Granite Mountain's Backside ;)

I've ridden Granite Mountain in Prescott a few times, but we have always driven up into Prescott and taken Williamson Valley Road to the trailhead there. This time JoAnn posted a ride from the WEST side of Granite Mountain, off Contreras Road... which saved us almost half an hour of driving time! It was a lovely trail although it got pretty hairy in a couple of places, JoAnn hadn't been on it since last year and the spring run-off washed out a few areas... we all got through just fine though and had a fabulous day! I took Glory again, to give her a taste of the altitude before asking her to do the 25-mile Man-Against-Horse next weekend...

Just a few pics from our day:
Our fearless leader JoAnn, on Dandy.

Benjamin... isn't he handsome? The license plate holder on Sheila's trailer says "Benjamin the Wonder Horse" so I asked her about it... she said, it's because for the first six months she had him, she wondered why she bought him! Well it seems the first six months was worth it, Benjamin is a great trail horse now!


Couldn't resist this one... {it's Laurie and Topper}

This is "The Big Tree", a huge alligator juniper... JoAnn told us it has been written up in the Arizona Highways as one of the 10 largest trees in our state!

Looking back at our group - yup Glory was up front most of the time!

Loved this rock and dead tree...

And another dead tree, I jus tlove this type of silhouette shot!

Out "token male" on this ride ;)

You could sure tell where the water was underground!