Superstition Mountains - Weaver's Needle Loop

Join us as we experience the breathtaking 360 views of Weaver’s Needle on the Weaver’s Needle Loop!
Weaver’s Needle is one of the most recognizable peaks in the Superstition Mountains. To get there from Tucson, it’s a quick 90-mile trip up AZ-79 through Florence. After turning on Peralta Rd, it’s roughly 7 miles to the Peralta Trailhead (4 miles are on a dirt road).
Get to the trailhead early, because Peralta Trail is one of the most popular trails in the Superstition Mountains. We did the loop clockwise starting at Peralta Trail. Peralta Trail to Fremont Saddle is a great hike unto itself: incredible views and decent challenging ascent. Just be prepared for a line of hikers on this trail.
The first glimpse of Weaver’s Needle from Fremont Saddle is jaw dropping incredible! From Fremont Saddle, the trail descends to the left. We stayed on the Peralta Trail for 6.2 miles, enjoying the great views of Weaver’s Needle and then of Palomino Mountain before connecting to Dutchman Trail #104. We were lucky enough to cross flowing water while on the Dutchman Trail and view Weaver’s Needle from the “back side”.
After a mile on Dutchman, we connected to Terrapin Trail #234. Pre-hike online hiker reviews warned us that we were heading into a sketchy section of trail with a hard-to-find path and overgrown thorny bushes, but we lucked out: we had no problems staying on the trail and the overgrown bushes had been trimmed back. We were pleasantly surprised by the challenging ascent on this trail.
Almost 3 miles on Terrapin Trail and then we made our final trail change to Bluff Springs Trail #235. Bluff Springs Trail is a beautiful trail that had flowing water when we hiked it, but it felt longer that the 2 miles it really was. By the time we hit Bluff Springs Trail, we were tired and ready to finish up the hike. The joke was on us with false summit after false summit. Finally, we finished the steep descent right back into the Peralta Trailhead parking lot.
Our GPS recorded 12.9 miles and 2,851 ft elevation gain. This is definitely a “to be repeated” hike for us, but only during winter months as there is no shade on this hike, and once the streams dry up, no water either. After we hiked past Fremont Saddle, we encountered only 6 other hikers, so have the patience to deal with the lines and switchback bottlenecks to get to those incredible 360 views!

[@iminharmsway]

Beautiful!