Hiking In the Granite Mountain Wilderness

On Sunday, Carolyn and I hiked into the Granite Mountain Wilderness Area, a 9700 acre preserve in the Prescott National Forest. It was a beautiful November day with temperatures in the mid 60's. The wind was cool and the sun was strong, a typical Fall day for Northern Arizona.


Trail 261 begins near Granite Basin Lake. It starts as a flat winding path through ponderosa pines and alligator juniper before it begins to climb.


Along the way there are open spaces with brush, Manzanita bushes, cacti, and boulders. As you climb, the trail narrows and is rock strewn with granite and quartz.



Always on your right we could see the upper reaches of Granite Mountain towering nearly 1600 feet above us.



The 3.4 mile trail will take you to the top. A short rest every now and then is welcome.


Carolyn and I didn't start in time on Sunday to make it all the way to the top. It gets dark early in Arizona this time of year. You need to allow enough time to get back while it is still light.


We did get fairly close to the top and saw some beautiful views. Distant ridges 50 miles or more away can be seen.

We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch while sitting on a boulder as big as our garage at over 6500 feet before starting back down. We left the summit for another day.

At twilight, we came upon two deer in the woods. They wondered off keeping an eye on us as I fumbled for my camera. Look close, you can see one of them in the center of the picture just to the right of the skinny tree trunk.