The Constellation Trails: Prescott Hiking Without a Fee

The Constellation Trails are the free way into the Granite Dells. Two and a half miles of loop, 232 feet of climb, no fee booth, and a network of paths threading between granite boulders the size of houses. It is the least formal of Prescott’s trail systems and the easiest to spend longer on than you planned.

The trails at a glance

The name is a plane crash

There is no stargazing connection. On 28 February 1959 a US Air Force Lockheed C-121G Super Constellation came down in the Dells on a training flight out of Phoenix, killing all five crew, and the trail system carries the aircraft’s name. The city acquired the land in 2008 and the first trails were laid out by a scout as an Eagle project. A memorial marks the crash site. People arrive expecting a dark-sky spot and find granite, which is a small disappointment easily avoided. If you actually want the night sky, that is a different trip and it is covered in stargazing around Prescott.

Getting turned around

The distances here are trivial and the navigation is not. The paths braid and rejoin, the boulders cut every sightline down to about thirty yards, and one slab of weathered granite looks a great deal like the next one. Junctions carry signs, but the signs name the loops rather than pointing at the car park, which is only useful if you already know which loop you are standing on.

Download the map before you leave the house. Signal in the rock is patchy in the same way it is everywhere in the area, which is explained in cell service around Groom Creek. Nobody is in real danger here, the road is never more than a mile away, but people do add an unplanned hour.

Why it is worth the trip anyway

It is free, which nothing else in the Dells is. It is short enough for a first morning or a spare afternoon. And it is the best place near Prescott to let children loose, because the trail is flat and easy while the boulders beside it are an unlimited scrambling problem. Families who find Watson Lake too busy on a weekend often end up here instead.

When to go

The Dells are exposed rock and they cook from late May through August. Morning or evening in summer, any time from October to April. Winter mornings after a light snow are the pick, when the granite goes dark and wet and the crowds vanish.

For the flat version of the same landscape, the Peavine Trail runs a rail grade through the middle of it. For the full comparison of what is walkable near town, see the best hikes around Prescott.