Quartz Mountain

Yesterday, Mike and I went hiking to the top of Quartz Mountain. We parked at the end of the pavement in Mike's Mom's neighborhood, hiked a little over a mile, and then hiked to the peak of Quartz Mountain. The mountain was aptly named...there was a bunch of quartz all over the place, especially at the top :)



This is what the ground we were hiking on looked like. The gravel was made of quartz.


Mike holding a century plant. This one is dead. They only bloom once every 100 years and I got to see them in bloom last summer :)


This was a cool tree that was burned in the wildfires of 2002. This entire trail and mountain used to be covered in Pines that were well over 60 feet tall. This is what remains and has grown back since the wildfires.


This is the peak of Quartz Mountain from the path we are hiking along.


This is a cool rock/boulder at the peak.






I was sitting on the quartz boulder behind me and this is what was beneath me. A lot of quartz and the path.


Here's Mike at the top with me.


And here I am again :)




The big pink mountain in the background is Granite Mountain and the smaller, darker butte in front of it is Thumb Butte. They are the two most well-known landmarks in the Prescott Area.






Video of the view from the peak of Quartz Mountain


Video of us beginning to hike back down


Damage from the wildfires of 2002


You can see the tree line where the fire stopped. You can tell how tall and thick the trees used to be :(


Here's a closer look at the pine trees that remind me of home


Here is the aerial map of the hike we made. We parked by the roads in the upper, right-hand corner of the map and hiked along the dirt road diagonally left. Quartz Mountain is in the center of that circular dirt road in the bottom left corner.