Hike to Yavapai Point

Hi Blog!

We finished up our stay in Salome by traveling back to Quartzsite to have lunch with Eric and Ginny. It may be a year before our paths cross again, but we know they will. Until then, stay thirsty my friends!

On Monday, February 25, 2019, we made our way over to Lake Pleasant Regional Park, a Maricopa County Park. The cornerstone of the park is the 10,000 acre Lake Pleasant, one of the important artificial reservoirs surrounding the Phoenix metropolitan area. The lake is a mecca for watersports of all types, and we are looking forward to finally getting a chance to put our kayaks in the water. However, it will have to wait for the weather to improve.

While the weather has warmed up, the winds are still a bit brisk for paddling. We decided to take a hike instead. We are camped in the Desert Tortoise Campground just off South Park Road. On Tuesday, February 26, we decided to drive over to the north section of the park and take a hike to Yavapai Point.

Here, Dave points the way:

Lake Pleasant Regional Park covers more than 23,000 acres of mountainous desert landscape. The saguaro cactus is one of the defining plants of the Sonoran Desert. These plants are large, tree-like columnar cacti that develop arms as they age, although some never grow arms. These arms generally bend upward and can number over 25. Saguaro can grow to be between 40-60 feet tall. When rain is plentiful and the saguaro is fully hydrated, it can weigh between 3200-4800 pounds.

In the photo below, Kathy stops to examine a particularly tall fellow.

Yavapai Point Trail is one of the newest trails at Lake Pleasant. The trail was completed in November 2014. Once the well marked trail comes off the Pipeline Canyon trail, it becomes moderate and narrow in spots, with some nice switchbacks. The view becomes better as you head up.  Jojoba, brittle brush and big Saguaro Cactus line the trail.

On the way up, we stopped and look down at the hikers on the Pipeline Trail  as they headed down toward the lake.

The higher we climbed, the further we could see. We looked down and saw a bridge crossing a very scenic looking cove. We decided, after reaching the summit, that we would go check out the bridge.

Looking down on Helm's Island and all the little islands around it made us excited to bring the kayaks back and paddle around them.

From our vantage point at the top of Yavapai Point, we could see the snowy peaks in the distance.

To see what we saw, click the link and get a 360-degree view at Lake Pleasant from the top of Yavapai Point.

On the way back down, we noticed that these little yellow flowers had opened to embrace the sun.

In order to reach the bridge, we had to hike back down to the junction with the Pipeline Canyon Trail. Check out the unusual saguaro standing guard at the trailhead.

The hike down to Pipeline Cove was about a mile. The bridge is actually a series of floating barges.

Below, Dave takes in the view up Pipeline Creek from the bridge.

After four miles of desert hiking, Kathy was more than ready to kick off her boots and soak her tootsies in the icy cold lake water.  We re-enacted this scene, but from the water point of view, in our blog entry of tomorrow, "Paddling Lake Pleasant - Part 1."

The hike back to the trailhead was filled with promises to come back and kayak the lakeshore and poke in all the coves we saw from above.

We finished our hike and joined our friends Ron and Dee for a great dinner at Rock Springs Cafe.  Established in 1918, Rock Springs Cafe is an historical landmark serving legendary pies.  As it turns out, we had actually been here before, back in 2000, when we took a car trip from Scottsdale to the Grand Canyon. Their pies are just as good as we remembered!