The Centennial Trail follows a curving path through boulders and canyons studded with
scrub oak and ponderosa, all just more than half a mile west of Dignity Health-Yavapai
Regional Medical Center.
Its rocky slopes and sometimes technically challenging directions give hikers a good
workout throughout its semi-urban setting, with a good run of elevation gain at the end
before seeing some remarkable petroglyphs.
There are a few ways to work this trail. Starting at the east end of the 2-mile crooked
crescent on Westridge Drive you can proceed to the other end and turn back for a good 4
miles or turn around at the Kile Street trailhead at the halfway point for 2. You also can
park at the end of Kile and travel 2 miles in either direction.
To see the trail in its entirety begin at the Westridge parking lot, which is about a fifth of a
mile away from the Centennial trailhead. You first come to a series of steps, then travel a
route that offers panoramic views of much of Prescott’s viewshed, including the Rodeo
Grounds, Thumb Butte and Granite mountains. You’ll also see industrial and residential
areas before reaching the second trailhead and crossing into the more challenging half of
the path, watching the area’s continuing development.
Tackling steeper terrain, the trail follows Rockwood Drive above its path until it plunges
into a secluded tree-lined canyon, which you cross three times on the trail before it loops
around the petroglyph-adorned boulders that mark the end of the trailway and sends you
heading back the way you came.
The Centennial Trail is as lovely under a blanket of snow as at other times of the year and
you have a better chance of being treated with a glimpse of a running stream. Be careful,
though, of the mud and ice that forms when it starts to melt!
Photo by Kelly Tolbert
