Willow Lake in Arizona

Trip Overview

The Prescott Paddle Club regularly paddles the lakes in the Prescott, Arizona area, almost every Saturday, year round. This January was quite cold in Northern Arizona. Normally this time of year the lows are in the upper teens. This month we were down in the low single digits. A couple of our Saturday morning paddles were cancelled due to too much ice. The put-ins on a couple of our lakes were encased in ice.

Saturday, January 27th we had warm enough weather to get into the lake. The weather was gorgeous, in the mid 20s, when we started, but after about a half hour the wind kicked up a bit, blew in some clouds, and it got uncomfortable. We were thankful for the hot chocolate we normally share after a winter paddle.

I am sixty years old. I was the youngest member of the club out that morning. Our oldest member, 87 years old, was there too, as he normally is almost every Saturday.

Accommodations:

There are a few ramadas which are nice for a picnic in warm weather.

Fees:

The City of Prescott charges $2/car for parking.

Directions:

Willow Lake is on the North side of Prescott, between Willow Creek Road and Highway 89. Entrance to the lake is from the North West side, off Willow Lake Road.