Willow Lake Day Hike

As per my New Year’s post, Richard and I have been looking for day hikes in the area and we found one last week that will probably become one of our favorite trails.  This particular one is called Willow Lake Trail and is a 5.75 mile loop located on the edge of Prescott, Arizona.  The first two miles is the flat land you’d expect in Arizona but the last two miles is just short of bouldering over some of the beautiful granite dells that dot the Northern Arizona landscape.  It’s not what most people expect when they think Arizona but that is what I love about Northern Arizona, it’s just not the desert people think it is.  If you’ve been reading this blog for some time, you will know I grew up in Arizona and while I never live here full time again, I love visiting and hiking the places that grew up around.  When you enter the trail and head right from the main parking lot the trail heads away from the lake and take you through a field.  It’s all dead now but I can imagine in spring it is green and beautiful.  It follows a road a little but then it turns back toward the lake and that is when the fun starts.  The trail heads right up and over the dells that border the lake.  We were bouldering more than we were hiking.  The trail was marked with white circles and it was difficult to find them at times.  The views were amazing and even though Jaeger has little three inch tall legs, he climbed all over the dells like a champ!  There were a few times we had to carry him, but it wasn’t for his safety but our own since he could run down some sections we had to take slowly.  We weren’t too excited about getting pulled the whole way down!  There are several trails that lead to other parts, some going up more and some going down to the lake.  This trail is full of interesting and unique terrain and was a lot of fun to hike!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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