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| Canyoneering | 3.40 Miles |
340 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 3.40 Miles | 3 Hrs 46 Mns | | 0.90 mph |
| 340 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This hike was a good half-day diversion for my 13 year-old grandson who likes to explore off-trail in rugged terrain that can be a challenge for his Granddad but not so much for his Dad who came with us. The starting point on FR237 is a short drive from Katrina Village where we were staying in a VRBO house with the rest of the family. We chose the 14 mile driving route that goes towards Flagstaff on HW-17 then loops south down HW-89A to FR237 for one mile of dirt road to our chosen parking spot. We were surprised to discover a large village of dispersed campers along a half-mile of this road. On the return we drove the shorter 5.6 mile route back to Kachina Village on FR237. That road had some rough spots but nothing our 2-wheel drive RAV4 (my wife's car) couldn't handle with ease.
We started the hike by walking down the hillside from FR237 to Pumphouse Wash at its scenic confluence with Kelly Canyon, then north a quarter mile up the Wash to checkout a cave. My Grandson was eager to explore the cave. However, I was surprised to find out my son-in-law has a claustrophobic fear of caves and he quickly retreated to the dry creek bed to wait for us. It's a small, short cave so there wasn't much exploring involved but still a worthwhile point of interest for my Grandson.
After leaving the cave we hiked about 1.6 miles down PH Wash to a high waterfall which blocks easy access to the canyon below and was our chosen turn-around location. This short hike down canyon to the falls turned out to be somewhat of a challenge for me with about a mile of clambering over a boulder strewn dry creek bed in the hot mid-morning sun to reach the 14 to 20 foot-high (dry) falls. There are some scenic rock formations carved out by the stream along the way and the falls is a worthy scenic destination. I was desperate to find an easier way back to the car so consulted the topo map on my Garmin GPS. It has an old map which luckily shows old, abandoned logging roads and there was one leading out of the bottom of the canyon not far upstream from the falls taking us back to FR237 and our car on a gentle slope. If you want a quick and easy access to, or from, the falls I recommend using that part of our route. |
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