Walking in Prescott

Two things I love most about Prescott are its climate and terrain. I find my self wanting to be outdoors, enjoying the skies and the vistas, feeling the warm sun and the cool breeze, as much as possible, especially early in the morning. I try to get in a five mile run/walk each day. The hills and the altitude are a challenge. But I can feel my self acclimating more each day. To give you a sense of what it's like I took some pictures this morning to share with you here.

I left home at 7:30 am.


There are lots of streets in our neighborhood and choices of where to go. One of my favorite routes is to head east on Smoke Tree Lane. (Maybe because it starts out mostly downhill!)

Smoke Tree Lane has a nice wide sidewalk and beautiful landscaping along the way. In addition, it has some great views and offers the chance to see a critter or two. Just the other day a coyote shared a part of my walk down Smoke Tree. I wish I'd had my camera.


One of the joys of moving to a new place is learning the local flora and fauna. One of the plants common to the area is the Russian Sage. It has beautiful purple flowers that contrast wonderfully with the green foliage. (Although the one seen here is beginning to fade as Fall comes on.) The bees love this plant. Early in the morning you can hear each Russian Sage you pass hum with their electricity.


Along the route you pass the Prescott Lakes on the golf course of the local country club. The lake in the picture is the largest in a series of lakes that cascades down the hillside. It's a pretty site in this semi-arid climate.







Continuing on, you can see some of the golf course in the distance as well as a glimpse of the Mingus Mountains. On the other side of the mountains is the old mining town/ghost town, now tourist attraction, Jerome. Further east and north is Sedona, AZ.






On the walk down Smoke Tree you can see rocks with petroglyphs on them. These are prehistorics markings left by ancient peoples who populated this area. These people long pre-date the Yavapai and other Native Americans who later populated this part of Arizona.






Here is the Smoke Tree from which this street gets its name.











After two miles, Smoke Tree Lane ends at the intersection with the Prescott Lakes Parkway. I turn south on the Parkway. In this picture, the Parkway can be seen winding in the distance toward the Bradshaw Mountains which form a southern perimeter around Prescott.







After a short distance turn to the west and head into a neighboring subdivision off of Petroglyphs Dr. This section is all up hill. You can see houses going up all over the hillsides in this part of town.







Most people landscape their yards with native plants that do not require much water to survive. Most yards are decorated with rocks rather than planted in grass which requires so much water to maintain. You do see, though, numbers of beautiful flowers which add beautiful color to the landscape.









Here is a view of the Prescott Lakes from above. These are the series of small ponds (i.e. lakes if you are in the desert) that cascades down to the main lake along Smoke Tree Lane.

The greenery is a welcome sight but it does raise questions regarding the most appropriate use of water, a precious commodity in this part of the country. The water used to here and on the golf course is reclaimed water that has not be treated for human consumption.








About 8 miles northwest of Prescott is Granite Mountain, a 7,626 foot stack of ragged boulders, some bigger than houses, stacked on top of each other. Its vertical cliffs offers world class rock climbing to visitors from all over the world.
Since I can see the mountain from the deck in back of my house, it's a guidepost for finding my way home.