Off for a quick trip over to AZ to sneak in a bit of late season canyoning with a few friends I had not seen in years. Although I was eager to see new canyons, I decided that it would be a good gauge to visit an unbeta-ed canyon I was familiar with to get a sense of water levels and temperatures and to give the others more options of canyons to visit.
We found Waterslides drier than I hoped, but otherwise in decent enough shape for a good time. The canyon's final pool was bone dry, as well as several others I remembered throughout the canyon. All of the bedrock-lined pools were 1-2 feet below their rims but thankfully were not choked with algae. There probably had not been any flow in the canyon for the last couple of weeks when the last rain came through.
To make the most of the slides we improvised Jeff's watertight canyon bag as a water carrier. One bag-full of water was enough to send someone racing down the slide at almost top speed. We then repeated as necessary. The jumps were all in pristine condition, higher if anything due to the lower pool levels. Like my previous visit I downclimbed, jumped and slid all the obstacles which kept most of my gear dry for the next day's bigger adventure. The guys seemed to have a great time. Although I did too, the canyon certainly was missing some of its oasis magic with the lack of flowing water. Early spring or after a good rain would definitely be the ideal time to visit this fun little canyon.
We then drove up the mountain to camp among the trees. As we got more than halfway up the grade I noticed there seemed to be lots of thick, rainy clouds sitting on the mountain tops so I suggested we maybe camp somewhere lower down. As Andy was driving his mother's Prius, we were limited in which side roads we could drive down. He bravely followed Jeff and I down the rough road east of Parker Canyon and we ended up camping at the edge of the 400 ft cliffs overlooking the valley and lake below. We arrived just in time to marvel at one of the best sunsets I have seen in a while. Piercing rays of light leaked delicately between clouds before finally succumbing to the distant mountains. This awesome spot remained our campsite for the rest of the trip- there just would be no way to top it.
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