Watson Lake Loop Hike

On 3 December 2016 eight Skyliners hiked the Watson Lake Loop Trail in Prescott. This trail traverses the highly scenic Granite Dells region around Watson Lake. From Cottonwood we drove south on Hwy 89A through Jerome and across Mingus Mountain to connect with US 89. We continued 4.3 miles south on US 89, turned east on Prescott Lakes Parkway and drove 0.4 miles before turning north on Sundog Ranch Road and continuing for about another 0.1 miles to a dirt parking area near the Humane Society. There is a $3.00 parking fee. The original plan was to hike on Peavine Rail Trail, Iron King Trail and Lakeshore Trail in that order, repeating a 27 February 2010 hike.

We did in fact start out by hiking about 0.9 miles on Peavine Rail Trail. However, when we came to the junction with Lakeshore Trail, we decided to follow it along the shore of Watson Lake. Then, upon reaching the north end of the lake, we just continued on the trail along the shore, looping around the lake in a counterclockwise direction.

In the Dells, the giant granite boulders have weathered into delicately balanced forms and fanciful shapes. Some of these are pointed out in this report. Rock climbers like to tackle the challenging granite formations and Joanne Hennings supplied a photograph of one such climber rappelling down a sheer granite cliff (right).

We saw ducks along the way and, later in the hike, a flock of domestic geese (below left) and occasionally noted the brilliant green head of a wild male Mallard duck sparkling in the sunlight. I snapped a photograph of what I think was a heron (below right). It was some distance away, perched on a rock surrounded by striking reflections of the rust-colored cliff on the surface of the water. Contrasting with the reflections were a few lingering bright green leaves amidst the greenish-brown hue of overhanging vegetation.

Geese and ducks along the shore             A lone heron(?) among reflections

After awhile we stopped for a snack break and a group photo. This area had everything: columns of granite reaching for the sky, water, boulders, a deciduous tree and dark green evergreens.

Left to right: Lila Wright, Joanne Hennings, Donna Goodman (kneeling), Karl Sink, Joyce Arregui, Daisy Williams (kneeling), Chris Jensen and Betty Wolters.

Continuing the loop around Watson Lake we had a view of a section of the Granite Dells and the lake with the Granite Mountain Wilderness in the distance.

Looking across Watson Lake to Granite Mountain Wilderness

Next we came to an area of the Dells with fancifully-shaped rock formations, including a delicately balanced, seal-shaped protrusion (below left) and an attractive dead tree set against a background of granite (below right).

Seal-shaped formation Dead tree set against a granite cliff

At Granite Creek Dam we took a short spur trail to view the dam from below (below left). Near the dam were rock formations that resembled giant stone fish leaping upwards into the blue sky (below right). They looked very much like Roundtail Chub (Gila robusta), a native Arizona fish.

Granite Creek Dam from downstream    Leaping fish

We then climbed up to view the dam from the top. There are alternate routes and we found a sign with one arrow pointing to a “steep” trail and another pointing to a “steeper” trail. From the top we could see the San Francisco Peaks in the distance.

The San Francisco Peaks in the distance

From our vantage point high above the lake, we could look down on the dam itself (below left) and on a rather large island in the lake (below right).

Granite Creek Dam from above Island in Watson Lake

Along the opposite side of the lake from where we started we came to a shore that was lined with Domestic Geese near a boat dock. This area also included restrooms and benches.

Boat ramp on the west side of Watson Lake

After passing the boat ramp we were on Lower Granite Creek Discovery Trail which leads across Granite Creek at the south end of the lake and reconnects with Peavine Rail Trail very near where we were parked. This section of the loop, open to hikers, runners, horseback riders and bicyclists, is the easiest of trails with good trail surface and minimal elevation change. This section was welcomed after all the fun we had had following painted white dots up and over so many granite formations and climbing the steep section of trail to the dam overlook.

All the other hikers were moving along rather quickly since we would soon be back at the parking area, having nearly completed the loop around Watson Lake. While trying to keep up with them I did not pause to take any more photos. The trail meandered through a scenic riparian area before crossed over Granite Creek on a bridge. The area reminded me of the Riverfront and Jail Trails along the Verde River in Cottonwood.

Back at the parking lot we all said our goodbyes to Donna who lives in Prescott Valley and thus would not be going back to Cottonwood with us.

The hikers did not save a GPS Track for this hike so the track shown on the included map (below) may deviate slightly from the path actually hiked. The red track shows the actual loop while the blue track shows the short distance from the Sundog parking area to the start of the loop trail.

This loop hike itself as shown in red is 5.1 miles long, the highest elevation is 5249 feet and the total ascent is 656 feet. The short distance from the parking area to the loop is 0.4 miles with an elevation gain of about 20 feet. The total hike was about 5.9 miles.

This report was written by Daisy Williams and assembled, edited and posted online by Ellis Price with help from Lila Wright.