Superior's Luminaria Walk returns Saturday, Dec. 12, for its seventh year, offering a rare chance to walk a stretch of trail that is otherwise closed.
Hosted by the nonprofit Legends of Superior Trail, the free walk follows the Queen Creek Canyon segment from the trailhead parking lot beside Queen Creek, just before Main Street, to the original U.S. 60 bridge. Battery-operated luminarias light the way — in fire-aware Superior, real candles are out.
The idea came from LOST board member Steve Holmquist, an avid climber and outdoorsman who had joined a similar luminaria hike in the Valley, said Superior Mayor Mila Besich, who helped launch the walk. Volunteers help set it up and take it down, and it grows a little each year.
"It's just kind of a nice, quiet holiday event, not overly stimulating," Besich said.
The route carries real history. It follows the original Miami-Superior Highway, the first road in America to cost a million dollars a mile, built to link Miami and Superior and give the mines a faster route to Phoenix. Besich's great-grandfather was quoted in an old newspaper article promising that everyone from Superior would turn out for Miami's celebration of the new road. Both communities, she said, should be proud of what that road has meant.
Opening it as a trail took years. The route sits on Resolution Copper property, and on Besich's first hike there, 15 to 20 years ago, walkers wore hard hats and boot clackers because the site was treated like a mine. The town wanted the Legends of Superior Trail to connect to the Arizona Trail, and Superior became the first community on the network to build a route from the Arizona Trail into its downtown. The full alignment was finished in 2020, but COVID meant it was never celebrated.
LOST once led daytime history hikes on the route with local historian Rick Powers. Those stopped when U.S. 60 bridge construction closed the trail, a loss that Besich hopes to reverse once work wraps up. In the meantime, Resolution Copper and Arizona Department of Transportation have allowed the luminaria walk to continue as a community event.
New this year, free hot chocolate and cookies move up to the bridge, possibly with music, making it a gathering spot before walkers meander back down. The well-graded path to the bridge is easy for all ages, and December evenings are often a little warmer in Superior than in Globe.
Donations are welcome and support LOST's trail work, including a roughly $1 million mitigation project on the Telegraph and Woods Canyon trails. Raffles for outdoor gear and stickers may be offered.
Make a weekend of it: the Superior Optimist Club's Miracle on Main Street holiday parade is Friday night, Dec. 11. Restaurants fill up, so plan dinner before or after; Besich once ended up driving to Globe for dinner because all the local restaurants were filled.
Park at the trailhead lot or downtown.
Also in Superior this fall: the Hee Haw Hustle on Nov. 14 runs on Legends trails, including a Queen Creek segment that passes under U.S. 60 and has horse hitches. Around Nov. 10, the Superior Chamber of Commerce hosts an evening marking seven years since the smelter stack came down. Also, the farmers market is going weekly, with a downtown holiday market planned. Follow along for details at XXXXX
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