Scorpion Hunting in Arizona at the Lost Dutchman State Park

Scorpions collected in jar for Park Ranger

Wow the last time I wrote on here, 5 years ago, I wrote about our vacation out here, now fast forward to 2018, we have been living out here for 4 years now! I am loving it so much! There is an abundance of things to do, a lifetime of things to keep us busy outdoors, and overall Arizona is just gorgeous with everything you can imagine from desert, forests, lakes, and more! If you want to move somewhere that has fantastic weather, and the ability to go skiing and be in the pool on the same day, Arizona is the place for you. A little over 2 hours north you can ski in Flagstaff when it's warm enough to swim in the valley! We like to keep busy, and explore as many places as we can. I want to share our adventures with you in case you are visiting, looking for something to do, or just want to see what there is in Arizona to do :)

Scorpion Hunting?? I can't believe it myself that I wanted to go to this activity. I am not a bug person at all, the thing that creeps me out the most is the huge COCKROACHES that you will see out here during monsoon season, they fly! They are huge, and they are just gross! The only scorpion I had seen (besides in an aquarium) was when we first moved out here, I was sitting on my recliner in our rental house. I was just eating some chocolate chips out of the Trader Joes bag, I dropped a few and thought I need to get those picked up right now before they melt into the rug. We flipped the recliner over to look for them, and there it was, a scorpion laying on the red rug. It was either a Bark Scorpion, or a Yellow Ground Scorpion. To this day, I don't know if it was dead or not, it didn't move, but they can do that. I took my flip flop off and smashed it non stop. I do see in the pictures below, the tail was extended after I smashed it, I think it might have been alive. That was the only one I ever saw. I heard if you have cats in your house, you won't see them, plus we don't live right near the desert area.

The Scorpion hunting event was at the Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction. This park is amazing, and has so many trails. If you don't have the Annual State Park pass, it costs $7 each time to park.

 

 It was a free event for all ages. All you needed to bring was a black light flashlight, or you could buy one off of the park ranger for $9 cash. We met up at the Palo Verde Ramada which isn't too far from the entrance of the park. The Park ranger had her own little collection of scorpions that she had collected at the park in an aquarium. She went over some facts about them, how they molt, how often they molt, they don't glow with the black light as babies, only after their first molting. She also told us how the female will kill the male once she has mated and has her babies. She also was selling tongs so you can catch the scorpions if you wanted to. I had no interest in this. I believe in leaving the wild where it belongs, that is their land/habitat.

After we learned some facts on the scorpions, we all headed out to a trail just nearby, it was dark, so nothing adventurous. My brother Matthew found one right away, it was pretty big too. Our good friend Eric used the tongs and was ready to put it in Park Ranger's jar, but she was already far ahead, so he let it go. I couldn't believe how many scorpions were out, without that black light, we would have never seen them. So many tiny ones too! It was really cool to see them, the Park Ranger collected a bunch of them in the jar, and my brother was carrying it around.

Eric holding the scorpion with tongs

the park ranger had Matthew carry the jar of them

I was very lucky to also see a Tarantula, I have been wanting to badly to see one. I learned they are pretty docile and really won't bother with you, unless you mess with them, they do have fangs, they will bite, but they are not venomous. I wouldn't want one crawling on me, but I really am not scared of them like my husband is.

I highly recommend going to this event, taking your children if they are well behaved. This is a very fun event, and might help someone get over their fear of a scorpion or tarantula, plus it gets you outside, a place I want to be as much as possible! :)