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On a cool day, looking to burn off some of the previous day’s Thanksgiving feast, I thought I’d go somewhere other than my "back yard" for a hike. I knew there would be a lot of people in the trails near Lost Dutchmen State Park, but thought I’d give it a try anyway.

The trails were quite crowded, especially the lower ones that appear on the park information sheets. I started up Prospector’s View Trail, which had some elevation change and got me fairly close to the iconic Praying Hands formation. Not satisfied with how close I was, and seeing an “off-map” trail climbing hard towards them, I headed away from most of the casual hikers and towards the left pinkie.

These first set of photos kind of compress the trip. I was able to get close enough to touch them (I didn’t because that would have meant walking a few feet through cactus).