Quaky Trail No. 741

QUAKY TRAIL No. 741

Quaking aspens on the new Quaky Trail No. 741

It’s only a mile long, but the new Quaky Trail No. 741 in Prescott National Forest is a handy addition to the Bradshaw Ranger District routes in the Copper Basin Area. 

Quaky Trail traces Aspen Creek

Opened this summer, the new single-track path is located just a few miles from Downtown Prescott and provides connectivity with several popular forest trails like Wolverton Mountain as well as the 51-mile Prescott Circle Trail. 

Quaky Trail connects with popular routes

The fresh-cut Quaky Trail may be accessed from either the Aspen Creek Trailhead or the nearby new Copper Basin Trailhead which will have room for equestrian trailers when completed in late August.

New Copper Basin trailhead offers trailer parking

 Either way, the trail is a beautiful work of construction.  From the Aspen Creek Trailhead, the hike begins with a 0.2-mile walk on Aspen Creek Trail No. 48. 

Butterfly weed blooms May - September

Trail no. 741 heads right following the course of the creek. 

The aspen passage on Quaky Trail

The entire route is shaded by Ponderosa pines and creekside stands of boxelders, locust and oaks with an understory of brambles and wildflowers. 

Ponderosa pines on Quaky Trail

The edgy route twists through the forest dodging boulders and skimming ravines before encountering a gorgeous passage lined with aspen trees.  

Quaky Trail spins off Aspen Creek Trail No. 48

The white-trunked quaking aspens (presumably the “quakies” of the Quaky Trail) huddle in tight formation, their canopies rustling in the mountain breezes. 

Quaky Trail is richly shaded

This is a good trail to keep in mind for October autumn foliage hikes.  The trail ends at the Copper Basin Trailhead where hikers may double back or consult forest maps to extend the trek.

Fleabane grows along Aspen Creek May-October

LENGTH:  2.4 miles out-and-back

RATING: moderate

ELEVATION:  6,341 – 6,614 feet

GETTING THERE:

ASPEN CREEK TRAILHEAD:

From Courthouse Square in Prescott, go 1 mile south on Montezuma Street (turns into State Route 89/White Spar Road) to the traffic light at Copper Basin Road.  Turn right and continue 4.6 miles on Copper Basin Road (turns to good dirt after 1.6 miles) to the Aspen Creek trailhead on the right. The hike begins across the road on Trail 48. No facilities.

COPPER BASIN TRAILHEAD:

Located 0.2-mile past the Aspen Creek Trailhead on Copper Basin Road. No facilities.

Copper Basin Road is maintained dirt suitable for all vehicles up to the trailheads. 

 

Granite Mountain Hot Shots Juniper Hike

GRANITE MOUNTAIN HOT SHOTS  JUNIPER HIKE

Granite Mountain Hot Shots juniper

On the Department of Forestry and Fire Management Magnificent Trees Program and the Arizona Magnificent Tree Registry, it’s listed simply as “Tree 4126.”  But the enormous Alligator Juniper has a history that transcends its drab catalog callout.

Riparian trees near Division Well on FR9162U

   Located in

Prescott National Forest west of Granite Mountain Wilderness, the gnarled old tree is best known as the Granite Mountain Hot Shots Tree.

Mountain vista on Upper Pasture Trail

 It’s named in honor of the 20 wildland firefighters who saved it during the June 2013 Doce Fire that burned about 7,000 acres 10 miles northwest of downtown Prescott.  Tragically, 19 members of the team perished in the Yarnell Hill Fire on June 30, 2013.

Gate on FR 9162U

The iconic Yavapai County Alligator Juniper (Juniperus deppeana) stands 52 feet high and has a circumference of 324 inches.  It’s crown spreads to an average of 70 feet. 

The Hot Shots Juniper is over 50 feet tall

There are over 200 Arizona trees on the Arizona Magnificent Tree Registry that includes myriad species sorted into three categories.  

Signs of the 2013 Doce Fire on White Rock Springs

Champion Trees are those that are the largest in the state or nation.  Heritage Trees hold cultural significance such as for a commemoration, and Witness Trees are those that have been growing in the same spot since before Arizona Statehood (1912).

Agaves on the Upper Pasture Trail

The Hot Shots Juniper is recognized as both a state and national Champion Tree.  While its exact age is impossible to pinpoint, the tree is easily over 1,000 years old--some sources estimate it may be more than 2,500 years old--which means it is also an undisputed Arizona Witness Tree.

Upper Pasture Trail junction

Hikers interested in botany, state history or making a pilgrimage to remember the Hot Shots can visit the tree by using roads and trails in Prescott National Forest.

