After doing the Queen Trail, east of Superior, in the morning, I stopped by the Historic Pinal Cemetery on my way out of town. Despite what the official route implies, you can legally drive right up to the cemetery gate. There are no fences, gates or “Do Not Enter” signs which prevent driving up to the entrance. It’s not far to walk from the official parking area, but that is absolutely RIDDLED with broken glass, so your tires may appreciate you parking by the cemetery, or anywhere else.
The cemetery itself is small, with maybe two dozen recognizable graves. Most are simply outlined by rocks, a few with decaying wooden crosses. Some have crosses made of half inch rebar. Besides the Mattie Earp (aka Celia Blaylock) grave — which is about 50 feet past the entrance, on the left — there are three graves with readable memorials. One I could only read by tracing my fingers in the grooves. Any idea why people leave coins and bullet casings on some graves? The Mattie Earp grave has a geocache, or at least a very large jar with a rather large notebook, where visitors have left notes, and some have left empty mini-bottles of booze.
Distance: 2.03 mi.
AEG: 137 ft.
Time: 54m
