A week in Prescott Valley and the Iron King Trail on Sunday, May 27, 2018

We have been enjoying our time in Prescott Valley - the weather has been sunny and pleasant with mostly gentle breezes.  One day, I walked to the local Safeway - it is a little more than two miles and passes by a large apartment complex which is nicely irrigated and landscaped - but it appears that the daffodils have came and gone, as only one blossom was left.

Among other things, I attended the local Habitat for Humanity Volunteer orientation on Thursday; Friday, Patty did yoga at Lotus Bloom Yoga Studio and I did the Silver Sneakers exercise class at the YMCA (three years ago when we were renting in Prescott, we did this class three times per week); Saturday, I volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity Restore while Patty went to the Prescott Farmers Market and to the library.  On Sunday we decided to hike the Iron King Trail, a four mile trail that runs west from the trail head.

Online and at the trail head, the map shows a four mile hike to the Peavine Trail where we hiked  a week ago.  Besides a number of train related things at the trail head, the maps and online descriptions talk about a number of railroad related items on display, at several mile markers along the trail - this is because the trail follows the old rail bed.  The trail head met the description.

We set out and went through a tunnel that passed under the Glasford Hill Parkway.  To our surprise, the trail did not seem to continue on the rail bed.  We asked some cyclists and found out that all the construction pushed the trail over to a paved trail for about a mile and half.  Besides all the home construction, there is a major storm water construction project.

Eventually, the trail returned to the original rail bed trail -  but it was fenced in to keep hikers and cyclists on the trail and out of the construction.

Besides all the trees being planted for the storm water runoff control, we did see a few wildflowers growing.

One of the railroad items is a bridge over what today was a dry gulch.  It has been modified for hikers and bikers, and is surrounded by construction for the rain water runoff control.

Finally we came to the end of the rain water runoff control construction on one side of the trail.  On the other side, it was the end of all the construction for buried utilities, streets and home construction.

Just past the end of the construction, we came to another relic from the rail road history.

While the trail continues in a rather unremarkable area, the trail soon begins to enter different topography and scenery.

There were cattle grazing on the north side of the trail.

And the trail continued to rise towards the hills it needs to pass through to connect with the Peavine Trail.

At that point, we had gone three miles, so we turned and headed back to the trail head.

Highlands Center for Natural History, Tuesday, May 22, 2018

After finding a parking spot in the shade, we went to the visitor center and gift shop.  It is a new building built with passive solar to take advantage of natural light and heat.

We learned about some of the upcoming events, including some behind the scenes tours and Shakespeare in the park - we will be adding several of these to our calendar.

Besides beautiful plantings, there are some interesting sculpture.

We started out on one of the handicap accessible trails that leads to the amphitheater where some students and teachers were being introduced to the center by local docents.

From there, the trails were easy to walk through the woods of the Prescott National Forest.

We came across this small bed of cacti growing in a boulder on the side of the trail.

The Prescott National Forest is a working forest.  Besides areas for recreation like the Highlands Center and the nearby Lynx Lake, the forest is managed and harvested.

We passed a small spring which created a narrow ribbon of green riparian area.

We came across several park benches, all of this style with memorial plaques telling who was being recognized by the bench.

But then we came to this different bench.

On the bench were these small critters - that were made of metal and welded to the bench.

We sat there for a few minutes enjoying the quiet and the dry stream bed before us.

On the tree next to the bench we saw numerous decorations, including gems and angels.

And the bench was labelled with a sign reminding us that "All you need is love."

From that bench, we turned and headed back to the center.  Along the way we had noticed several of these buildings powered by solar electric power - we will have to search more to find out what they are monitoring.

We also saw signs showing the  boundary of the Highlands Center within the Prescott National Forest.

We also passed a monarch waystation and a meadow that was being restored.

It was a great day to walk in the woods - light breezes, temps in the low 70s, trees, blue skies and a  few white wispy clouds.