Spring on White Rock Springs Trail

There are several ways to make the trek, but the shortest route begins at the Contreras Trailhead off Iron Springs Road. From the north corner of the parking area, the hike follows Forest Road 9162U for 0.8-mile. The rough, rocky two-track descends to the site of Division Well, crosses a leafy drainage and heads steeply uphill to a gate that marks the beginning of Upper Pasture Trail No.38. 

White Rock Springs Trail junction

Trail 38 is a repurposed horse road constructed in the 1800s. The wide, gently undulating track is largely unshaded, passing through chaparral punctuated with agaves, cacti and spots of pinyon pine and junipers.  Excellent views Big Chino Valley and the distant Santa Maria Mountains dominate the northern horizon, but it’s the hulking presence of Granite Mountain and Little Granite Mountain to the east that really commands attention.  Rising to 7,626 and 7,089 feet respectively, the massifs appear as enormous boulder piles with weather-worn stones spilling down their flanks. 

Boulders line White Rock Springs Trail

On the high ridges, chockstones balance in tenuous poses pierced by scrub oak and manzanita.  At the 1.8-mile point, the route heads north (left) at the White Rock Springs Trail No. 39 junction.  

Upper Pasture Trail is an old horse road

Now a dirt singletrack, the trail passes remnants of the 2013 Doce Fire. Eleven years on, charred snags and burnt brush are ceding space to new growth.  A lush spring area at the end of a rough-cut drainage sits at the base of a granite wall, surrounded by willows, cottonwoods, buffalo-bur and wildflowers.  A half-mile in on Trail 39, the route crosses a major sandy drainage.  A few yards past the waterway, chunks of white quartz placed in the sand point the way to an unsigned trail that leads to the Hot Shot Juniper.  

The short spur path ends at the tree and a memorial erected under its massive canopy.  

Memorial at the Hot Shots Juniper

Words,  photos, and statistics are inadequate tools for describing the twisted giant.  Hints of its unknowable origins and secrets of its resilience are best expressed in the resinous, ash-tinged mountain breezes that rattle its branches. 

AZ Black rattlesnake on Upper Pasture Trail

Hike starts at the Contreras Trailhead

LENGTH: 4.8 miles round trip (out-and-back hike)

RATING: moderate

ELEVATION: 5,294 – 5,548 feet

GETTING THERE:

Contreras Trailhead:

From historic downtown Prescott, go north on Montezuma Street (which will turn into Whipple Street and then Iron Springs Road) and continue 10 miles to Contreras Road (County Road 122) on the right.  Follow CR122 for 0.7-mile to the trailhead on the right. Low clearance vehicles park here. Hike begins by walking FR9162U at the north end of the parking lot.  OPTION: High clearance (4x4 recommended) vehicles may be driven 0.8-mile on FR9162U to the Trail 38 trailhead.  Contreras Road is maintained dirt suitable for most vehicles up to the lower trailhead.

INFO:

Prescott National Forest

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/prescott/recreation/recarea/?recid=67471&actid=50

Arizona’s Magnificent Trees

https://dffm.az.gov/arizonas-magnificent-trees

American Forests Champion Tree Registry

https://www.americanforests.org/champion-trees/champion-trees-registry/

Big Rock Canyon Circuit

BIG ROCK CANYON

Billion-year-old stone in Big Rock Canyon

Some trails have a way of rousing long buried memories.  Whether it’s the trail name, location or ambience that rustles the cranial recesses, the results can have surprising impacts on the hike experience. Consider the Big Rock Canyon trail in Prescott’s granite dells.

View of Watson Lake from Capts Trail

Its name conjures sweetness and an ear worm. Grown up kids of a certain age might remember a tooth-rotting confection called rock candy—word play on rock canyon. It was—and still is, if you can find it—pure sugar.  

The route crosses Boulder Creek

Rock candy Classic had no color or added flavor, just 100% nutritionally void carbohydrate manufactured to resemble quartz crystals. Sometimes, it came embedded on strings.

Hike begins on the Peavine NRT

While the treat was a step up from the chalky candy cigarettes and wax lips frequently bought together, it never made it off the dentist’s no-no list. Other than providing a brief energy rush, it has no redeeming qualities.

Peavine NRT passes by Watson Woods Riparian Preserve

There’s also a ditty about hiking in an imaginary paradise called Big Rock Candy Mountain (evidently located somewhere beyond the scope Google Maps), that can commandeer the brain with a continuous loop of “Where the lemonade springs and the bluebird sings in that Big Rock Candy Mountain.”

Even with a candy song banging around in the skull, the treat’s word-play trail is the opposite of empty calories. Replete in healthful elements all wrapped in a fantastical landscape of rocks of the volcanic sort, the trail delivers a steady stream of serotonin without the junk propellant. It could easily be the rock paradise imagined in the 1928 ballad.

