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| Canyoneering | 0.50 Miles |
600 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 0.50 Miles | | | |
| 600 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | What a fine way to spend a few carefree hours -- scrambling among the huge water-scoured boulders of this canyon just a few miles outside Tucson. Pack a lunch (maybe some wine?), bring your camera, shoulder your bouldering pad.
Each collection of boulders leads up to a sandy bench, followed by more boulders which lead up to another bench, and so on and so on for less than a quarter-mile and a gain of maybe 200 feet. A tiny place, really, just the right size for a playground.
Each bench of clean, warm, coarse sand invites you to lie down -- maybe imagine yourself on a Maui shore. But Maui doesn't have these smooth, inviting white-and-gray boulders or these chiseled tan-and-orange cliffs. Looking over this dry streambed, it's easy to picture a day when water rushed over 10-foot-high pourovers into quiet pools 50 feet long.
I went up this lower canyon area to a place where two side gullies enter. From here the main canyon narrows and steepens, with smaller boulders that are less water-scoured (and therefore offer better hand- and footholds). I didn't go far, but you can certainly scramble as far as you want.
I wasn't alone in the canyon. Four rock climbers showed up to climb an east-side wall. And I ran into occasional bees and wasps.
Many thanks to imike for turning me on to this sweet retreat. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
