Gold Canyon sits along U.S. Route 60, the highway that roughly marks the southern edge of the Superstition Mountains, the range of the Lost Dutchman legend. This map prints Dinosaur Mountain and Turk’s Head in shaded relief, with Peralta Trail Elementary School, the Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club, the Gold Canyon Golf Resort, Dinosaur Park and the Cloudview Trailhead among the streets below.
Gold Canyon is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Pinal County.
KNOWOL made this map in 2026 and gave it the look of an old atlas. The shaded relief of Dinosaur Mountain and Turk’s Head comes from United States Geological Survey elevation data, and the streets were drawn from Census Bureau files. The community covers 22.3 square miles, all of it land. At the 2020 census the median age was 66.8, and 55.5% of residents were 65 or older.
Under the Superstitions
The Superstition Mountains rise east of the Phoenix area, and Gold Canyon is one of the towns their page lists nearby. In Yavapai the range is Wi:kchsawa, and in Spanish it was once the Sierra de la Espuma, “Foam Mountain.” The mountains are in the federally designated Superstition Wilderness, and the highest point is Mound Mountain, at 6,266 feet, in the far eastern part of the range. Of the many trailheads into the mountains, the Peralta Trailhead is the most popular. The trail up Peralta Canyon, on the northeast side of Superstition Mountain, climbs to Fremont Saddle and a view of Weavers Needle.
Weavers Needle is a 1,000-foot column of rock, the heavily eroded remnant of a thick layer of fused volcanic ash, with its summit at 4,555 feet, and it’s visible for miles around. It was named for the mountain man Pauline Weaver, and a split in its side makes it look like it has two tops when you see it from the side. It plays a large part in the legend of the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. As the legend goes, a German immigrant named Jacob Waltz found a mother lode of gold in the Superstitions and told its location on his deathbed in Phoenix in 1891 to Julia Thomas, the boarding-house owner who had cared for him for many years. The needle’s shadow is said to point to a rich vein, and hundreds, possibly thousands, of people have hunted for gold around it. None of the mines claimed to be Waltz’s has been verified.
Click to explore a larger preview. The digital watermark does not appear on printed maps.
Names on this map
These names are printed on this map.
Streets and roads: E Broadway Ave, E 22nd Ave, Superstition Mountain Dr, E Baseline Ave, Yaqui Ln, Moore Rd, Shoshone Dr, S Blackhawk Rd, E Gold Rush Rd, E Golden Rim Cir, S King, Rio Vis.
More street names, A to Z
Crystal Ln, E Breathless Ave, E Chevelon Trl, E Cordova St, E Fossil Springs, E Ojo Rd, E Palm Way, E Peralta Rd, E Red Butte, E Sunset Peak Rd, Peralta Rd, Rim Cir, S Emma Pkwy, S Kachina Pl, S Mohican.
Around Gold Canyon
Peralta Regional Park, 498 acres east of Peralta Road, opened on January 11, 2023. Gold Canyon is part of the Apache Junction Unified School District, and the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office serves it. The Gold Canyon Missions Center Food Bank has its place on the sheet, and so do the two golf courses. The streets run from Peralta Trails out to Superstition Highlands, and Dinosaur Mountain and Turk’s Head give the land its shape.
This Gold Canyon map is a good addition to an office, library or den, and it can help teach children the geography and history of the area. It’s made for anyone who calls Gold Canyon home, and KNOWOL created it in 2026 to show the town as it looks today. Zoom in on the preview above to explore the details, then click here to get your copy of the Gold Canyon map.
Sources
