48 Hours in Prescott: The Perfect Weekend

Two days is enough for Prescott, because everything is close. Courthouse Plaza, three lakes and trailheads on both sides of town all sit inside a 20-minute drive.

Here is the weekend, with times.

The plan

Friday evening

Check in is 4:00 PM, so aim to leave Phoenix by two. It is about 100 miles and just under two hours up I-17 and west on Highway 69, plus 15 minutes to get south into Groom Creek.

Drop the bags, then head back into town for dinner and Whiskey Row. One block of saloons facing the courthouse, most with live music at weekends. Where to eat has the full list, but The Palace is the one to book if you want history with dinner.

Home to the hot tub. At 6,400 feet with no city glow, the sky is the thing nobody expects.

Saturday, the big day

Morning, 7:30. Hike while it is cool. Two choices depending on appetite:

• Thumb Butte #33, 2 miles and 603 feet of climb, done in 90 minutes with the best view over town.
• Spruce Mountain via the Groom Creek Loop #307, 9.2 miles and 1,614 feet to a fire lookout at 7,693 feet. Half a day, and the trailhead is seven minutes from the cabins.

The full trail comparison has eight more with distances and fees. Forest day-use parking is $5 a vehicle, and free on Wednesdays.

Midday. Goldwater Lake for the picnic version or Lynx Lake for the flat 2.3-mile loop and a paddle. Both are shaded, both are 15 minutes away, and both are the right call after a morning climb.

Late afternoon, 4:30. Watson Lake and the Granite Dells at golden hour. This is the photograph you came for: orange granite boulders standing in still water, looking nothing like the rest of Arizona. Walk the flat Peavine Trail or get a kayak on the water.

Evening. Dinner downtown, then back for the fire pit, unless it is fire-ban season, which runs through most of the summer. The hot tub is never banned.

Sunday, a slow finish

Coffee and a wander around Courthouse Plaza, which is at its best on a Sunday morning when the shops open and there is often music on the bandstand. Check-out is a relaxed 10:00 AM.

If you have a third day, Jerome is an hour away and is a genuine mining ghost town clinging to a hillside. Sedona is 90 minutes and is a different, busier proposition, which we get into in Prescott vs Sedona.

The variants

In July and August, move everything an hour earlier. Monsoon storms build in the afternoon and you want to be off exposed granite by two. The storms pass in an hour and drop the temperature 15 degrees, so they are worth waiting out rather than driving home through.

In December, drop the lakes. Do the plaza in the evening instead, under the Christmas lights, and give Saturday afternoon to downtown. Prescott takes the Christmas City thing seriously and it is the better version of the weekend at that time of year. See what each month is like.

With kids, swap Thumb Butte for the Peavine Trail, which is a flat old railroad grade, and give the whole afternoon to Lynx Lake. More in Prescott with kids.

Without a car, stay downtown instead. This itinerary assumes you are driving, and everything outside the plaza needs a vehicle.

Where to stay

Both of our cabins are 15 minutes from everything on this list, with a private hot tub for the end of each day and a full kitchen so Saturday breakfast is not another queue. Summer and holiday weekends fill first. See what is open.