Prescott Arizona Part I

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Our next stop after Sedona was to be Prescott Arizona. We had done a very short day trip to Prescott back in February of 2018 when we were camping in Congress Arizona. It had really appealed to us for a couple main reasons. There seemed to be lots of really good hiking options in the area and from the several geocaches we did, we realized this was a surprisingly good area for geocaching. There is an Elks Lodge in nearby Prescott Valley that is one of the few we have come across that actually takes reservations. We had called to get a spot for 10 nights figuring that would give us a good chance to explore. The long range forecast was still looking promising for early November even though the area is just over 5000 feet.

It isn’t a long drive from Sedona to Prescott, but the most direct route on State Route 89A would not be a good choice for larger rigs. It’s okay between Sedona and Cottonwood and we have even driven this with the motorhome. But the rest of the drive is up and over the mountains and the town of Jerome. It’s worth a visit but has lots of hairpin curves with steep conditions. Even going the “long way” is only 60 miles. The camping area next to the lodge has about a dozen full hookup sites although it’s only 30 amp electric. The sites aren’t super spacious but not uncomfortably close and on the plus side, they have very decent WiFi available at the camp sites. At only $25 per night, it looks to be a good spot for our base for our ten nights.

Just over the hill from the lodge is Fain Park. While you cannot walk the quarter mile down the hill to the park, it’s only a 2/3 mile walk, drive, or bike ride along the roads. I did discover the 10% grade over the last quarter mile to the parking lot was much more fun by bike on the way down than on the way up! The main draw of the park appears to be the 3 acre lake created by a small dam. We make it to this park several times during our stay and there always are several people fishing. I don’t recall seeing any of them catching a fish so maybe they are just there for the scenery and peacefulness of the area. There are several miles of trails in the park and a handful of geocaches as well. It is definitely a pretty setting with the fall colors and a glassy lake on still days.

Fall Reflections at Fain Lake

If you are a geocacher, this area should be put on your list of places to visit if you’re anywhere nearby. There seems to be lots of good geocache hiders in the area but there is one that goes by the handle of “The Raven” who has put out some incredible caches. One of the top five caches we have found (and we’ve found well over 13,000) was one we did on our first trip. It’s called the Raven’s Labyrinth (read about that cache in this post). So we knew we had to try some more of this cacher’s hides. He has two caches based on Indiana Jones that sounded really good. You must find the first one in order to get info for the second one so we figured we should go for them early in our stay in case they required multiple attempts.

The first cache brought us to the very unique looking Prescott Valley library. We have visited many libraries in our years of traveling and have done a handful of geocaches that are either hidden in or at least require a visit to a library in order to find the cache. This one was the most elaborate. We spent a good 90 minutes exploring the library looking for several medallions hiding inside. We were only given cryptic clues of where to look so we found ourselves crisscrossing the library multiple times trying to find the silver dollar sized clues. Obviously the Raven had worked closely with library staff in order to get all the clues hidden and to allow a final container to be hidden as well. Once we found the medallions, we had the required info to open the large cryptex and sign the logbook. But that wasn’t all we needed to accomplish because there was still information that needed to be found hiding in the cache container in order to be able to go for the second Indiana Jones cache. It took us a while and required us to use a black light to even read the clues. Fortunately, one of the small meeting rooms was available so we were able to perform all this work without other patrons staring at us. Afterwards we headed out to a small park like area next to the library to check out some of the metal artwork.

We would have attempted the second part of geocache series the next day but the weather was pretty miserable and we knew the next one would require a bit of a hike. We have had our fair share of rain and wind and even a dusting of snow since going full time. But apparently we hadn’t experienced hail while being cooped up in the rig. Fortunately the it wasn’t really large hail which might damage the rig or the Jeep, but it was bigger than a chick pea. The sound of the hail on the roof was unlike anything we have heard before. Deafening would be a good description.

