Route Editor
Route Scout
A Real Hole in the Wall by Fritzski Beginning from Peralta Trailhead, this out & back hike starts out east on the Dutchman Trail. Continuing on the Dutchman, it then turns north to connect with the Whiskey Spring Trail which proceeds to the Red Tanks Trail which is then followed east for a short distance through Upper La Barge Canyon to the world-renowned "Herman's Cave" (See Notes: #1)... "Who the heck is Herman?" you may ask. Well let me tell you a little about Herman - The man, the myth, the legend. When Jacob Waltz lay on his deathbed, two people were at his side. A local Phoenix friend named Julia Thomas and a young German immigrant boy named Reinhart Petrasch. Legend has it that in his last hours Jacob tried desperately to explain the location of his secret gold mine in the Superstition Mountains to Julia and Reiney (#2). After his death these two completely inexperienced city slickers headed into the wilderness where their fate would then be sealed, but not before ensnaring a few others in the legendary trap known as the "search for the Lost Dutchman Mine". After their initial search came up empty handed, Reiney mailed his father Gottfried and his brother Herman to come to Arizona to assist them, which they did. In the end, after many fruitless years, Julia spent every penny, lost her business, gave up, and returned to the city as a pauper (#3). Gottfried also gave up, returned to Montana and died shortly thereafter in 1914 (#4). It was Reiney and Herman who were unable to escape the lure of lost treasure and spent the rest of their destitute days living in the desert wilderness looking for something they would never find. Evidently Reiney couldn't take it any more and ended up blowing his head off with a shotgun in 1943. Herman then died of natural causes ten years later, an old and broken man. But Hey! He did end up getting both a cave and a mountain named after him! All right, to get started on the hike, you take the Dutchman Tr. east out of Peralta for about 2.6mi through the beautiful Barkley Basin. As you approach the Coffee Flat Tr. intersection you will be rewarded with some great views of Miners Needle and Cathedral Rock as they begin to dominate the skyline. Miner's Needle with its distinct "eye" has been a focus point for the Lost Dutch search in years past. It was at the base of Cathedral Rock that human bones thought to be those of Mexican miners possibly killed by Apaches were found in the 1930s. At the Coffee Flat intersection bear left and remain on the Dutchman Tr. as it begins its climb to Miner's Summit and the Whiskey Spring Tr. The climb is not too arduous and take time to check out the views behind you along the way (#5). At about the 4.5mi point you will cross the summit and bear right onto the Whiskey Spring Tr. as it begins its descent into Whiskey Spring Canyon. As you reach the bottom of the canyon the trail flattens out, enters some shady areas of Hackberry trees along the wash and encounters some areas of fairly annoying Cat Claw Acacia. At just over 5.5 miles you will come to Whiskey Spring which had filterable water flowing and some nice camping areas nearby (#6). At about 6 miles in you'll come to the Red Tanks Tr. intersection. You want to go right on Red Tanks and proceed up Upper La Barge Box Canyon. The canyon is fairly narrow and as the trail crisscrosses the wash it winds through some areas of thick vegetation and boulders. There is a tricky point at about 6.5mi where a low bent tree crosses the trail. Do not go straight (in hindsightJ), but double back across the wash to your left and look for cairns showing the way to the trail which climbs out of the bottom and up on the north side. The canyon floor appears quite lush as you look east along the continuation of the Red Tanks Tr. As you are negotiating this little area you will come around a bit of a corner and Herman's Cave will suddenly loom large above you to the left - and I mean ABOVE. The cave is high at the base of the Herman Mountain cliffs and you must scramble up a steep slope of scree and boulders to get there. Although there are some faint trails, they are much easier to spot on the way down so just use your perseverance and creativity to get up there. The cave is very large, but its inaccessibility and the fact that the floor slopes out at a steep angle prevent it from ever having served as a useful shelter. Evidently Herman spent many years searching in this area and located his camp close by (#7). When you've had enough poking around, its time to turn around and go back the way you came. As you begin to make your way back out of the canyon look up to the top of the ridge on your left and you may notice an unnamed (as far as I know) arch rock. As it sits near the top of Picacho Butte, I'll go ahead and name it "Picacho Arch". I know, what an imagination! The climb back up the hill out of Whiskey Spring Canyon, which didn't seem like much going down, may get your full attention this time. Once at the top its pretty much a downhill to flat cruise all the way back to the trailhead. I didn't think this would be all that strenuous of a hike, but I ran out of water and the three of us were all pretty well spent when we finally shuffled into the parking lot.
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I woke up Sunday and decided the rain didn't look too bad & the doppler radar showed the rain mostly hitting the westside and heading NE. So I drove to the Peralta TH and still felt good since the skies were still dry and the creeks were as well. Last time I did this loop counter-clockwise, so this time I would go clockwise to mix it up a bit. Started on Dutchman to Whiskey Springs to Red Tanks and up the beautiful Upper La Barge Box with a sidetrip up to Herman's Cave. It started sprinkling below Miner's Needle and started raining harder on my way up to the saddle. It continued raining at a moderate pace for the rest of the day... 
After eating lunch at Herman's Cave, I headed back up the trail past Hoolie Bacon towards the Red Tank Divide. The trail is now hugging La Barge Creek again which is flowing rather nicely at this point. I see some cairns that take me up a sidecreek near 'La Barge Spring No 2' on the topo... I'm using my Beartooth map which doesn't have as much detail and is tough to examine with the wind & rain. Well this sidecreek is flowing rather nicely while I'm wading up to my knees & ducking under thick foliage following this random line of cairns... This line of cairns either disappears, is too faint to follow in these conditions, or I just got on some dead end trail... I get out of the creek, wander around a bit trying to sniff out the trail, run across some old campsites & very faint paths, hike a couple ridges/hills to scout of the trail to no avail. 
Decide that at 2pm I need to give up the search and head back the way I came in. So when 2pm rolls around I swallow my pride and hike the 8-9 miles back to the TH. 
It's uncomfortable enough to be wet and hiking in the rain, I certainly wouldn't want to add dark to the situation. 
Those rock hopping creek crossing have now transformed into knee-high wades. Luckily I rolled into the TH around 6pm to enjoy my warm dry vehicle and was able to go thru Upper La Barge Box again.
I feel like rehiking this loop just to destroy those mischievous cairns and better mark the correct path. But even if I would have found the proper trail, much of it would have been in creek/canyons that would have been in possible flash flood conditions. Its funny... I thought that having hiked this trail before would ensure me having an easy time with route finding. 
