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| Canyoneering | 20.35 Miles |
8,175 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 20.35 Miles | 3 Days | | |
| 8,175 ft AEG | | 35 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | We were blessed to enjoy our Labor Day weekend backpacking in Aravaipa Canyon! It's funny how it worked out. Some random day about 13 weeks ago, my mom was like, "It seems like it's about time to reserve a permit for Aravaipa over Labor Day." I hopped on Recreation.gov, and sure enough, permits had just opened up that day for the long weekend. The west side was filled up already, so we booked a reservation for the east side.
Background: We had hiked the west side four years ago, and got as far as Deer Creek + 2.5 miles up Deer Creek slot canyon to the cute little waterfall.) So this trip could be much more relaxed, just hiking in a few miles from the east side, spending a day exploring side canyons, and then hiking out.
Reservations: As I alluded to earlier, reservations are required to enjoy Aravaipa Canyon, even for just a day hike. Please be courteous to other hikers and obey the rules. Reservations open 13 weeks in advance and are available on Recreation.gov. Search for Aravaipa wilderness and choose either West or East Entrance. The cost is very minimal--only $5 per person per day.
The drive: My sister is in college, so after she was done with classes on Friday, we drove down there. Starting from the east side, it was quite a lengthy drive from Phoenix, totaling 4-4.5 hours, depending on how fast the gravel roads are driven. It took us more like 5.5 hours due to being at night and Google Maps routing us to the wrong place. (Thanks Google!  ) Ended up camping in the Bureau of Land Management area in Bear Canyon, and saving the last few miles of the drive for the next morning. If you are traveling to the area, please be aware that Fourmile campground is the only official campground, however dispersed camping is allowed on public lands (i.e. BLM land). Check the map carefully to make sure you aren't disperse camping on private property or in the nature conservancy, which is also private land. The road itself is very smooth going from Highway 70 through Klondyke to the trailhead. By way of explanation, there are actually two trailheads, one that is accessible to all vehicles, and one that is for 4x4 vehicles only. If you have a 4x4, it saves you about 1.5 miles hiking to go to the closer trailhead. Now if you want my personal opinion, I don't think 4WD is strictly speaking "necessary". The primary thing needed is high ground clearance and good approach angle, departure angle, and breakover angle. In this case, we were driving a 4WD 2001 Chevy Suburban. We consistently scraped the trailer hitch receiver due to a Suburban's poor departure angle. Scraped the front end once due to poor approach angle. Scraped the rock rail (side step) once due to poor breakover angle. The only vehicles at the closer trailhead were another Suburban, a 4Runner, and a newer model RAV4 (lifted ~3 inches, I'd guess). The primary challenge is not low traction (mud, sand, etc.), but steep entrances and exits into and out of Aravaipa Creek. For this reason, I would feel comfortable driving it in my 2WD 1999 Ford Explorer Sport, which has better angles and shorter wheelbase than our Suburban, making the road actually seem easier. Okay, enough about the road, now on to the hike!
First 2.5 miles: It was about 2.5 miles from the trailhead to the Deer Creek junction, which is where we planned to spend our two nights in the canyon. As of before we left, the USGS water report for Aravaipa Creek was showing around 100 CFS and 0.6 foot water depth. When we arrived we were surprised at how muddy the water was compared to the previous time we hiked Aravaipa in Sept. 2017, and the water was perfectly clear then. Maybe the recent rains have muddied things up a little. For those unfamiliar with Aravaipa, there is no trail in the canyon. You are expected to find your own way. This is actually pretty easy because you can just follow the creek the whole way. What you'll find is that when you're hiking in hot weather, hiking directly in the creek is most pleasant. In this way, the cold water splashes up and provides significant cooling. Pro tip: Make sure you wear shoes that are completely enclosed. The first time we hiked it, we wore "Keens", you know, like the classic Keen water shoes with solid toe, but the rest of the shoe is more like a sandal. This was miserable because all kinds of little gravel and rocks from the creek bottom get into the shoes and make walking painful. This time, we wore old shoes we had saved for this trip (old tennis shoes, hiking shoes, running shoes; anything works!). We only had to stop and empty out the rocks from our shoes once on the entire trip and hiking was so much more pleasant without the gravel on your feet. Just make sure to have dry socks/clothes for once you arrive at camp for optimum foot health.
