Prescott's mountain icon

No wonder Thumb Butte is the symbol for Prescott. You can't miss it! For tonight's post, I combed my archives for pictures that included this iconic volcanic pipe and found more than I had expected, from more vantages that I had expected. The one image that completely disappeared was the standard shot looking straight up Gurley from the Square. There was such a picture, I know, but the archive gnomes must have eaten it. So I made do looking straight up Gurley from near the Sharlot Hall Museum.

The Butte is quite evident coming from the east down Bullwhacker Hill (above); it forms striking a backdrop for the Prescott Resort/Casino (below), though I should warn you that the zoom lens really magnifies the mountain in this and several other pictures.

Here's Thumb Butte from a little knoll on the east end of town (above) and looming over Fair Street (below). The latter picture dates from before the muffler man changed occupations, BTW.

A pair from the 4th floor of the hospital. Very different perspectives, thanks again to the zoom lens.

These two views are from a more northerly vantage and note how the shape of the butte has changed. Looks more like a thumb, don't you think? The picture above, across a sea of roofs from Willow Lake Park; the lights below in the parking lot at WalMart west (and my favorite picture of the lot).

For a totally different perspective, drive out Iron Springs Road where the Butte resembles the Sphinx or a recumbent lion.

In the forest, the Butte is often hidden by the pines or the hillsides.

Above, one of Prescott's favorite trails, which provides either a gradual climb or a steep series of switchbacks to the saddle, but not up the rocky tor. Thumb Butte is a great noon hike for the downtown worker, as it takes about one hour up and back. The dead trees? Part of the great western bark beetle plague which has killed conifers from Alaska to Arizona.

No, hardly a different viewpoint of our favorite mountain. This is Little Thumb Butte, up north near the Verde River just east of SR89. In the old, old days, more than one group of explorers was misled by the instruction to find the butte that looks like a thumb. If I remember correctly, that's why the first Fort Whipple was built north of Chino at Del Rio Springs instead of at the site of Prescott, as intended.

The well labelled trail

Thursday, while I napped, the SSon & family climbed Thumb Butte. Granddaughter K. tried out her new camera and I must say that the gods of Serendip smiled, resulting in a series of photos worthy of her GrannyJ, as you shall see.

We know that Interpretive Signs are all the rage on publicly managed lands, such as Prescott National Forest. However, the newly minted photographer discovered an entire new genre of labels in the wild:

Namely, those wee grocery store fruit labels with numbers so that cashiers who know from nothing about an ugli or a star fruit can punch in the right number at the register. So we have been trying to imagine this troop of youngsters making certain that they carried a full market basket of different fruit on their climb; both trails, by the way, according to Grandson. Above, peach and, below, either a banana or a pineapple. (Do imagine handling the Hawaiian goodie while hiking, will you?)

...Nectarine and apple. Oh yes, each has been carefully placed inside a limb scar.

...Peach and avocado...

...Two mysteries, one of which will keep you alive forever, if Dole is to be believed.

...Anybody have an idea what Bionature is into, aside from being a likely "organic" grower? And (below), it appears that the modern defuzzed peach is a popular fruit.

...Another peach and a Dole twofer (below) as the grand climax.

As a species of graffiti, this is pretty cool. The labels are small and should deteriorate reasonably fast, in the meantime posing all sorts of interesting conjectures as well as encouraging kids to eat fruit.

A Picnic at the Butte

It's been over a year since I'd last been out at the Thumb Butte area; this time it was for a picnic sponsored by the local chapter of the Arizona Archeology Society. The event was scheduled just before the Forest Service closed the area for a major overhaul. And it was the first time I had taken a close look at the picnic facilities. Pretty neat. And pretty, for that matter.

A circle of tables...

...surrounding a fire pit.

Additional picnic facilities are to be developed in the open area beyond the circle, at the right, according to folk who were at the picnic.

There's a beautiful set of stone stairs leading down to Butte Creek.

A more fortuitous sight: the highlit snag between two pine trees.

And what better proof that this was an archeological crowd than this Tshirt from Australia!

The Flowers That Bloom At Thumb Butte

Again, visitors. This time a niece and her daughter, from Memphis, and a nephew from Australia. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I walk -- I don't climb these days. Alas, doing Thumb Butte is a thing of the past for me, but not for the kids.


But first, they take a close up whiff of Ponderosa pine bark aroma. Niece said it reminded her of Juicy Fruit chewing gum. My own experience: vanilla whisky. By the way, not all trees smell the same -- give it a try.


So I stayed down at the bottom, taking the opportunity to look for flowers in bloom after recent summer rains. First, I caught the ubiquitous mullein, an import from the Old World. The flowers pop out sporadically on the tall stalk. When the thick stalk dried in the fall, pre-electricity folk would dip it in tallow, making a fine torch for one of those mob scenes from Frankenstein.


Much prettier -- and quite common near streams and water courses -- the yellow evening primrose. I was lucky to find open blossoms at mid-day. Normally, the flowers bloom shortly before dusk and are spent by morning.


Most of the flowers I found were near Aspen Creek, which runs through the Thumb Butte picnic area. Wild geranium is an example -- it likes both the shade and the moisture.


A sure sign that we're into August -- the sunflowers are just starting to bloom. These sun lovers were at the sunny edge of the stream-side greenery.


More tolerant of dry ground -- the first goldenrod. A member of the same family as the sunflower, believe it or not.


Another member of the penstemon clan, these lavenders are scattered throughout the forest.

Pretty little bright blue day flowers were also present -- but they caught too much breeze to photograph. Too bad!