Ben, Marilyn, Linda, DeAnn, and I hiked the Granite Mountain Trail on Friday.  Near Prescott, this was a new trail to all of us. We hiked nearly nine miles with over 1800 feet of total ascent.

We saw this prominent rock formation throughout the beginning and end of our hike, while we were at the lower elevations.  We eventually ended up just below the summit rocks in the photo. (I made it part way to the top, but I stopped when I became unsure of the downclimb.)

Signing in at the register…

(Photo Credit: Linda Kalbach)

The trail was flat at the beginning. The trail crossed this small stream at several points.

From back to front, Ben, Marilyn, Linda, and DeAnn:

A dead tree; the San Francisco Peaks are in the distance at the far right in this photo.

Another view to the northeast:

A burned tree:

The trail led us to a sort of bowl-like area ringed with these small peaks.

DeAnn, Marilyn, Linda, and Ben:

More burned / dead trees:

We saw these tall stalks at various points along the way – none of us knew what they are though.

Linda, looking through a hole in another burned tree:

We stopped for lunch near this spot.

Kevin, near the peak:

I climbed a bit higher and took this photo of the rest of the group:

Linda took this photo of me as I tried to make my way to the summit:

(Photo Credit: Linda Kalbach)

I made it up only 20 more feet beyond this point.

This is some sort of dead flower.

On the way down, we walked out on this large flat boulder beside the trail:

(Photo Credit: Linda Kalbach)

On the way back down, I photographed another of the talk stalks in front of a small waterfall.

A close-up view of the top of the stalk:

An unknown red flower:

Verbena:

Another unknown flower:

A view of the forest near the end:

On the way back, we saw a dam (?) that we missed earlier in the day.