning sight.

The higher we went the more the road disintegrated.

In this photo Hiking Buddy gives you an idea of the scale of the undertaking, as well as a good idea of the road’s condition. Falling boulders! Watch out!!

Every time we went around a corner we thought we’d see the tunnel, and at long last we did. It seemed a little underwhelming until we walked through it and realized how much work even such a short tunnel requires.

There’s an awful lot of graffiti – I guess all that rock is just too tempting a canvas. (He’s everywhere!!)

On the far side of the tunnel we found an aging memorial – why Jim Vaughn’s remembrance was there we do not know, but it was quite moving.

I like this picture:

Look carefully at this photo and you’ll see a young man preparing for some rock-climbing. The steep cliffs all had lots of pitons waiting.

The past winter was one of the wettest in quite some time, and the wildflowers have thanked us profusely for that. Along our way we saw mounds of brittlebush, interspersed by mallow, marching up the hillsides, as well as other beautiful small flowers I have yet to identify.

It was a splendid adventure, just shy of 5 miles round trip. We would do it again in a heartbeat.