Granite Mountain Trail

Great hike! Challenging but not overly difficult. Great views the entire way up!

love this trail. great views from the saddle of Prescott and Williamson valley.

I love this hike . such a great workout with stunning views the whole way

great hike

this is a great hike even with burned out areas due to recent fires! it will get your heart pumping and has awesome views from the top. it took us 2 hours going up and a little less coming down. very nice trail and well maintained. highly recommend.

First mile is lovely but pretty barren after that due to a previous forest fire. I'd skip
It if you had only one day to hike in Prescott

beautiful trail would recommend doing this trail in January still cold but beautiful.

Had a blast!

Geat day to the top! Got warm on our decent. Wish we could start at dawn but gates don't open til 6 am, but the hike up was mostly shaded and very enjoyable. Passed a few other hikers and well behaved dogs. The view was hazy but still breathtaking as we ate a snack before our decent.

Just to clarify: this is not the Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial Trail, as some other reviews had previously alluded. Go to the memorial park website for details on that separate trail. This is a lovely and scenic hike up Granite Mountain itself. Flat and shady for the first few miles then steeper and exposed but rewarding at the top for your hard work!

Absolutely loved this trail!

Great hike and a peaceful memorial for the 19 hotshots that died there. You start out climbing up on the trail, which is narrow. Very windy, with beautiful wildflowers and charred trees left from the fire. Once you get to the observation deck, you can climb down to the memorial, which is worth it. Not too busy for a Saturday. Well marked trail and great views!

Great trail with a pleasant walk though ponderosas then a good pump climb with southern exposure through a burn area to top out. there's also a class 4 climb to get the peak, however you don't need to do it to get the amazing views of Prescott and surroundings. It took me about 5 hours for the hike with a fairly long break at the top. I drank about .5 to .75 gallons of water leaving the trail head at 11 am on a unusually warm early March day. I'm out of shape as well. Happy Trails!

Love this trail, have done it three times. Only sad think is some of the trees near the top burned during a fire a few years ago, and I had hiked it before that, but still is a gorgeous hike. It is strenuous for me, as I'm a little out of shape hiking wise. First times I did it(years ago) with a heavy pack as training, but if you're used to rocky switchbacks this hike won't be hard for you. That's the middle section of the hike, before that and after that is pretty easy. At the top, if you rock scramble a little way further there's like a perfect chair like shaped space to sit and relax before starting back down.

Good hard hike. Trail is super wait. In the low ground is very wet an muddy. Streams crossing and going down the trail. High ground there's a lot of snow and ice. I could only make it to the saddle due to snow. It was as high as hip deep(I'm 6'4"). And no one has cleared the path higher than the saddle.

Love this place. Very nice gravel trail. Easy to walk on, gorgeous views. I'll be back!

An amazing hike! The memorial is absolutely beautiful and the hike is pretty strenuous which makes you appreciate these wonderful hero's.

Great hike! Pleasantly surprised by all the beautiful wild flowers! A great day

Rough hike once you actually hit the mountain, but the view is worth it.

definitely not a difficult trail, more like moderate. well marked. couldn't find the last 0.6 mile which is somewhere beyond the giant boulders at the top. was very fun.

Rode mountain bikes.

Mostly on the sunny side of the mountain so bring water. The overlook at the end of the trail is beautiful. The switchbacks were a good workout. We did see a poisonous snake so keep your eyes open. The water at the parking lot is OK to drink.

Loved it! Great Challenge. Great Views. The scenery around last years burn was breath taking and reflective. Beautiful purple flowers growing along the path are a start contrast to the blackened trees and decomposed granite. Started early and enjoyed the weather.

This is a fantastic hike. The first 2 miles are nearly flat as a pancake and the next 2....well that is a different story. Great workout, great views, great hike!

This is by fair my favorite hike in the Prescott area. And it was my first big hike since I have started the hobby so that might be why I am partial. This is a great day hike. We made a lot of stops along the way to look around and rest though so it probably took longer than most. Luckily I had an experienced hiker with me so he knew to bring along a day pack with plenty of water and sandwiches/snacks. Unfortunatly I hiked this after the Doce fire so I saw a lot of devastation but it was still a beautiful hike with lovely views up to the top. A lot of uphill so get ready for some excercise but it was zig zagged so it made it easier on my inexperienced legs. I really enjoyed this hike and want to do it again. We passed many people along the way but hardly any when we got closer to the top. When we got to the top we enjoyed our lunch and the beauty of the quiet views.

Great trail for an afternoon hike. Well marked. Some great vistas to enjoy. I did it in running shoes and about a liter of water. Round trip in just under 3 hours. Would definitely go again.

Great season opener! Left cold, dead-on-its-feet Flagstaff for warmer weather and hiked this trail from the Metate Trailhead to the Granite Mountain Vista Point. First hike since October 2012 and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Only reason it doesn't get 4 stars is due to view at Vista Point...not much going on there. Total distance out and back was 8.66 mile GPSr. Elevation gain was 1436'. My numbers agree with 'Net sites other than this one. Tempted to edit info on this site but not my thing. Total time on the trail was less than 4 hours. Overall grade averaged 6% but its nearly 9% from about 2 miles in to the ridge line. There was still some snow in places and a bit muddy in others. This trail surely gets pretty warm in the summer but today was spectacular. We rated this a blue square effort. Note: go right at the ridge line sign to the vista.

This was a great little hike. Very few on the trail. I was expecting it to be quite a bit cooler than it was. All in all it was a great day for this hike in Prescott. Very enjoyable....

Ok so this isn't so fair as we live close to these trails. We have been on most of the close trails especially when the trail is used by our company as it's a great place to take guys on hikes.