Rarick Canyon Photoset • MountainMatt • 2016-12-26 • HikeArizona.COM

Rarick Canyon, AZ

	2016-12-26
	12 by MountainMatt

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Rarick Canyon

Camp Verde, AZ

Rarick Canyon

Camp Verde, AZ

Hiking	4.68 Miles	392 AEG

Hiking	4.68 Miles
	392 ft AEG

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I made a quick unexpected stop off FR 689 aka Blue Grade Rd. to check the status on my recently balanced tires.
Earlier in the day I had to make a stop at Discount Tire after realizing something was wrong when my SUV was violently shaking upon hitting the highway for the first time in days.
I believe I may have got a little carried away romping around in the snow while visiting up north for the holidays.

Luckily all I did was knock the front tires a little out of balance, quick fix and the truck is good as new!
To the hike...Finally!

I literally was just going to make a quick stop since I originally had to work that day and felt the guilt I had to cancel but I made a quick look at my maps and saw a random canyon (Rarick) and my curiosity got the best of me as usual.
I noticed it had a rather large watershed and knowing how much it snowed around Flagstaff and how warm it was that day I knew there would be some water down there but I no idea there would be the mass quantity I was soon greeted with!
This was a true random little hike for me as said and I had no idea there was a writeup on HAZ until I got home.
I just dipped right into the canyon once I heard water and began to bushwhack and work my way upstream. At first I wanted to keep my feet dry but there was just so much water gushing from every direction that it was just easier to get in and get wet.
It was freezing at first but my legs were numb within minutes and then it actually felt quite nice in weird way.
With that being said for all the areas that required knee deep wades I put my dog on my shoulders for a ride as I did not want her freezing and miserable since I planned on taking a few photos later.

The highlight of the hike ended up being the discovery of all the well preserved petroglyphs that left me in wonder and awe.
I've never seen such a high concentration of petros in one area and the locations of some of the artwork was perhaps the most impressive. There were quite a few scenes that had to be at least 18-20ft on the vertical canyon wall and the only logical explanation is they had to have large stable ladders of some sort as no human could ever reach that without the assistance of an apparatus.

Certainly a great couple of hours exploring a sweet little canyon and of course even better to see it with the life of strong flowing water. : rambo :

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Rarick Canyon

	Rarick Canyon	Heavy flow	Heavy flow
	Rarick Canyon has the "Rarick River" gushing through it at the moment! It was knee deep in depth at every crossing and raging with a bounty of Christmas snowmelt.

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