I had already started planning this weekend of southern Arizona canyons before I even left NZ. I knew these desert canyons were best done in the spring when flows were highest and the canyons least scummy with algae so the sooner we got to them, the better. Fortunately canyoning friends Tom and Megan were keen and recruited Rich and Todd, the guidebook author himself, to join us for a day of canyoning.
Sara and I left Socorro late afternoon and drove straight west towards dark clouds, rain, and even short-lived patches of snow. We drove past the Very Large Array, across an expansive basin, and through volcanic hills. We steadily dropped elevation on our way to Arizona. There were surprisingly few towns along the way, and only a couple places to get gasoline. Past Show Low we drove across the impressive Salt Creek Canyon, an impressive feat of road building which snakes down to the bottom of the canyon before snaking back up the other side. Late in the night we finally reached our campground past Globe. It was a warm night in the Arizona Uplands.
First up for the weekend was Waterslides Canyon, a semi-secret canyon with a reputation for fun waterslides and jumps. Only one of us in the group had been to it before so we were all looking forward to it. We drove a long winding back road through forests of healthy saguaro cacti, eventually parking in an innocuous wash. Several miles of hiking in another dry wash provided no indication of the canyon we would soon reach. By the heat of mid-morning we had reached the top of the canyon, meters away from our first waterslide into a beautiful deep pool (photo above). Fortunately we had just hit the tail end of the season and the water in the stream was just barely running.
The canyon was an open pool-drop pothole chain type canyon with no real sustained narrows and plenty of opportunities for escape. It quickly became obvious this would not be a committing adventure, but rather the type of canyon that was best appreciated at a leisurely pace. Virtually every fun feature in the canyon was repeatable, so every possible variation of a slide or jump was repeated until we had our fill. The pools were in great shape- deep and fresh- it was only in a few open sections near the top of the canyon that we found copious green sludgy algae. A little disgusting but also kind of cool.
The granite was sculpted into many fantastic features. Thankfully the granite had amazing grip except where we wanted it to be nice and slippery. It was a well-behaved canyon and a true playground. After several smaller features and pools we came to the top of a steep and smooth chute into a dark pool. After an initial assessment thinking this was one of the abseils, I decided it was actually a slide. I got into position and gave myself a good push. This was the best slide! A smooth and fast chute that ended in a 1m drop at the end. I repeated this slide almost a half dozen times before we moved on.
We shortly came to another big drop (15m?) into one of the biggest, and definitely deepest, pools in the canyon. Here we were overwhelmed with options. I started us off with a sideways jump onto a slide. Tom found a great running side-wall jump. Sara found a bypass. And at last I found a clean 15m jump from the very top. Good fun and again several rounds were had before more sliding and jumping down to the next pool.
After this, at roughly the halfway point, the canyon opened up for a couple hundred meters and descended slowly across granite slickrock, which provided fantastic views of the surrounding saguaro and ocotillo forest. Frogs with spots and tan coloration were perfectly camouflaged to the coarsely crystalline granite. By now the day was hot and the pools did a superb job of keeping us refreshed.
The canyon then began to build up momentum for its shorter second half. More jumps and slides found us at the top of a 17m drop that we rigged as an abseil. Up to this point I was the only one in the group that had gone this far through the canyon without wearing harness and abseiling gear. I wanted to see if the canyon could be done without gear so I used the rope as a handline to get to a prominent ledge from which I could launch myself far out into the deep part of the pool. We stopped for lunch on the pool's edge. Beyond we could see the last stretch of narrows.
The last narrows went around a couple bends with only a few more short jumps and some swims before we reached the horizon line at the end of the canyon. Here we set up a handline to aid descent down the slippery last waterfall. One final pool to swim and the fun was over. We de-wetsuited and hiked our way back down the bone-dry wash, a great contrast to the secret oasis in the Arizona desert.
After saying goodbye to Todd and Rich, the four remaining drove up to be in the pines trees where the cooler night would aid sleep. After some searching, we found a great campsite in the trees next to a meadow and had a nice relaxing evening by the fire.
Thanks to Tom, Megan, Todd, and Rich.
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