View from Big Rock Canyon trail

Big Rock Canyon trail is located east of Watson Lake in the heart of a maze of routes collectively called the Storm Trails.  The City of Prescott owned property spans the other-worldly innards of the granite dells—a landscape of weathered billion-year-old granite formations.  Fractured and rounded by years of geological upheavals and exposure to the sculpting effects of weather, the dells are a cluster of nooks, crannies and blind curves interrupted by the course of Boulder Creek.  

Watson Lake seen from Capts Trail junction

There are several ways to get to Big Rock Canyon, but the quick way begins at the Peavine-Watson Woods trailhead with a mile-long hike on the Peavine National Recreation Trail. At the Capts Trail junction, located across from a scenic view of the lake, the route heads inland and is quickly absorbed into stony corridors. 

Big Rock Canyon Trail

Map signs are posted at all junctions. Here are the breadcrumbs for this hike:

• Peavine National Recreation Trail to Capts Trail.

• Capts Trail (sometimes called Captain’s Trail on apps) to Easter Island Trail

• Easter Island Trail to Big Rock Canyon Trail

• Big Rock Canyon Trail to Big Piney Trail

• Big Piney to Boulder Creek Trail

• Boulder Creek back to Peavine for the return leg.

Where the trails pass over slickrock, white dots painted on the russet stone show the way.  It’s very much a game of connect-the-dots and follow-the-signs. A hop over Boulder Creek signals the entry to the canyon. Once inside, the route ducks among vertical escarpments, oddly balanced rocks and contorted pillars.  Highpoint vistas showcase a fringe of mountains including iconic Granite Mountain, Glassford Hill and the peaks of Prescott National Forest.  The Storm Trails feel purpose-built for those with adventurous proclivities.

Map signs are posted at all trail junctions

Side trip on the Blaster Trail

Many are short loops and connectors, so there’s a natural magnetism for impulsive side trips.  Surprises emerge around every bend in the forms of oak thickets, quartz deposits, errant water birds and lakeside riparian vegetation.  North of Big Rock Canyon, there’s a trail called Candy. Really, there is.  It’s new, so trail signs may not yet be in place. But like a folksy ear worm, the urge to find it within this wilderness of rock might be hard to shake.

LENGTH: 8 miles roundtrip

RATING: moderate

ELEVATION: 5,166 – 5,340 feet

GETTING THERE:

Peavine-Watson Woods Riparian Preserve trailhead.

From State Route 169 in Prescott, turn right (north) on Prescott Lakes Pkwy and continue 1.7 miles to Sundog Ranch Road, turn right and go 0.2-mile  to Peavine Trail/Watson Woods Riparian Preserve parking area.

FEE: There’s a $3 per vehicle daily parking fee.

FACILITIES: restroom

INFO & MAPS:

prescott-az.gov/rec-services/recreation-areas-prescott/trails/mile-high-trail/

 

Noodle Loop

NOODLE LOOP

Spence Basin Trail System.

Wiggly course of Noodle Loop

Wiggly, woodsy, route. Say that three time fast and you’ll get the vibe of the Noodle Loop Trail No. 360. 

There's lots of shade on Noodle Loop

  Living up to this tongue-twister summary and moniker, the short loop in the Spence Basin Trail System in Prescott National Forest, delivers a quick trip marked by lots of shade, abrupt bends and flowing curves.

Spence Basin trails are well signed

 The trek debarks from the Spence Springs trailhead located just a few miles northwest of Downtown Prescott.

Shrub oaks are common along the loop

While the loop is well-signed and synced with a phone app, many intersecting roads and trails including the 50+-mile Prescott Circle Trail can be tempting distractions.

The loop is slick and clear of obstacles

The hub, which sits between majestic 7,626-foot Granite Mountain and iconic 6,440-foot Thumb Butte is beloved for its maze of short, coiled paths that glide through hilly terrain with endless ways to customize day hikes.
Noodle Loop is a perfect choice for warmer days as it stays mostly in a pocket of pines, oaks and junipers. 

Mountain gromwell bloom July -September

Views are sparce but the loop’s string of bumps, bends, and hairpin turns that slingshot hikers over cottonwood-cluttered drainages, ledges and through boulder outcroppings provide plenty of entertainment.  

The loop stays in a shady, wooded basin

The maintained single-track path feels as it was engineered for speed. There are no major obstacles to work around and clear lines-of-sight make it easy to see oncoming bikes and horses that share the trail.

Cottonwoods thrive in a moist drainage

Following the natural contours of the terrain, the trail’s smooth, linguine-like dips and climbs add up to over 700 feet of accumulated elevation change. But the loop’s slick design acts as a silent propellant, whisking hikers through in painless, speedy style.

