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Geronimo Canyon - 5 members in 9 triplogs have rated this an average 3.4 ( 1 to 5 best )
9 triplogs
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Jan 01 2022
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 Routes 4
 Photos 57
 Triplogs 7

30 female
 Joined Aug 04 2019
 Phoenix, Arizona
Geronimo CanyonPhoenix, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Hiking avatar Jan 01 2022
brainz94Triplogs 7
Hiking4.36 Miles 1,065 AEG
Hiking4.36 Miles
1,065 ft AEG
 
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
Becky and I set out for a NYD hike with plans to visit Peter. Tortilla creek was raging so we opted to check out Geronimo head instead. As we neared the ridge before Geronimo canyon, we started to hear the sounds of gushing water. Much to our surprise, Geronimo was flowing heavily! :y: We aborted plans again and opted to head down the canyon. This is one of the most challenging canyons we have navigated through as you spend most of your time bouldering, down climbing, waist-chest deep in bushes or twisting your way through catclaw. The continuous waterfalls and geology made it well worth the effort!

I had remembered reading about Geronimo becoming a technical canyon at some point and figured it was a short canyon so worse case scenario - we'd just backtrack. We encountered the first rap site towards the bottom. This was easily navigated around by going up and to the left with a bit of a sketchy down climb on the other side. Of course, we meandered our way back upstream to catch what we had missed! :D

The second major rap site was stunning! Probably the biggest fall I have seen in the Supes so far. We guesstimated at least 50ft+ (later read that it was 70!) This one proved much harder to navigate around as the canyon clipped into the abyss. We stayed high to the right and took a ledge around to the right which we used to drop into a side canyon. The side canyon was in no way enjoyable as it was slippery rocks and pokey bushes with hidden cacti....The slot canyon at the bottom of that fall was beautiful. We made our way back down to tortilla flats. A VERY slow moving canyon given all of the obstacles but tons of fun! Would not recommend unless you thoroughly enjoy type 2/3 fun - bushwhacking, down climbing, bendy catclaw avoidance strategies, etc. All in all, a great way to welcome the New Year!
 
Mar 16 2018
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 Guides 3
 Routes 2
 Photos 1,156
 Triplogs 338

53 male
 Joined Aug 22 2003
 Mesa
Geronimo CanyonPhoenix, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Hiking avatar Mar 16 2018
te_waTriplogs 338
Hiking2.70 Miles 1,320 AEG
Hiking2.70 Miles
1,320 ft AEG
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
up from the parking area, we stayed in creek mostly to enjoy the experience. after all, off trail is the goal here. we climbed to the jam section, up to the impassable (to us) 25' dryfall. back out and to the east, we left geronimo and kept going up the sometimes bushy hillside/canyon to reach the trail for geronimo head. had lunch at the saddle, looking down into geronimo canyon proper. decided to go southeast, pick up the first drainage headed towards tortilla, and eventually dumped into geronimo again, just a couple hundred feet from the road.
nice little off trail scramble in the area.
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squirrel!
 
Feb 09 2013
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 Guides 107
 Routes 249
 Photos 2,067
 Triplogs 514

male
 Joined Nov 18 2005
 Phoenix, AZ
Geronimo CanyonPhoenix, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Canyoneering avatar Feb 09 2013
nonotTriplogs 514
Canyoneering1.20 Miles 800 AEG
Canyoneering1.20 Miles
800 ft AEG
Intermediate Canyoneering - Difficult or dangerous; Tech Climb; rope reqd; descent anchor; exit technical;
A - Dry or little water; shallow or avoidable water; no wet/dry suit
I - Short 1-2 hours
 no routesno photosets
1st trip
Linked   linked  
Partners none no partners
Quick loop with a nonstandard approach - nearly hit the Labarge saddle. Bypassed the first rappel, then climbed around the optional 2nd rap. The 3rd rap (only one we did) is nice, Joe described it as a "hidden gem" and he is right!

