1000 Year Old Juniper Granite Mountain

Visiting the juniper during a loop hike of upper pasture trail 38 little granite mountain trail 37 and white rock spring trail 39 is 6 6 mi.

1000 year old juniper granite mountain. July 2016 mangum dental hike of the month describes a hike to the grandfather juniper a legendary tree with local fame. That s not to say you won t fall in love because you will. If you hike in from contreras road add 1 6 mi. Alligator junipers mountain mahogany a plethora of oaks as well as many cactus species were there at every bend.

An older couple from iowa was also hiking the trail. While staying in prescott arizona we rented the movie only the brave. After watching this excellent show we went in search of the new memorial park and the. The juniper tree may be the largest know juniper in the world with a circumference measuring over 26 ft.

At least 1000 years old she and another alligator were the largest in the country. Especially if you re attracted to wilderness areas that can be reached in a fiat 500. Several rocks at the granite mountain hotshots juniper had painted memorials. At the end of this trail is the giant alligator juniper tree that the granite mountain hotshots saved from the doce fire on june 18th 2013.

In the end finding the tree some call the old juniper tree others call the grandfather juniper or big alligator juniper believed to be over 2 000 years old became the highlight of our week long journey across arizona. One of the most poignant chapters in the juniper s life is that it was saved from fire in 2013 by the granite mountain hot shots an elite group of wildland firefighters from prescott. We came around the top of a small hill and there was the big mama juniper. It was my us forest service supervisor who contacted the granite mountain hotshots to alert them to the tree s significance.

Drove to trailhead 38 which made it a 3 mile roundtrip hike. It sounds like the kind of place that fred and barney would take wilma and betty for a romantic weekend. The view of granite mountain was beautiful like some sort of ancient but friendly behemoth on the horizon. Twelve days later on june 30th 2013 19 of the 20 hotshots died fighting the yarnell hill fire.

A week after they saved the tree all but one of the crew was killed in the yarnell hill fire. There are many different species of the juniper this particular tree is a western juniper. Western junipers usually grow to around 30 feet tall and live up to a thousand years according to the.