As you can well imagine, John spends a lot of time researching hiking trails.  He reads hiking books, visits other people's websites, studies Forest Service maps, and plays with the digital topographical maps, in hopes of finding more hiking trails for us to do.  That is how he finds some of the best trails that we have hiked to date; and that was how he discovered the Mint Wash Loop.

Located near Prescott, in the Granite Mountain Recreation Area, the Mint Wash Loop is a three-mile, kid- friendly hike.  The loop consists of four different trails: the Mint Wash Trail #345, the Mint Wash Connector Trail #352, the Chimbly Water Trail #348, and the West Lake Trail #351.  It sounded confusing, but John managed to find a good map of the trails on the Prescott Forest's website; we would have no problem figuring out where to go.

Once we had our hike figured out, John then selected a series of geocaches for us to find along the route, and he loaded the coordinates onto the GPS.  There weren't any caches to be found along the trail, but there were plenty to find on the road and in the Granite Mountain Recreation Area.  Between the hike and the geocaches, we had a great day of adventure ahead of us.

Our hiking adventure took place on Sunday, March 30, less than a week after we returned from our vacation in South Carolina.  Around 7:30 a.m., we loaded up our hiking gear and headed out towards Prescott.  To get there, we took I-17 north to the Prescott exit (SR 69).  Along the way, we stopped at the Badger Springs Exit to look for a pair of geocaches, one of which we had searched for several times in the past.  This particular one was just evil - "diabolical", you could say - but this time, we actually found it.  It was a very clever hide; we had to applaud the cachers who had hidden it.

We also stopped at the Sunset Point Rest Area, where we looked for two other caches; we only found one, and that was only because Mary spotted it right away, while she was squatting to pee.  These two were hidden by the same person who had hidden the one at Badger Springs, and like that one, the one that we found was cleverly-hidden.

We exited I-17 and turned onto SR 69, where we found more geocaches; later, while on Iron Springs Road, just before turning off onto Granite Basin Road, we found another cache, for a total of seven caches - all before we ever made it to the trailhead!  And there were more to be found, but not until our day hike was over.

We arrived at the trailhead - at Granite Basin Lake - around 9:45 a.m.  By that time, the winds had picked up, and they were howling.  It was going to be a blustery day on the trail.

Around 10:00 a.m., we walked past the dam and stepped onto the trail...and that was when the confusion began.  There were several paths to take, but it wasn't clear which one was the correct one that would take us on the clockwise loop.  After consulting the map, John took a wild guess and suggested that we take the path that crossed the creek; as luck would have it, that was the correct path.  On the other side of the creek, we found ourselves on the Mint Wash Trail #345.

The trail climbed slightly and followed the creek for about a half of a mile; along the way, we found lots of large boulders lining the trail.  Mary insisted that we stop so that she could climb up on one - after all, she loves to climb on boulders.  We only spent a few minutes playing, though, because the wind was so strong and cold that we didn't want to linger for too long.

After a half of a mile or so, we reached the junction with the Mint Wash Connector Trail #352; at that point, we turned right and crossed the creek.  Along this stretch of the trail, it was very exposed, which meant that we wouldn't have anything to protect us from the wind...and, of course, the wind was still howling!

The Mint Wash Connector Trail soon started climbing towards a saddle; about halfway up, we stopped in a rare shady spot and ate lunch.  It was the perfect opportunity for us to refuel before taking on the rest of the climb.  True, it wasn't a very difficult climb, but with the wind whipping by us, it wore us out faster.

Once we were fed and rested, we continued on towards the saddle. Along the way, we turned around and took in the view of the Granite Mountains behind us; they were breathtaking - definitely one of the prettier wilderness areas.  Too bad we wouldn't be hiking there today...

After cresting the saddle, the trail started back downhill again and eventually connected with the Chimbly Water Trail #348, at the bottom.  Once on the other side of the saddle, we had a little more shade, and that gave us the wind-break that we needed.

By the time we connected with the Chimbly Water Trail, we were two-thirds of the way done with our hike.  That was good news for Mary, who was getting tired already.  We stopped at the junction and took an extended break to help energize her before we kept hiking.

We hiked a quarter of a mile on the Chimbly Water Trail; then, we came to yet another trail junction - this time, with the West Lake Trail #351.  As we turned onto this trail, it was evident that we were no longer in the wild, because we were now hiking alongside of Granite Basin Road.  We continued like that for a half-mile before reaching one last trail junction, with the Mint Wash Trail #345.

The last quarter-mile of our hike was on the Mint Wash Trail, which took us right back to the trailhead.  Along the way, we passed by a group of horseback riders, who were getting ready to hit the trail.  There must have been ten horses and riders - I think it was the biggest group of riders we had ever seen on the trail!

At 1:00 p.m., we finally arrived at the trailhead, having completed a three-mile loop.  It had been so much fun that John and I suggested that we do it again.  "No!" Mary shouted.  She was done hiking for the day...

...Or so she thought!

On the way out of the Granite Basin Recreation Area, we decided to stop to find another geocache; this one was in the overflow campground, which was still closed for the season.  That meant that we had to park at the gate and walk a quarter of a mile to get to it.  Hiking into the campground wasn't that bad (although Mary would tend to disagree with that!); however, the cache wasn't hidden in the campground but on the hillside overlooking the campground!  Knowing that Mary was not going to make it up the hill, John went up by himself to claim the cache.

After that, there were only two more caches to find along our route home, but neither one of them required any sort of hiking.  They were both located just off of the road, outside of the Granite Basin Recreation Area.  We found both of them, for a total of ten finds for the day; after that, Mary fell asleep in the backseat of the car, and that put an end to our geocaching fun for the day.

So, with Sleeping Beauty tuckered out in the backseat, we decided to call it a day and head home.  Another fun - but windy! - adventure was over...

Return to Naked in the Woods.