Hike up Picnic Table Rock in Sara Park

November 11, 2010 Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge

Happy Veteran's Day! 

We woke to a very cool morning with temps near 50 degrees. After watching the laying of the wreath on The Tomb Of The Unknown Soldiers, we made plans and gathered our things to do another hike at Sara Park. Today our destination was the top of Picnic Table Rock. 

Named locally of course, for the picnic table at the summit. The table was carried up there (presumedly in pieces) by a local hiking club known as The Leaping Lizards. We had hiked this route before with Mitch, a biologist here at the refuge (Sara Park Hike).  You can just make out the picnic table at the peak in the photo below.

During our previous hike we had not climbed to the summit and the picnic table. So we had said last time that our goal would be to crest the summit and sit on that table! The table is chained down and sits very close to the edge of a precipitous drop off.

It was an arduous climb over some very steep and rocky trails. Often it was difficult to discern exactly what was the trail. In the picture below Joyce is making the last efforts to summit!

Mission Accomplished!

It goes without saying that the views from the summit were spectacular. Below is Lake Havasu looking across to California.

The altimeter on my watch put us at 1300+ feet.

Lake Havasu City

Of course the climb down was not going to be easy and in fact was perhaps more difficult than the ascent. The trail was extremely steep, rocky and slippery.

Round trip the hike took us 2.5 hrs. from the parking lot including the 30 mins. we stayed at the picnic table enjoying our lunch of PB and J sandwiches. I would rate the hike as moderate to difficult. The weather had been perfect with temps in just over 70 degrees but with a strong north wind.

We had a great time and will probably return at least one more time to do a hike out to the river.