Gold Strike Canyon Dec 2-3

Las Vegas makes a convenient halfway point on the drive between Socorro and Reno, where I was headed to attend a mining conference. I started looking up cheap hotel rooms in Vegas when it hit me that there were perfectly good camping places near Vegas- much more appealing! A while back Sara and I went on a really pleasant overnight camping trip down the Black Canyon of the Colorado, which starts at the base of the Hoover Dam. The river just below the dam was moving so fast that by the time I looked at a map we had already passed a couple detours I wanted to take including Gold Strike Canyon and its hot springs. Now that I would be passing back through the area, I looked into how easy it would be to hike to the springs. It turned out very easy- a couple mile hike starting from a trailhead down the canyon itself so it would not be too much of a detour for the drive. Sold!

After an uneventful drive across Arizona, I reached the trailhead opposite the Hoover Dam access. This trailhead was disturbingly close to the Vegas superhighway and the tell-tale signs of broken auto glass had me a bit worried for my car. Luckily it looked like some friendly folks in a hippie bus were planning to camp in the parking lot which allayed most of my fears and I started walking down the dry wash a couple hours before dark.

How surreal this place was! The rugged volcanics smacked of a desolate and remote landscape yet it was impossible to go five minutes without signs of human marring- an enormous highway bridge plastered right over the canyon, wreckage of old cars, powerlines, graffiti, traffic noise, carved steps, trash, tourist helicopters buzzing overhead. Despite having the misfortune for being situated next to Las Vegas for the last hundred years, the canyon still preserved some of its beauty. Downstream the canyon walls continued to climb and narrow and several dryfalls and boulder chokes provided some pleasant downclimbing entertainment. The canyon abruptly opens up into large amphitheater-like area where several side canyons join. Downstream the canyon continued to narrow, and several large boulder piles were navigated.

Before long I began to see signs of hot springs nearby- minor seeps and travertine deposits. Sure enough just past the next boulder garden I came to the first of about a dozen hot pools in the canyon. This first one (below) was well built, crystal-clear, warm, and could probably fit about ten people easily. But it was only the first pool and I had more to explore. Downstream from this pool a small warm water stream formed in the canyon, which persists all the way down to the Colorado River. The canyon becomes lush and water ouzels called out for me to follow them. Presently I came to two more nice pools before continuing downcanyon to a boulder choke where the canyon takes a narrow turn. These were my favorite hot springs and I would end up camping here for the night. A rope led down a sloping boulder to a ledge between two beautiful pools- on canyon's left a crystal-clear lukewarm pool, on canyon's right the cave pool, where I would soak much of the evening.

I had another 30-40 minutes of daylight so I continued exploring down the canyon. The going got rougher (lots of boulder scrambling) and for about 10 minutes there were no more good soaking pools. Then I came to the second group of hot springs, collectively referred to as Nevada Hot Springs. The upper pools was most impressive- a high-volume 5 foot-high hot waterfall poured into a deep (6 feet?) crystal clear pool with room for 20. This pool was almost too hot, and the chain of pools downstream suggest that other people had thought the same. As the canyon takes a turn to the left, copious springs emerge from the wall on canyon right making a hanging garden of sorts. Another five minutes of obstacles and I was at the Colorado River. The sunset was just beginning to kick in so I quickly dropped my pack and readied my camera and tripod. Hoover Dam was just out of view but I got a rather nice shot of the bridge downstream in sunset pinks. I explored the sauna cave upstream briefly, put my headlight on and then slogged back up Gold Strike Canyon to my chosen campsite next to the cave pool.

The cave pool (frontispiece) had old sandbags blocking a channel between two rocks which created a 4-5 foot-deep pool, 5 feet-wide by 14 feet-long. At the back of the pool was a dark and narrow crack. Probing with my light I realized there was a room beyond and it would be possible to swim under the narrow constriction to emerge into this secret sauna. The walls were adorned with creamy-white calcite and the water temperature was noticeably warmer. That was the best part about this pool- you could find the perfect temperature by moving forward or backward in this pool. It made for one of the best hot spring soaks I have had in a while. I would like to say the stars were amazing but the reality was that the lights of Vegas bleed their way over my head. Nevertheless, it was a remarkably warm and pleasant evening. I slept out on the ground with my sleeping bag lightly draped over me.