For those geologists, there are some really cool hoodoos like you typically find up around the AZ-Utah border hiding in this corner of the Supes. Awesome! Managed to stay dry, but many will want wetsuits when this is flowing.
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Hike Arizona it is full of sharp, pointy, ankle-twisting, HAZmaster crushing ROCKS!!
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  3 archives
Mar 19 2012
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 Guides 2
 Routes 4
 Photos 3,873
 Triplogs 362

51 female
 Joined Feb 12 2008
 Tucson, AZ
Geronimo CanyonPhoenix, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Canyoneering avatar Mar 19 2012
sirenaTriplogs 362
Canyoneering0.80 Miles 800 AEG
Canyoneering0.80 Miles
800 ft AEG
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   linked  
Partners none no partners
After the storm on Sunday, I was eager to go play in a canyon with Clint, Adam and Kristin. This area is really interesting with its rock formations and different textures. The last rappel was my favorite into a large room. We got rained on as we were finishing the last rappel and then it turned into snow! Afterward went down Damocles and up and down Dionysius to round out a fantastic day.
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Dec 23 2011
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 Guides 3
 Routes 4
 Photos 8,687
 Triplogs 931

46 male
 Joined Mar 28 2005
 Gilbert, AZ
Geronimo CanyonPhoenix, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Canyoneering avatar Dec 23 2011
VapormanTriplogs 931
Canyoneering1.25 Miles 600 AEG
Canyoneering1.25 Miles   3 Hrs   45 Mns   0.33 mph
600 ft AEG
Intermediate Canyoneering - Difficult or dangerous; Tech Climb; rope reqd; descent anchor; exit technical;
B - Up to light current; wading/swimming; possible wet/dry suit
II - Normally requires a half day
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   linked  
Partners partners
suzaz
My buddy Clint recently descended this sweet canyon and shared the beta naming it Headdress Canyon. The approach was still a work in progress so we opted to try a lower approach and thankfully it worked. :D Such funky & colorful volcanic rock and scenic views along the way! The canyon was still flowing lightly and the first 20ft rappel was into a super chilly swimmer. :o Some down climbs later and we found a nice sunny spot to warm back up. 8) There was an optional 20ft waterfall rappel into another pool but we opted for the easy bypass. Just below that was a box canyon with a 60ft rappel from below a suspended rock pile. The box canyon was pretty sweet & tall though some tricky down climbs was all it took to exit it. The rest of the canyon was mucho bushwhacking, down climbing, and rock hopping but it was scenic & sunny so it was enjoyable & pleasant. :sweat:
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Yea, canyoneering is an extreme sport... EXTREMELY dramatic!!! =p
  2 archives
Dec 23 2011
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 Guides 1
 Routes 2
 Photos 3,905
 Triplogs 154

female
 Joined Nov 23 2003
 Gold Canyon, AZ
Geronimo CanyonPhoenix, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Hiking avatar Dec 23 2011
suzazTriplogs 154
Hiking1.50 Miles 600 AEG
Hiking1.50 Miles   3 Hrs   45 Mns   0.40 mph
600 ft AEG
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
Another short canyon with an ankle friendly approach in the Tortilla Flat Vortex area. Found a sweet little gypsy lady in a cave kind of high up humming with beads and candles that came out to chat with us. She offered her words of wisdom for the exit.
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  1 archive
Apr 04 2009
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 Guides 21
 Routes 1,182
 Photos 36,858
 Triplogs 1,570

69 female
 Joined Feb 26 2004
 Phoenix, AZ
Peter's CavePhoenix, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Canyoneering avatar Apr 04 2009
tibberTriplogs 1,570
Canyoneering5.00 Miles 500 AEG
Canyoneering5.00 Miles
500 ft AEG
B - Up to light current; wading/swimming; possible wet/dry suit
 no routes
1st trip
Partners partners
snakemarks
Wow, Cool, AmAZing. We decided we needed a new vocabulary as we wore out those words. However, this is another one of those "what trail" for sure! We did use trekking poles and thank goodness we had them; they are a great security blanket. We did get to use our limited cairn reading ability. We appreciated the cairns; especially on the way back, as it was getting toward dusk.

As we made our way east before the turn south into the Canyon Kat says, "see it's pretty easy"... little did I know it was going to be another Lower Barks test with even some tougher areas (like Upper Fish Creek) to get through. I think the most perturbing thing is you have to cross back and forth across the creek so much and just when you think you're going to be able to stay on one side, back over you have to go.

Getting through some of the brush and that lovely catclaw just gets obscene after awhile :yuck: . I did love the tiny reprieve you get mid-way where it levels out into this amAZing bed of flat rock that has some water flowing over and through it.

