Thumb Butte Trail #33: What the Loop Is Actually Like

Thumb Butte is the blunt rock on Prescott’s western skyline, and Trail #33 is the two-mile loop that goes up and around it. It is the first hike most visitors do and the one locals take guests on. Two things surprise people: a good stretch of it is paved, and the trail never reaches the top.

The loop at a glance

Walk it counterclockwise

The loop is steep on one side and gentle on the other. Counterclockwise gives you the long gradual climb and saves the steep paved pitch for the way down, which is easier on the lungs and harder on the knees. Clockwise reverses that trade. Most people who describe Thumb Butte as brutal walked it clockwise without meaning to, because the clockwise arm is the one the parking area points you at.

The paving is not a decoration. The east side sheds enough water in a monsoon storm to strip the soil off the slope, and the Forest Service surfaced it to stop the trail eroding into a gully. It ends well before the top.

The trail stops below the summit

The high point of the loop is a saddle underneath the vertical slabs that form the butte’s head. That is where the view is, and it is the spot on everyone’s phone: Prescott spread out below, the Bradshaws behind it, and on a clear day the San Francisco Peaks 80 miles north.

Getting onto the summit block itself is a scramble on rock, not a walk, and the top portion closes in spring while peregrine falcons nest. The closure applies to the rock, not the trail. The loop stays open year round. This catches people out the same way the Granite Mountain closure does, where the seasonal restriction covers cliff climbing and leaves every system trail open.

Parking and the fee

Thumb Butte Recreation Area charges $5 per vehicle per day, and every Wednesday is free across Prescott National Forest day-use sites. The same $5 covers Lynx Lake and Granite Basin, so a single Wednesday can take in more than one of them without paying anything. The city lakes run a separate but identical scheme, which is laid out in what a Prescott trip costs.

The lot is small and it fills on weekend mornings between about 8 and 11. There is roadside parking further down Thumb Butte Road when it does.

When to go

Thumb Butte faces the afternoon sun and holds heat. In June and early July the sensible window is before 9am. From October to April it is comfortable any time of day, and after a snowfall the paved pitch turns to ice while the dirt side stays walkable, which is another argument for going counterclockwise.

It is 20 minutes from Groom Creek, on the far side of town. If you want something closer to the cabins, the Groom Creek Loop starts at the horse camp up the road, and the full ten-trail comparison is in the best hikes around Prescott.