On the Chino Valley stretch of the Peavine, you walk an old railroad grade. The trail runs straight and level between Road 4 North and Road 4 South because trains once ran there. The piece the Town of Chino Valley just won money to build will be different. It leaves the rail bed, crosses Granite Creek on a concrete ford, and runs between about 22,000 linear feet of fencing. That is why the connection to Prescott has taken almost 20 years, and it shows what the finished trail will be like to use.
In August 2026 the Town announced a $2,569,072 grant from the Arizona Department of Transportation's Transportation Alternatives Program for the Peavine Trail South Connection. With the Town's $155,289 match, the project totals $2,724,361. The line items show where that money goes, and most of them deal with the creek and the land around it.
The stretch you already know
Chino Valley's Peavine is a non-motorized rail-trail on the east side of town. It runs about 5.2 to 5.3 miles north to south from Road 4 North to Road 4 South. Published lengths vary a little. A Daily Courier report on Yavapai Trails Association volunteers gives 5.2 miles, and one trail-mapping site measures 5.6.
The north end sits at Colorado Way, between Arizona Trail and Jerome Junction. A parking area on Perkinsville Road is about a mile south of that end, and the southern terminus has its own parking at Road 4 South. The surface is easy doubletrack of gravel and cinder. Parking is free, there is no water and no restrooms, and dogs should be leashed. When volunteers graded all 5.2 miles in 2021, the Courier reported they also added kiosks with historical interpretation, dog-waste stations, benches, road-crossing signs, and gates with latches riders can work from horseback.
Today the Road 4 South trailhead is where the trail ends. The Town's own 2024 design paperwork describes the missing link as starting at the "Trailhead at Road 4 South" and running southeast to the north end of Prescott's Peavine.
The Peavine, end to end, as of October 2026
| Segment | Where it runs | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Chino Valley Peavine | Road 4 North to Road 4 South, about 5.2 to 5.3 miles | Open, rail grade |
| Peavine Trail South Connection | About two miles southeast of Road 4 South, across Granite Creek | Funded in August 2026; design and construction still ahead |
| Prescott North Peavine Extension | North of Highway 89A | In use; a current trail listing shows 3.6 miles, but we found no City announcement of an official opening |
| Prescott's original Peavine | Along Watson Lake and the Granite Dells | Open since 1999 on the historic rail route |
Prescott's recreation map shows a "North Peavine Trailhead" and, separately, "Old 89A Parking on Loop Road." The map does not say whether that parking serves the trailhead.
Why the rail bed gives out at Granite Creek
The original Peavine works because volunteers turned an abandoned railroad into a trail. The Courier reported that they pulled ties, cut back weeds, and repaired the grade before Prescott's section opened in 1999. That section now follows the Watson Lake shoreline past the Point of Rocks and draws more than 100,000 visitors a year.
North of Highway 89A, the railroad can't be reused that way. The Daily Courier's coverage of construction on Prescott's northern section gave three reasons the new trail leaves the old Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railroad route. The railroad bridge over Granite Creek is deteriorating, private property gets in the way, and the airport extensions block parts of the old line. Because the bridge can't be used, much of the new route runs on the east side of the creek and crosses it at a low-water crossing in the last mile or so before it meets the Chino Valley trail.
Chris Hosking, Prescott's trails and natural parklands coordinator, told the Courier how the crossing would work:
"That creek seldom runs."
He explained that Granite Creek in that northern stretch usually flows only when the Watson Lake dam overflows in very wet weather. He also said trail signs would warn users that the trail closes when the creek is running.
So the finished Peavine will close now and then, which today's rail grade never does. When enough rain falls upstream to spill Watson Lake, the link between Chino Valley and Prescott will close at the creek.
What the grant pays for
The Town's grant announcement, published by Signals AZ on August 19, 2026, breaks down the cost. The Town has budgeted $454,182 to take the design from 30 percent to final. Construction is projected at about $2.27 million.
Prescott eNews carried the same release on August 23, including the engineering details. Part of the route is in a Zone A, 100-year floodplain, so the project needs a concrete ford at Granite Creek. It also needs about 22,000 linear feet of game fencing, and the fencing materials alone are estimated at nearly $200,000. At roughly two miles, the route is about 10,500 feet long, so 22,000 feet of fence is enough to line both sides of the whole trail.
That much fence matches what Prescott ran into on its side. Hosking told the Courier that the land north of Highway 89A is mostly flat ranchland where cattle still graze. He said the fencing had to be finished before the new section could officially open. Once it's built, people on foot, on bikes and on horseback will have a continuous route between Chino Valley and Prescott, according to the release.
Several Town staff are named in the announcement. Mayor Tom Armstrong credited Executive Analyst Jessi Sorteberg for her persistence in securing the money. Community Services Director Cyndi Thomas and Public Works Assistant Director Steve Sullivan worked with her on the application. Councilmember John McCafferty, a longtime Peavine advocate, said the extension "pairs especially well with the existing trail extension projects." Thomas also set the timeline plainly: "although the trail is not yet connected, this funding moves us significantly closer." The grant allows two years for completion, with final design and construction still to come.
The land question that money doesn't settle
Funding was only part of the problem. The land between the two trail ends has more than one owner. Prescott's northern route depended on a trail easement across Arizona Eco Development land, which the City and the developer agreed to in summer 2021 after more than three years of negotiation, the Courier reported.
State Trust land is the other piece. In February 2025 the Prescott City Council and the Chino Valley Town Council approved an agreement covering the unfinished trail in north Prescott and south Chino Valley. It lets Prescott staff build and maintain trail inside Chino Valley's jurisdiction. According to the Courier's report on the agreement, the gap at that point was about three miles, including just over a mile of State Trust land plus some private land. Finishing it depended on the Arizona State Land Department granting either an easement or a special land use permit. Under the permit option, Prescott would take responsibility for illegal dumping on that state land. Prescott Recreation Services Director Joe Baynes described the agreement as a way to show the State Land Department that the two communities were working together.
We found no later public record showing that the State Land Department approved that crossing. The August 2026 grant announcement doesn't mention it. The newly funded two miles and the 2025 three-mile gap may cover different stretches, and the public sources don't say exactly how they line up.
North of town, the trail has a second destination
The southern link has the funding now, but the Peavine is also planned to run north. In the Courier's 2025 report, Baynes said the trail is eventually meant to reach the new Verde River Headwaters State Park in Chino Valley.
That park is still a project, not a place you can visit yet. Arizona State Parks describes a property of about 750 acres east of SR 89 near Chino Valley. Plans call for protecting Sullivan Lake and the history of Del Rio Springs and for extending the Peavine. The page gives no opening date and no visitor-access details. The Trust for Public Land reported in March 2025 that a 23-acre inholding with several historic buildings is now publicly managed by the Town of Chino Valley, with an interpretive trail planned. The Yavapai Trails Association describes continuing the Chino Valley Peavine toward Del Rio Springs once the south connection is done. In 2023 the group said major obstacles remained and gave no completion date.
For now, the Road 4 South trailhead is still the end of the trail. The next segment south will be built over two years and will include a ford, about 22,000 feet of fence, and a closure rule for the days Watson Lake spills over.
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