There are lots of lakes around Prescott – some of them I would rather call ponds though. This is certainly true for Granite Basin Lake, which we visit today.

To get there we drive through Prescott and then up into the pine forests where we find this hidden treasure. It is like an oasis of peace, it’s very quiet and serene up here.

The lake is surrounded by lush greens and the air is very humid and filled with lots of different kinds of dragonflies. We start walking along the shore. We see a lot of butterflies (swallowtails/Schwalbenschwaenze) flying around and in one place we see about 5 of them sitting on the ground, they are magnificent and Marco even manages to take some pictures of them before they fly away. A few yards away we see a skunk (Stinktier) walking around, we are careful not to scare him to not give him a reason to spray! Last but not least we come a cross a small area where their are thousands of ladybugs (Marienkaefer).

Early afternoon we drive back into town and pay Lake Willow a visit. The landscape here is completely different: it’s more like desert, all dry and hardly any bushes or trees. Lake Willow is close to Lake Watson where we were yesterday, and has the same Granite Boulders. We take a walk from the parking lot to get a better view of the lake and the boulder to take some pictures. Hidden between the boulders in a muddy place at the shore of the lake we find some frogs and later on our way back to the car we watch a small rabbit.

It has been a special day with so many animal encounters. At dinner time we check out some menus of nearby restaurants on the internet and finally decide to go for a buffet dinner at Golden Corral. They have excellent steak, a variety of salads and vegetables and lots of desert, and everything seems to be very fresh. So we have a very good dinner for decent money.