The creek is not flowing as full as it was earlier in the year but I was actually glad about that as it made for easier trekking and it created some interesting dry pool areas. There were plenty of other "cool" pool areas too.

We saw lots of butterflies, lizards, and different wildflowers as well as a gila monster. We saw 8 other people including two who were headed up to camp. We easily could have spent all day out there... oh wait, we did :)
wildflower observationwildflower observationwildflower observationwildflower observationwildflower observation
Wildflowers Observation Light
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For me, sometimes it's just as much about the journey as the destination.
Oh, and once in awhile, don't forget to look back at the trail you've traveled.
 
Dec 16 2007
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 Guides 7
 Routes 57
 Photos 1,107
 Triplogs 64

77 male
 Joined Jan 07 2004
 Tempe, AZ
Geronimo CanyonPhoenix, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Hiking avatar Dec 16 2007
kanodeTriplogs 64
Hiking0.80 Miles 200 AEG
Hiking0.80 Miles   1 Hour   26 Mns   0.56 mph
200 ft AEG
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
I disagree with Joe re: "It's unlikely you'll ever want to take on this mini adventure." This hike has great photo opportunities--especially when there's water flowing. ( I took 93.) It's not worth a trip just for it but it's a good companion hike with the La Barge Canyon View hike. The trailheads are close together and my endpoints on both hikes were only 0.3 miles apart.

Joe's "mini boxed in slot" was a water fall with several knee high pools of water below it.

Surprising for the closeness of this hike to the road and Tortilla Flat, I didn't see any trash. (Maybe the rains washed all the trash away.)

I didn't have to do any creek bed hiking. I took the use trail on the east bank the whole way. It's overgrown in places and sometimes hard to follow but there are a few cairns here and there.

I had lots of problems taking photos due to lens flare. Most of the scenery is up and to the south--very close to the low the December sun. I found that if I took two photos of the same scene the flares are in different spots. I then photo-merged them in Photoshop 10. This aligns them and Photoshop tends to use the content and ignore the flare.
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Irv
 
Mar 08 2004
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 Guides 264
 Routes 2,797
 Photos 14,494
 Triplogs 5,894

55 male
 Joined Nov 20 1996
 
Geronimo CanyonPhoenix, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Hiking avatar Mar 08 2004
joebartelsTriplogs 5,894
Hiking2.30 Miles 335 AEG
Hiking2.30 Miles   3 Hrs      0.77 mph
335 ft AEG
 no routes
1st trip
Linked   none no linked trail guides
Partners none no partners
I didn't go further as this seemed to be the last hurrah from my photos looking down on the area.

Slight understatement :lol:

I started scouting out a short approach to Geronimo Head. Which panned out great. Plus I found an even better approach for future trips.

Upon reaching the area I call LaBarge Canyon View I switched up my destination. Four days after the 2.5 inch rainfall I wasn't expecting to see much "running" water. La Barge was down to a trickle between puddles. So I decided to head down Geronimo's Ravine and check out the "Upper" ravine I missed out in the past.

Nothing over exciting in the ravine but the surrounding cliffs are sweet. I made it down to what I thought was the choked out section I couldn't negotiate on my previous trip to the area. Only to find out there's a 20-25 foot fall just above the choked out section. The water was only maybe 5 gallons per minute. What made it cool is I doubt many people have seen this area. You wouldn't see it going up because you'd bypass the area at the choke. And who comes down this ravine if they aren't going up it!

Not excited about the bushwhack down the lower ravine I skirted off east. There was some fun easy rock climbing but I ended up in more bushes so that part didn't pan out. At least I know another area to avoid :o

I came out on SR88 at a fifteen foot drop which was a slide of pebbles. Timing was critical as the cars whizzed by every second. They probably thought I was nuts :lol:
_____________________
- joe
 
average hiking speed 0.66 mph

WARNING! Hiking and outdoor related sports can be dangerous. Be responsible and prepare for the trip. Study the area you are entering and plan accordingly. Dress for the current and unexpected weather changes. Take plenty of water. Never go alone. Make an itinerary with your plan(s), route(s), destination(s) and expected return time. Give your itinerary to trusted family and/or friends.

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