Hail on Wipers

By late afternoon, the front had moved thru and the skies cleared a bit and we headed out for another Raven cache. This one brought us to a pedestrian tunnel underneath an expressway. The goal here was to find clues inside the tunnel which would allow us to unlock a cryptex hidden just outside of the tunnel. It is nearly 500 feet long and we were needing to find numbers that were written on the sides of the tunnel. Of course the numbers aren’t visible to the human eye without the use of a black light. I lost track of how many times we walked back and forth thru the tunnel but we could only come up with 9 of the 10 required numbers. I suspect our puny black light was too dim to overcome the now bright sun on the southern end of the tunnel. But we had enough information to open the container and sign the log. Having made a couple containers like this, I was impressed with the craftsmanship of his design.

Cryptex at End of Tunnel

The following morning was a much nicer start to the day so we headed out to tackle the second part of the Indiana Jones cache. We had a good idea of what to expect. We knew it was going to be in an abandoned mine shaft, and we would need a both a normal flashlight and our now trusty black light. We drove the Jeep as far as we dared and set off to hike up the steep trail to the entrance to the cave just over half a mile away. We had no real difficulty finding the entrance and there aren’t any warning signs or obstacles one must go past to enter cave - as long as you don’t listen to the voice in your head questioning your sanity for doing so. Fortunately the four hundred feet of cave had adequate headroom and was wide enough to not bring out any claustrophobic fears. The goal here was similar to the tunnel yesterday. Find symbols hidden along the length of the cave with the black light in order to open another cryptex container hidden deep in the cave.

Cave Entrance

Continue Deeper into Cave

We found several symbols along the way but it was much more of a challenge since the sides of the cave were not smooth like the tunnel. Some symbols could only be seen when facing into the cave while other required facing out. Plus the cave floor was rocky and littered with debris making walking without tripping tough. The normal flashlight was required to move, but then only the black light could be on to search for the symbols. It was tedious but after a few hundred feet we had found 6 symbols and also discovered the cryptex secretly hidden inside a railroad tie.

Indiana Jones Cryptex

Alas, we needed more symbols since there were 10 dials on the container. We proceeded to the very end of the cave another 50 feet past the container and found another 2 symbols. As we turned around to attempt to find the last two symbols, we could see the faint light from the opening in the distance. There were strange shadows that we couldn’t identify. I knew it wasn’t a person or animal walking in because it looked more like something flying. It didn’t take long to realize there were 3 or 4 bats inside the cave with us. As we worked our way out, we found it nearly impossible to look for the remaining symbols while worrying about the nearby bats. Towards the end of the cave, we nearly ran out to escape the bats and our fears. After the fact, the cache owner sent me a photo they had taken of a bat up close and personal. So glad we didn’t have that clear of an image while we were still in the cave!

End of Cave

Attack Bat!!!

We sat outside the cave opening in the bright sunshine and evaluated our options. We really wanted to open that cache, but even more so, we didn’t want to be bitten by bats in the process. So far we had spent the better part of the morning with little to show for it. We concluded that we should go back to the car for lunch and also find a few of the other caches further out the trail. Our logic was that if we killed an hour or two, maybe the bats will have settled down a bit and we could sneak in, find the remaining symbols, open the cache and exit the cave without attack. Sounded like a plan to us. Just up the trail from the cave we’re a few dilapidated houses from the mining days in the area.

Needs Some TLC

Possibly Only Good for Bonfire?

After lunch, we retraced our steps to the cave opening. This time we were a bit more prepared. I was wearing my heavy fleece. Not for the cool cave but as an added level of protection from bats. Our plan was simple. Head to the very back of the cave quickly and then work our way out. We found it easier to see the bats with the backlighting of the cave opening as we worked our way out. This time were were much more deliberate with our investigation which took a lot longer but allowed us to spot what we had missed earlier. With all the needed symbols, we headed back to the container and successfully opened it and then headed out. It wasn’t until we were just about to exit that we spotted unhappy bats overhead but we had made it. I wonder if this is how Indiana Jones felt after one of his missions?

The following day we decided for a much more mundane activity - a hike, no bats, no cave - just a hike. Watson Lake is situated about 4 miles west of the lodge although the drive is more than double that distance. We head to Watson Lake Park to start and pay the $3 entrance fee. We later find other free parking options, but this one is rather convenient. The hiking trail around the lake is 5 miles and we decide to go in a clockwise direction. There isn’t much elevation change so there either way would work fine. The view of the lake from the park rivals the view you might have at more famous national parks. We were blown away by the rock formations and the color variations due to the low water level.

