Since all three of us were on Mountain time instead of Arizona time we were finding it really easy to get early starts (which could work to our advantage given the afternoon thunderstorms). The road was looking pretty rough after our scout the day before so we opted to hike the road to the tank. From here the GPS made quick work of the cross country approach and we arrived right at the start of the canyon with little drama. Horsetank was not the sort of continuous canyon I hoped it would be. It sort of flirted with you. It would give nice sculpted narrows with a jump and swim or two and then open up into a vegetation choked valley for a while. Nevertheless what we did find was nice. The water was surprisingly fresh throughout and the yellow columbine were in full bloom. Although 6 rappels were advertised, we only really found one necessary 80ft rap and everything else could be safely downclimbed or jumped.
From the description it sounded like things got less interesting below the 80ft rappel but we found this to not be the case. Instead we found ample opportunities to play- big jumps, fun deep water bouldering problems and refreshing swimming. The canyon was much wetter than I thought. The biggest jump of about 30ft was particularly intimidating. Despite being a clean jump, there were no real visual clues to the exact height from above, which makes planning your jump a bit harder as you push off. Below this we found a particularly good pool for jumping and climbing.
Despite our antics we seemed to reach
the confluence with Sandrock Canyon in remarkably good time. This had us
worried we might have a long and arduous exit ahead. After a change, a
snack and consuming just the right amount of water, we hiked steadily up
Sandrock Canyon. We made our way by scrambling up boulders and
carefully climbing up several significant dryfalls. We moved fast and were drenched in sweat. Jeff strategically switched packs with me between the dryfalls which meant I had to carry the heaviest pack up the hardest climb. My center-of-gravity was way off and thus so was my confidence. I took it slow and received a helping hand from Sam at the crucial moment. Thunder was now booming with close proximity so we continued steadily onward and upward. We soon exited the canyon and decided a direct route up to the ridge would be more timely than a further walk upstream. Again we made good navigational choices and reached the cars just as the rain started. 6.5 hours round trip, we apparently made great time (the guidebook suggested 8-12 hours!).
We drove on through impressive thunderstorms for Sedona. We used the rest of our day to make a few stops in Sedona before camping on forest service land north of Sedona among the Phoenicians. It rained much of the night. We got to bed early anticipating our bigger day tomorrow.
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