This weekend we hiked trail #307 in Prescott. We made a wrong turn on the way up and ended up driving through Jerome. We stayed at Lower Wolf Creek campground, and drove to What-A-Burger in the morning to pick up forks. Then we set off to reach the fire lookout. The book said a nice 8 mile hike. It turned out to be a 1,300 ft elevation gain over 3 1/2 miles! It took us 4 hours to get up there. But, at the top we got invited up to the top of the observation tower by Susie, and Steven made it all the way up! Steven said, "I felt like I was on top of the world. You had a 360 degree view of everything!" Susie showed us how to figure out where a fire was by using a map and site, and she said she sleeps there about half the time. She works there five days a week during the summer.
We hiked another 1 1/2 miles and set up our tent. We hung the bear bag, and promptly lost track of where we put it, and all night I thought I heard a bear trying to knock it down! We hike 4 miles down the next morning. We saw at least 6 deer along the trail. We ate a hearty lunch a Wildflower!
Overall, we would rate this hike an average of 7 1/2. Kevin and Mom rated it 6 and 7 because we didn't think it was as hard a walk, but Dad and Steven rated it a 8 and 8 1/2 for it's beautiful forest. We all agreed we would choose this hike over the rim walk. It covers desert, chaparral, and pine forest...truly beautiful!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment