Quantcast

Prescott, AZ

Vipon

Vipon

Chimp
Jul 22, 2010
26
5
St. Augustine, FL
I lived there for 7 years and moved to Florida 4 years ago. High Gear has he most stuff, bikes and equipment. IronClad I felt never really cared if you wanted help or not. I ended up using BikeSmith all the time because the guy really seemed to care about getting you back up and running. It didn't matter if you were just getting advice, Older dude with a big gray beard.

Places to eat,,, Mexican, Alfonsos aint bad and cheap prices. Of course you really cant go bad with any of the mexican places. The Dinner Bell dowtown for breakfast
Cattleman's isn't bad for dinner. You also have the Prescott Brewing is downtown. and some higher end restaurants.

I was never a fan of anything on Whiskey Row, over priced, touristy in my opinion. And after 10;00pm drunk college kids.

Bike trails The 305 trail between Prescott and Prescott Valley was my after work ride, Granite Mountain on the weekends, All within 15 minutes of downtown.
 
Jozz

Jozz

Joe Dalton
Apr 18, 2002
5,830
7,318
SADL
Prescott is great! Loved the small town feel. Granite Bassin was cool. Best ride was Spruce Mountain, climb climb climb then down. Lots of new trails since I went there. Deyv was there last year I think. You might want to ask him for a few hints.
 
Jm_

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,950
9,628
AK
Lived there for 11 years (ended just two years ago)

I remember getting drunk and going down to Whiskey Row many times in college.

The vibe is this: In between hick redneck town and outdoorsy college town. It has some elements of both. Some advantages and disadvantages of both.

For shops, High Gear is where you go with the highest likelihood of having what you need. They can't always help a high-end cyclist, but you have the greatest chance there and they'll usually try pretty hard. Bikesmith is supposedly under new management, a guy bought the store from the old owner, John. Supposedly the new guy is really into serious mountain biking, so this is the new "hot spot", again, supposedly. Otherwise, Manzanita Outdoors relocated to Montezuma St in the Albertsons complex and helped build the pump track right behind the store. They have a large selection of outdoor stuff, the best in the city, kind of like a mini-REI, and that's far better than anything else we ever had in Prescott for people interested in outdoors stuff. If you want someone to build wheels or order some high end parts locally, go see Ed at Southwest Cycles and Sounds. It's further down Montezuma St, in a "store" the size of a jail cell. Ed is usually there, but sometimes not. Cool guy. Helped me get some parts more than a few times. I think he let me call in orders to Shimano and others with his account (for myself).

Never felt there was much point going all the way out to Iron Clad for stuff better found closer to the city. There are a few shops in Prescott Valley...kind of, none are very serious. The city can't support as many shops as there are (unless a few have closed) so more than a few of the shops are pretty half-a$$ in terms of mountain biking or serious cycling.

Benefit is you can ride any time, any season pretty much. Sure, there are the occasional winter arctic blasts with temps in the 20s, but a few days later it's back to 60 degrees. Snow stays from Dec to around March above about 7000, a few of the trail systems go that high, but not many. Any snow at lower levels is usually gone in a matter of hours, it sublimates so fast so no need to worry. Most of the times temps are pretty good. In the summer it gets into the low 90s until monsoon season hits, then it cam be in the 60s or 70s and cool rain while in Phoenix it's 115, usually on monsoon days T-storms build up around 10-12, start raining out around 2ish, peter out in an hour or two, and you are left with amazing cool/moist trails. That's ideal cycle though, doesn't happen like that every day for sure.

Trails lack much technical, Granite Basin has a little, the new Watson/Willow Lake "Dells" trails have a lot, but that's a totally different kind of riding. No "flow", but steep chutes up and down, features, tech stuff. You're only gaining or losing about 20 feet, but it's a cool thing that's been hacked into the rocks over the last 5 years or so. Definitely cool that those exist. Otherwise, you can put together some monster rides, 5K vert or more no problem, the distance is usually not as much, as many of the trails are steeper, so 5K over 20 miles or less much of the time. I was able to put together some nice 30+ mile loops connecting several trail systems. Connector trails are better now too, so it's easier to link Granite Basin with Thumb Butte with White Spar with Lynx Lake. What you lack in technical you can kind of make up for with some fun descents, but again it's not like descending in Flagstaff unfortunately where there are dedicated trails for that which you can lob off all sorts of obstacles or like at South Mountain where there are all sorts of obstacles already there to lob off of. There are literally hundreds of miles of ridable trail around Prescott. It's not epic riding persay, but it's easily far more than exists in other supposed riding destinations, like Auburn CA, and you can put together rides that are pretty damn epic. Much of the time your imagination is your limit, and while I liked doing after-work laps on 305 like most everyone else, I found when it came to longer rides that many Prescott riders seemed to lack any imagination and that many of the more dedicated ones seemed to never travel outside of Prescott to some of the other great places to ride in AZ.

