Prescott With a Dog: Trails, Rules and Where Not to Take Them

Prescott is a good place to walk a dog and a bad place to swim one. The trails are open, the rules are simple, and the two things that catch visitors out are the swimming ban and the heat on the rock.

An honest note first

Our own cabins are pet free. Both of them, deliberately, and we do not make exceptions. If you are travelling with a dog you will be staying somewhere else in the area, and the trail information below is still the same information.

Why a property would be pet free rather than merely no-pets-this-booking is a real distinction, and it is set out in pet-free cabins near Prescott.

Where dogs can go

Leash rules apply throughout. Prescott National Forest and the City of Prescott both require it, and the trails are busy enough with bikes and horses that it is not a formality.

The swimming ban applies to dogs too

This is the one that disappoints people most. Watson, Willow, Goldwater and Lynx all prohibit swimming, for people and for dogs. They are drinking-water reservoirs and recreation lakes, not swimming holes, and the ban is enforced.

You can paddle a boat with a dog aboard. You cannot let it swim off the bank. If your idea of the trip was a retriever in a lake, this is genuinely the wrong destination and it is better to know now. The five lakes are compared in Prescott’s five lakes.

Heat and paws

The Granite Dells are bare granite, and bare granite in June is hot enough to burn pads. The back of your hand held to the rock for five seconds is the usual test. If you cannot hold it there, the dog should not be walking on it.

The practical answer in summer is to walk early, walk late, or walk in the pines. The Groom Creek Loop and the trails at that elevation are shaded and ten to fifteen degrees cooler than the trails around Watson Lake, which is the whole reason people hike on this side of town in July.

Water and elevation

There is no water on any of the local trails. None. Carry it for the dog as well as yourself, which on a warm day on Granite Mountain is a meaningful amount of weight.

Dogs notice elevation in the same mild way people do, described in what 5,350 feet does to you. An older or unfit dog arriving from Phoenix will tire faster on day one. Start with something flat.

Fire restrictions

In summer, restrictions cover far more than campfires, and in stage two even where you park matters because a hot exhaust over dry grass starts fires. That affects where you can pull off for a walk. See fire restrictions around Prescott.