Watson Lake

Reflections

 The trail is pretty well parked with trail markers every so often especially at intersecting trails. Along the way, there are numerous white spray paint marks on the rock where signs would be impractical. It reminded us of the trails in Acadia National Park except there, the paint is light blue. I would vote for light blue over white since bird poop could be mistaken for a white trail spot. We did find the humor in the one intersection where the trail splits and the sign warns of your choices being “STEEP” or “STEEPER”.

Follow the White Dots

Your Choice: Steep or Steeper

When we get close to the northern end of the lake, we see the dam that produces this lake. The rock formations are just astounding and don’t look like they could be made naturally. It reminds us of places like Joshua Tree National Park and Chiricahua National Monument. As we make the turn over the top of the lake and start to head south, we run parallel to the Peavine Trail. It’s an old rail trail that can be reached from several spur trails but we are finding walking closer to the rocks to be much more interesting.

Dam at North End of Watson Lake

Who Stacked the Rocks?

We are eventually forced to follow the Peavine Trail since the Watson Loop Trail joins it along the southern end of the trail. The second half of the loop couldn’t be more different than the first half. Don’t get me wrong, it would be a pretty walk around the lake even if it all looked like the southern end. But what makes this hike one of our favorites in some time is the northern half. Heck, if we were inclined to come back for a repeat hike, I might just turn around at the halfway point and head back the way we came and treat it like an out and back trail rather than a loop. That’s how beautiful the first half was.

South End of Watson Lake

Early in our stay at the lodge, we had gone to one of the dinners there. We had met a local couple and got to talking to them about hikes in the area. They had suggested one that we likely would not have stumbled upon otherwise. They called it the big tree hike and gave us the general location of the trailhead. After checking out our hiking, mountain biking and geocaching apps, we discovered the Giant Alligator Juniper Trail was the more official name for the hike. It’s a just under a 5 mile hike out and back to this particular tree and there is even a geocache nearby. What makes this tree so special? Well it is believed to be the largest and oldest alligator juniper tree in the country if not the world. This type of tree is common in this part of Arizona and is so named because as the tree matures, it’s bark takes on the appearance of alligator skin. This particular tree is estimated to be many hundreds if not over a 1000 years old. It also has a circumference of 26 feet while a more typical tree would be less than 10 feet circumference.

The hike was pleasant although there are some very sandy spots making for more difficult walking. Along the way are some good views of distant mountains and even some outcropping of rocks that look like those we saw at Watson Lake. There are lots of other trails so we were glad we had the coordinates of the geocache to help us choose which way to turn at various intersections. As we got within a hundred feet of the tree, it was clear which one was the champion tree. It dwarfs the other trees in the vicinity.

Distant Mountains

Boulders

Giant Alligator Juniper

While this tree was unique on its own, in June of 2013 it became that much more special. On the 18th of that month, the Doce Fire started about 2.5 miles from this spot and within hours was threatening to destroy this large specimen. The twenty members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots out of Prescott were called in to attempt to save this tree from the approaching fire. With lots of hard work they succeeded in clearing the area around the tree and managed to save it as the fire came thru the immediate area. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. Twelve days later, the same crew was dispatched to help with the Yarnell Hill Fire about 30 miles to the south. During that fire, 19 of the 20 members of the team perished in the fire when the winds shifted and trapped them. If you are in the Prescott area, the Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial State Park is a must do. We did the hike during our earlier visit to the area and it remains to this day the most moving hike we have done. Here at the giant juniper, there are numerous tributes that have been left in remembrance of those lost. This was a pretty moving location as well and worth the effort to get here.

Plaque at Giant Tree

Some of the Remembrances Placed at Tree

Colorful Painted Stone

Colorful Signed Stones

On the Way Back

We were enjoying the area so much that we decided to see if we could extend our stay for an additional week. The campground host checked his schedule and found he could let us stay in the same spot. The rest of our time in Prescott will be in the next blog post.