I awoke bright and early to the dawn flights of helicopters. I had a mandatory soak in every pool upstream before hiking back up to my car, picking up abundant trash along the way.  Gold Strike made for the perfect overnight stay for me and I piled back in my (unbroken into) car feeling much more refreshed than if I had slept in a cheap Vegas hotel. The drive across Nevada was very eventful! After negotiating a head on tumbleweed storm I crossed one of the high passes and the entire northern half of Nevada I drove through heavy snow and ice. At one point I lost control and skidded off the highway. I shifted the car into 4WD-L and remarkably got back on the road without further incident. I ended this most stressful drive at a friend's warm place outside of Reno. Thanks to Jim for that.

Turkey Creek Hot Springs Nov 16-17

We had a beautiful drive through Silver City and on to the tiny outpost of Gila. Here the Gila River exits its valley in the remote Gila Wilderness onto more open farmlands. We drove a bumpy dirt road which wound up and over a ridge on the side of the valley before dropping in. Where the road ended we began hiking.

Despite the description of the trail or route to the hot springs being remote and difficult, which actually found it to be an easy 4 mile hike. It took us just over 2 hours to get there at a relaxed pace. On the way we spied some neat veins of hydrothermal green fluorite along the Gila River. We only had to cross the knee-deep Gila River once, then headed up the wide streambed of Turkey Creek. Fall colors were still out in full-force. Two quick miles up Turkey Creek the trail disappears and the creek narrows. A few shallow wades and lots of boulder scrambling was the typical terrain here. A water ouzel led us up the stream for about half a mile before disappearing. We arrived at the hot springs to find a group of four who kindly told us where the other good campsite was. Our campsite was a great spot- sheltered in the trees with perfect sitting and cooking rocks and about a stone's throw away from the upper hot springs.

 

The hot springs are in a particularly scenic stretch of the river. All told I found at least a dozen hot water sources emerging from rock directly or filtering up through the streambed gravels. Only a few of these were suitable for improvement into soaking pools. We spent a full moon night in the upper pool. The hot spot in the pool shifted which sometimes meant some abrupt relocating was necessary! There was about four pools along the lower springs ending in a short waterfall into a small plunge pool. It was obvious there had been recent floods which shifted vast quantities of sediment in this little creek. After a pleasant night's sleep and morning we packed up and headed back the way we came. Sara decided to try a natural rock slide she spied on the way up. I was impressed it actually looked a lot better than I thought.

When we got back to the fluorite deposits on the other side of the Gila River we decided to drop packs and look around for a bit. There were a couple scree slopes nearby that we searched. We were amazed at how many excellent pieces of green and purple fluorite we found with very little effort. I'd have loved to climb further up the hillside and explore the source but we were short of time. After high-grading our findings to those we were actually willing to carry, we walked back to the car. On our way out I had a quick run up Brock Canyon to find its three hot springs up there. I thought it was a pretty neat place and the soaking looked to be just as good as Turkey Creek. We drove back the back way around the Gila via Datil which was nice variety.

City of Rocks Nov 15-16

On our way to the Gila Wilderness we planned to break up the drive by camping at the tiny City of Rocks State Park. The forecast was for a bit of rain and it was certainly stormy and windy by the time we arrived. Just in case, we chose a campsite beneath a natural rock arch with the hope that it provided some semblance of shelter. Sure enough a couple hours after we had the tent set up we had our first wave of the storm hit us. Heavy winds slammed rain horizontally into our tent which was struggling to stay upright. Sheets of water slid over the ground and under the tent such that much of the floor was soaked. Thunderous lightning ripped directly overhead. It was extremely intense. During a short break in the storm I got out, assessed the damage, used every stake we had to sturdy the tent and then quickly crawled back into the warm sleeping bag. Although other storms hit us, ear plugs helped mute them and we managed to sleep.

In the morning we spent a little time walking around, through and on top of the ignimbrite rock spires. Although reminiscent of Joshua Tree, most spires are less than 20-30 ft high and the boulder garden is not extensive at all. It's possible to walk from one side to the other in about a minute. Virtually the whole place is a campground which kind of takes away from the exploration of it but it does mean there are some very neat campsites tucked between the boulders. It was an interesting place worth visiting and from the look of it had some pretty decent bouldering. After our brief survey, we continued on to the Gila.

Ladron Peak Nov 10

Sara and I went for a short hike to the top of the dark and lonely Ladron Mountains north of Socorro. These seldom visited mountains (really just an isolated peak) of granite rise over 3000 ft above the flat desolation of the Rio Grande Rift. We were told it could be a long and difficult hike so we got an early start. Despite some pretty vague directions, we followed a reasonably well-worn trail the whole way to the highest peak. We avoided the cactus and yucca without too much difficulty and climbed steeply to the ridge. Once at the ridge the fun really began. To gain the main summit required traversing about a quarter-mile of false peaks and narrow ridges with steep drop-offs. We made it to the top (9200') without incident, took a couple photos, then returned the way we came. It took us about 6 hours round trip at a very leisurely pace.

Parker Canyon Oct 31

After camping next to the towering cliffs at the broad exit to Parker Canyon for the last two nights, I think we were all curious to see what the canyon was about. Unlike all the other granite canyons I have seen in this area, this canyon cuts through quartzite. The trip starts modestly enough as you scramble down a small tributary to the confluence with two other tributaries. Then rather abruptly the canyons form a 6-foot wide slot and the first drop and chilly pool present themselves. We suited up and continued down this short but spectacular narrows which even featured a nice slide.

Once down, the canyon ballooned out into spacious bedrock patios lined with fall colors that contrasted beautifully with the golden reds and oranges of the towering canyon walls. The blocky fractures in the quartzite created intricate spires quite unlike any other technical canyon I have been through. The morning shade was cold, but beautiful nonetheless.

The best abseils were the last two- 50 and 80 feet high. Once down this last drop we could see the canyon expanding downstream as it poured out into the Sonoran Desert. We escaped up a gully on the right which provided surprisingly good travel and then a short road walk back to the car. I was pleasantly surprised at the canyon's beauty, but could only imagine what a fun and scenic trip it would be with a healthy flow of water throughout the whole canyon. Dan and Andy went on to seek further glory by taking Jeff on a lap through the Jug while I opted to drive home in the daylight. Thanks to them for the meet up and adventures.

Grotto Pool Canyon Oct 30

This canyon was the highest on my hit list for this trip. Grotto Pool is famous for its short but spectacular sculpted granite narrows with naturally painted water streaks and deep green pools Although the canyon itself is relatively short, a long approach and equally long return totaling to over 16 miles of travel mean that this canyon is typically done as a two-day trip (~16-20 hours of travel). Despite the difficulty, the variety of terrain is interesting and the trip is a true Arizona classic. Not only was our plan to complete the trip in a single day, but to complete it in late fall when the days are already rather short. Although I was confident we could do it, that did not stop us from preparing to take a stove, hot dinner and some warm clothes- there would be no avoiding a long day. We packed well, bringing just what we needed (including the bare minimum of rope and webbing) and not much more.

While Andy and Dan preferred to have a leisurely day canyoning in the Jug (I don't blame them), Jeff and I got up at the crisp hour of 0500 to pack up and drive to the Reynolds trailhead. Just as I started to get warm from the heat of the car, we arrived and piled back out into the cold. We set off hiking at the first light of dawn, making good time along the trail through the pines towards Park Tank. From Park Tank we veered off on another trail and then followed the dry creekbed of Park Creek to the first signs of canyon. The creek then hit a few quartzite/conglomerate layers and dropped in a series of dry waterfalls requiring downclimbing and rappelling. We traversed a few nice blocky basaltic narrows (remarkably keeping our feet dry). As we continued to drop in elevation we saw our first sign of pink granite- we were finally getting to the good stuff. A bit further on we saw our first wall-to-wall pool and decided to snack and suit up.

In very little time, the pink granite led us to the spectacular finale of Park Canyon- here a 60ft rappel took us down a perfectly smooth chute and over a clean lip to descend into a perfect bowl-shaped pool with an impressive arch at its exit. Although I didn't dare, I did have a good look and I am convinced this must be the mother of all slides in Arizona. A steep 25-foot long chute into a clean 20-foot high drop into a deep boulder-free pool. It was tempting but this is not where I wanted to hurt myself! Just after the arch pool the canyon sort of abruptly dissipates at a cliff face which we rappelled to reach the floor of Salome Creek, home of Grotto Pool Canyon. I guess for some reason I expected the pool to be the grand finale near the end of the canyon so I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the canyon was still ahead of us.

Here we had our first long stint of boulder scrambling and pool wading down the following creek. After perhaps 45 minutes (enough!) of this, we saw a gateway of pink granite bedrock looming ahead and got excited for the main event. Jumps, slides, more jumps- now it was on! All two quickly we reached the Grotto Pool itself (frontispiece). Despite harsh lighting, the pool was impressive. It was probably the biggest pool I have seen in a canyon and best I could tell it was bottomless for much of its length.

        Jumping into the enormous Grotto Pool

The canyon continued to present some fantastic features. Fifteen-foot jumps, long swims, a few downclimbs, a couple slides and one rappel. The pools were deep and clear, giving us a lot of confidence on the jumps. We swam under an enormous canyon-spanning chockstone, skirted around a couple pools and then came to a neat rappel off of a chockstone pinch. Most of the way down the abseil there was a neat little cave with some calcite deposits. We then jumped into yet another beautiful pool. A couple more jumps, swims and slides and we could see Workman Creek coming in on the left, signalling the end of the canyon, but not the end of the adventure.

Thankfully we did not find Workman Creek to be as horrible as the guidebook suggested. Yes the rocks were kind of slippery, yes there were some tricky climbs we had to do to bypass waterfalls and yes the swims were cold, but the canyon itself was beautiful. Fresh flowing water and the changing colors of the trees (which coated pools of unknown depths with vision-obscuring leaves) made for challenging but enjoyable travel. I was happy to note a general lack of poison ivy. That said it did seem to be taking us a long time to go a short distance according to our interpretation of the map. Eventually we were eager to figure out exactly where we were and I pulled the GPS out of the drybags. Turns out we had overshot our (supposedly obvious) exit trail by about 0.7 miles. Ouch! Not willing to accept the lost time from retracing our steps and then finding the start of the 6 mile trail just before dark, I realized we were actually closer to the confluence of Reynolds and Workman creeks (about 0.5 miles). Although I had no idea what we would find in the next 0.5 miles (labeled Devils Hole on the map!), I had been down Reynolds before and up the short canyon of Workman above the confluence so had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Once through that it would only be 2 trail miles back to the car! What started as a crucial mistake, we managed to salvage by carrying on, enjoying more challenges in Workman Creek including a sketchy, exposed waterfall climb Jeff led to save us time on bypassing it. Although the travel was far more interesting and scenic than the trail, we were burning lots of energy, losing daylight, and our wetsuits were getting really uncomfortable. Just in time (about 4pm) we reached the trail junction with Workman Creek. We immediately started up the JetBoil on dinner as we stripped off the neoprene and put on the warmest clothes we had. It would be getting cold soon so we needed to efficiently eat dinner and get moving. Two easy trail miles and we were back at the car. Despite our extended adventure up Workman Creek, we still completed the trip in 12 hours which I thought was a great effort!

Although Grotto Pool Canyon itself was shorter than I hoped (and overall I would say that the Jug makes a much better trip), the features in there are spectacular with Grotto Pool being just one of them. In any case my curiosity has been satisfied. Neat place. Thanks to Jeff- awesome trip!

Waterslides Canyon Oct 29

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.