Mushrooms bloom after monsoon rains

LENGTH: 2.3-mile loop

RATING: easy

ELEVATION: 5,514 – 5,676 feet (703 feet of accumulated elevation change)

GETTING THERE:

Spence Springs Trailhead:

From Courthouse Square in downtown Prescott, go 4.8 miles north on Montezuma Street which will turn into Whipple Street then Iron Springs Road (County Road 10) to Spence Springs Road on the left.  This is located just past the turnoff for Granite Basin Recreation Area.  There’s a portable restroom at the trailhead.

INFO:

Prescott National Forest

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/prescott/recreation/hiking/recarea/?recid=84362&actid=50

City of Prescott

https://www.prescott-az.gov/recreation-area/prescott-circle-trail/

White Spar Loop Trails

WHITE SPAR LOOP TRAILS

Apple Blossom trail crosses Banning Creek

In the gullies and hills of the Granite Creek watershed northwest of the Goldwater Lakes, a maze of short, interconnected trails offer access to a diverse pocket of Prescott National Forest.  

Banning Creek Trail

Pine forests, riparian corridors, historic relics, and a strangely out-of-place garden of fruit trees contribute to a continual sting of eye candy in the Central Arizona hike hub.

Water pools in Banning Creek

Collectively known as the White Spar Loop Trails, the shaded singletracks may be explored by way of the White Spar Campground located just a couple of miles south of Prescott’s historic Whiskey Row.

Apple blossoms on April 21, 2023.

Well signed and maintained, the loops are a mash up of newer trails and old standards that also link up with the 50-mile, city-circumnavigating Prescott Circle Trail.  While there are dozens of ways to use the White Spar Loops to cobble together a day hike or backpack trek, a short circuit using the Goldwater Lake #396, Banning Creek #81 (the old standards), Apple Blossom #373 and Twist & Shout #372 (new kids on the block) trails is a perfect introduction to the area’s many faces.

Tall pines on Goldwater Lake Trail

From the dirt trailhead parking lot before the campground entrance, the circuit begins with a 1.5-mile walk on Goldwater Lake #396. This leg climbs easily through stands of Ponderosa pine, alligator junipers and oaks passing by the Hidden Valley trail junction.  

Old water pipeline on Banning Creek Trail

The hike hits its highest elevation (5,920 feet) at the one-mile point, where nice views of iconic Thumb Butte and Granite Mountain peek through coniferous tree cover.  The route then begins a gradual, half-mile  descent to the course of Banning Creek. 

White Spar Loops are well-signed & maintained

The Banning Creek trail #81 junction can be a little confusing. Hikers may head left (north) and follow the wide dirt road that traces the creek’s west banks or go right at the “81” sign and slingshot around to get on the east bank trail. Either way, the two options converge less than a half-mile north where the creek crosses the dirt road.

Golden currant blooms along Granite Creek

Adding notes of history to the hike, an old, elevated water pipeline—a relic of  early 20^th century water supply technology-- can be seen following the course of the creek. 

Goldwater Lake Trail is part of the Prescott Circle Trail

Vegetation along this watery leg includes classic riparian species like willows, cottonwoods, boxelder, and golden currant shrubs growing in mucky shallows and boulder-bound bends. At the 2.2-mile point, the route heads left onto Apple Blossom trail #373 among magnificent cottonwoods that stand along a trickling creek crossing.  Within a few yards, the trail comes to another junction where it veers right to meet the eponymous apple blossoms. 

Common mullein is a familiar plant along the trails

Several small, spindly fruit trees line the trail, looking sort of lost among towering pines.  In spring, creamy flowers scent the air and attract pollinators.  Beyond the blooming trees, the route continues straight ahead and uphill the somewhat befuddling  #373/#374 junction.  Now back in pine-oak woodlands, the trail passes by a forested subdivision before meeting the Twist & Shout  trail #372 junction for the loop’s final leg.  

Granite Mountain seen from Goldwater Lake Trail

True to its name, the path winds among oak canopies, making hairpin turns around ravines before rejoining Goldwater Lake trail for the return trip to the trailhead.

LENGTH:  3.7 miles

RATING: moderate

ELEVATION: 5,517 – 5,920 feet

GETTING THERE:

From Courthouse Square in historic downtown Prescott, go 2.8 miles south on Montezuma Street (U.S. 89/White Spar Road) and turn left into the White Spar Campground.  Trailhead parking in on the right before entering the campground. No fee or facilities.

INFO:

Prescott National Forest, Bradshaw Ranger District

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/prescott/recreation/recarea/?recid=75171