HikeArizona.COM

http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~damronb/bad.htm

Here's a link a college guy sent me to his AZ adventure I 'think' I recommended James Canyon. Which is a hearty tributary to Pumphouse Wash which then inturn goes down to the head of Oak Creek above Sedona for reference. Anyhow I thought I'd let you die hard readers get first glance. I'm backed up right now but plan on reading soon.

e-mail as followed... Apparently I


Joe,
I wanted to re-send the email that you sent to me last year to give this
email context. I found this in my inbox today and I wanted to thank you
for your advice and for our Arizona trip. I believe in my heart it may
have been the best trip of my life... although I would not again suggest
this trip to others. Reason? We almost died on several occations due to
the water level in the Canyon. James and Lower Pumphouse I'm sure are dry
most of the year... we found out later that they were actually closed when
we went down them due to the danger. =)
Everyone got out just fine and it will always be one of my greatest
memories of college, so I just wanted to let you know. Please take a look
at the journal that my friend wrote for the trip. It is long, but it's a
good read if you just wanted something fun to read after dinner some time.

Just for a little background the trip was named the BAD Vacation before we
left Boulder and had nothing to do with our attitudes on the trip. BAD
stands for Backpacking Arizona's Desert.

http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~damronb/bad.htm

:roll: As nearly as I can tell, this fellow was indeed hiking James Canyon. It's actually quite an interesting hike and well suited for the HikeArizona.Com members. Obviously, one wouldn't want to hike it during snowmelt or monsoon season. May-June or October-November are the best times. I lived in Flag for 10 years and hiked it a few times in the 80's. (Hence, this descriptioni is 'well aged' and should be considered only suitable for general perspectives. As always, do your own research before attempting this or any other excursion.) If you're wanting to do this hike, you pretty much need a vehicle shuttle that's for sure. Pull off at the Kelly Canyon exit and drive in on the Forest Road that goes west, passing a 'borrow pit' after about a mile. Perhaps a half-mile past the borrow pit, pull up onto a ridge on your left. Bushwhack around for awhile until you find a game trail heading down a very steep slope which is in a sort of ravine between much steeper slopes on both sides. It's the kind of slope one usually slides down rather than hikes down. This route brings you into James Canyon below the big vertical waterfall. You can walk upstream about a quarter mile and hang out under this waterfall. If you time your spring hike properly, there will be a trickle of water falling over it. James Canyon probably qualifies as one of Central Arizona's few genuine slot canyons. You will have to swim a bunch of pools in this one. We took river runner 'black bags' for our stuff. The water is always bone chilling cold because the pools never get enough sun to warm up. We liked spring hiking better because we figured the water quality was better. Just an unscientific judgement call. It's a breathtaking hike in more ways than one. The pools will defintely take your breath away. The scenery doesn't do a bad job in that department either. Eventually you come out in Pumphouse and work your way down the typical route there to the Pumphouse bridge. Hopefully your shuttle driver didn't get lost and is on time. Defintely don't hike this place when there's even a slight danger of variable water flows. It's already weird enough without having to worry about water problems. I don't worry about describing these general details. It's a kind of place which will never get heavy usage. Shuttle logistics and route finding realities preclude much casual usage of the place. However, I do think the folks on this list would absolutely LOVE it.

The guy spins a great tale, I'm always envious of people who can draw or write . . . . . . . or spell