Although Flagstaff is a great summer get-away, it's quite cool up past 7000' in the mountains around Prescott, so if you know where to go, there are some cool places for sure. Phoenix is a great get-away in the winter, and Sedona isn't bad either. My favorite place to ride outside of Prescott was Flag, just way more types of trails than Sedona, but Sedona did get much better over the 10 years I was there. Some cool local-knowledge places exist all over AZ like Williams (like Flag, but no one there), PInal Mountains (4500' descents on trails), White Mountains (8-9000' plateaus and old growth forests), Crown King 5k vert epic on jeep roads, Grand Canyon trails, Arizona Trail, Black Canyon Trail, and many others.

I'll go over food in a separate post.
 
Jm_

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,950
9,628
AK
Vipon said:
Places to eat,,, Mexican, Alfonsos aint bad and cheap prices. Of course you really cant go bad with any of the mexican places. The Dinner Bell dowtown for breakfast
Cattleman's isn't bad for dinner. You also have the Prescott Brewing is downtown. and some higher end restaurants.

I was never a fan of anything on Whiskey Row, over priced, touristy in my opinion. And after 10;00pm drunk college kids.
Click to expand...
This pretty much nails it. Most of the places on Whiskey Row are terrible for food, total tourist traps with marginal service and horrible food. PBC (not quite on Whiskey Row) is great for beer and ok for food. Food there kind of fluctuates, as compared to Beaver St. Brewery in Flagstaff where the beer "isn't bad" and the food is generally excellent. Dinner Bell (for breakfast) is great. Cattleman's is not the chain restaurant and generally great if you like steak. Murphy's is close to Whiskey Row, but pretty damn good food, not exotic in any way though. Gurley St. Grill gets a lot of hype, I never found it lived up to any of it. Some of the local's Mexican places include Maya Fish Tacos Mexican Restaurant, Olivia's in PV and I think Casa Grande in CV. Park Plaza Liquer and Deli is a great low-key place after a ride that makes up some great pies (and a beer selection that will amaze you). Great Thai at Thai House Cafe. There are lots of little good places and plenty of the big chains to keep you busy, like Wildflower, Red Robin and many others.
 
Last edited:
johnbryanpeters

johnbryanpeters

Hero
Sep 27, 2001
36,059
16,470
Making moss sad in New Haven, Vermont
Preskitt and Sedona were both awesome. Well marked and maintained trails, friendly people, good beer and food. In Preskitt, rode Granite Mountain from dam, and a bunch of trails near Thumb Butte. In Sedona (Oak City) started at Bike and Bean and rode that area.

I recommend Juniper Well Ranch in Skull Valley although it's a ways out of town and has zero cell coverage. It's far and away one of the oddest places at which I have stayed. Got there, greeted by a Mexican person, no paperwork at all. We were shown to our cabin and never saw another staff person for the duration of our stay. Sort of a dude ranch but no one there. Cabin had all the amenities and was comfortable. Recommendo.

We ate in town at The Raven Cafe, good food and beer even if infected with hipsters. For Indian, the Taj Mahal was good. Peak Plaza Liquor and Deli also had a good beer selection and food. In Sedona we ate at Chocula Tree which is uber vegetarian and pretentious, but the food was good (my companion was Vegan).

It has been a wonderful trip.
 
Jm_

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,950
9,628
AK
Food was always hit and miss there for me. Sometimes good, sometimes unacceptable. Good drink selection tho and nice to hang out upstairs sometimes.
 
jdcamb

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,827
8,420
Nowhere Man!
You went to AZ and didn't have sex with stinky boys neighbor. Son I am disappointed in you. No pictures of Rocks either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom