Trailblazers are ready check out Fossil Springs. [photo by Li]

Anna, Nancy, Ilangovan, Michael, Debbie, Lisa, Tamar, Robert, Tom.

Thirteen Trailblazers assembled from Fountain Hills, Prescott , Flagstaff and beyond at the Bob Bear Trailhead to explore the Fossil Springs area for the first time since it had been ravaged by fire. Since it was April, we pre-bought parking permits for the date on Recreation.com, which was easy as it is early in the season and not the height of swimming season. Some of us met up at PieBar in Strawberry for some sweet or savory treats before heading off on the Fossil Springs road.

Time to get our feet wet. [photo by Li]

The weather was a bit nippy at first, but most of us shed layers early and never needed them again on this Spring day. We started down the trail with very few other people seen on the trail at 9:30 in the morning and made our way down to the junction with the Mail trail. We reassembled and turned left into the riparian zone, which looked as green as ever. We crossed the creek on large swaths of stone and continued on our way to the spring. At the cool water with green plants all around, some hikers chose to take quick jaunts into the creek.

By the stream. [photo by Li]

Riparian area at the springs. [photo by Li]

We continued on to the former dam site- there is a path at the spring that does join the main trail to the dam, or you can backtrack to the small junction. We got to the dam, noticing some burned trees, but otherwise no obvious changes from pre-fire. Most of us went down to the water to eat our lunches and one adventurous hiker went for a swim.

Down to our lunch spot. [photo by Tamar]

Old dam site. [photo by Tamar]

After our break, we started the long trek back up the trail. The afternoon sun feels quite warm even when it is only 70 degrees. The only saving grace was occasional shade and breezes. We all make it back to the cars in good time and some of us made a stop at That Brewery on the way home. By 3pm, the wind was fierce enough that we moved off the patio into the restaurant to warm up.

Trailblazers at the old dam site. [photo by Li]

Flowers left at the old dam overseers cabin. [photo by Michael]

It was a nice Spring hike in one of our favorite locations on a day where we practically had the trail and creek to ourselves.

Looking down at Fossil Springs. [photo by Michael]