Parallel Play Canyon Photoset • azmike • 2013-03-03 • HikeArizona.COM

Parallel Play Canyon, AZ

	2013-03-03
	48 by azmike

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Parallel Play Canyon

Payson, AZ

Parallel Play Canyon

Payson, AZ

Canyoneering	6.00 Miles	2,400 AEG

Canyoneering	6.00 Miles	8 Hrs 30 Mns	0.71 mph
	2,400 ft AEG

Intermediate Canyoneering - Difficult or dangerous; Tech Climb; rope reqd; descent anchor; exit technical;

C - Strong current; wading/swimming; waterfalls; possible wet/dry suit

III - Normally requires most of a day

Linked

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no linked trail guides

Partners

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We started at the trailhead around 8 AM and followed a pretty well-defined trail to the drainage where we dropped into the canyon at the first rappel. There was a little bit of snow on the ground at the higher elevations but only patches of snow. Once we dropped in, we could see a huge waterfall up canyon a half mile or so. We would have had to do some serious bush whacking to get to it. We left it for another day and just started hiking down the canyon.

The water was flowing fast in the canyon. We knew that all raps would be over waterfalls. There were four raps in the canyon. The best of the three was the second rap which was either a two-stage or three-stage rap. The waterfall was raging on this one. We had to rappel down 100 ft or so to a ledge. The ledge required us to pitch hard to our right while on the rope. There was an anchor on a BFR at the ledge. You could easily put several people on this ledge. From there we rapped down between two granite walls about 150 ft to a really cool alcove. There's another anchor about 120 ft down. It's there to make the rope pull easier on the second stage. I would at least have the last person down make this a three-stage rap.

After the final rap, we geared down and started hiking down Park Creek. There's a lot of scrambling across large boulders which makes for a little more difficult exit especially with the vegetation.

Once the canyon opens up and about a mile before the trailhead, we started to climb out of the creek bed on LDC. It was much easier and faster to hike above the creek. We just followed the creek to the trailhead. It was a great day to be in the canyon especially with all the water.

	Park Creek	Heavy flow	Heavy flow
	Lots of water in Park Creek. UP canyon there were a number of waterfalls.

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