Emotional Trip to Yarnell and Prescott

We left at 8 AM yesterday to drive to Yarnell and to Prescott. The movie "Only the Brave" portrays the lives and events of the Granite Mountain Hotshots who all perished - except one member - in the fateful fire on Sunday, June 30, 2013. What an emotional experience. We arrived at the State Park that was built as a memorial to the group.

You are able to follow a trail that is over three miles long and ends at the fatality site where a monument is constructed showing the locations where each of the firefighters was discovered. We started out to hike the trail but, because of the heat and the elevation of the climb, we turned around early into the hike. We plan to return again in the Fall when it is cooler and we will perhaps be in better shape for the climb.

Following are some of the photos we took at the site:

There is a bench at the top of this hill that overlooks the location where the monument is located and you take another .75 hike to get there from the top.

The trail was all switchbacks to get to the top and there are markers for each of the Hotshots at about every 600 feet in elevation. This one is of the leader of the group, Eric Marsh:

These other shots are just a few that we took along the way:

Following our time at the State Park, we drove to Prescott to try and locate the place where the Hotshots hung out - Matts Saloon:

We had a drink at the bar and proceeded across the street at the town square where there was a Fair in progress:

We walked around the Fair and decided to grab a bite to eat for lunch. Gurley's Grill was the choice we made, and it was a very good one:

We returned home at around 5 PM and were glad we made this trip to learn more about this special group of young men. Following is a shot that was taken at the start of the trail at the State Park and shows the group at a Juniper tree that they saved at another fire location near Prescott, shortly before they perished:

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