Whenever you no longer feel like walking in the creek, there are often rocky beaches or sand bars you can walk on. This will get you out of the water, yet be very easy going and quick. Be careful about venturing too far into the vegetation. Not only does it harm the plants unnecessarily, it is often slow going, and the potential for rattlesnakes hiding in the grass is significant.
Parsons Canyon: We explored a short distance up Parsons Canyon. It is a neat little side canyon with great views, somewhat of a "slot canyon" feel, and some very large/deep pools that made for great swimming! After looking at the map, we realized that this side canyon branches many times into different directions and it would take several days to explore the whole area, so we opted to turn around and enjoy the afternoon at camp.
Deer Canyon: Our second day, we started hiking up Deer Creek drainage. The goal was to enjoy the slot canyon and "make it to the end" of this side canyon. After about 2.5 miles up Deer Creek, we enjoyed the waterfall/cascade on the left side of the canyon before continuing on. Eventually, at around 4.5 miles, the water went underground permanently. From here all the way to the road was dry creekbed, which made for very easy walking. Upon reaching the road, we found an old (abandoned) ranch. Most of it looked to be 50-100 years old, but there were some modern improvements like generators & solar panels. The canned food on the porch was not yet expired. Strange. Our best explanation is maybe someone was running from the law and hiding out there, and they got caught. The official signage indicates that the ranch is named "Dry Camp Ranch." If anyone knows any history on this place, I'd definitely be curious to learn more! The hike back was rather uneventful, except that with around 3 miles left in the slot canyon, we heard thunder crashing overhead. There had hardly been any clouds in the sky, so the storm must have blown in quickly. Although it rained very little (on us, in the slot canyon!), we knew the potential for flash flooding was very dangerous, so we kept a close eye on the weather and hustled out of there as quickly as we could. In the end, no flood came down Deer Creek, although the main Aravaipa Creek rose in height by about 4 inches. It also become substantially muddier, to the point where it literally looked like chocolate milk.  Suffice it to say, we waited to filter more water till the next day when some of the sediment had cleared out.
On the last day, we hiked out 2.5 miles by the way we had come back to the east entrance. We noticed that going upstream is more challenging, so we took a couple more breaks.
All in all, it was a great trip, full of excitement and beauty. There is really no place quite like Aravaipa canyon, with the cliffs, slot canyons, saguaros, and riparian habitat all in one place. It truly feels like a wild place.
One final note: make sure you take some bug spray with you--they were very bad. Not just mosquitoes, but also gnats and flies.
Till next time, stay safe and enjoy getting out there and enjoying the outdoors!
Kyle |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
A few cactus were blooming, including hedgehog and barrel. |
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Deer Creek |
Light flow |
Light flow |
| | | Dry at the outlet (Aravaipa Creek), however, the main canyon is flowing for 4+ miles. It goes underground within a few hundred yards of the main Aravaipa Creek. |
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Parsons Canyon |
Light flow |
Light flow |
| | | Parsons was flowing nicely as far as we went. Like most AZ creeks, it sometimes flows underground. I would estimate half the time, it's above ground, and the other half the time, it's below ground. |
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Turkey Creek |
Medium flow |
Medium flow |
| | | This was my first time here, so I have nothing to compare it to, but Turkey Creek was flowing nicely. Maybe around 10-20 cfs? | | | |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
)](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
), and he was picking up the rental car that insurance was providing. Anyway, the plan was for us to hike AZT passage #2 to "get the hiking out of the way" and then Dad would pick us all up at the west end of the passage and then we could enjoy the rest of the weekend together camping, at the lake, etc. So before we leave home, I print off a nice set of maps for Dad and show him where the intended hike is. I sit him down and we look at how he's going to drive to get there, and he writes down in his own handwriting all the turns he needs to take. I suggest he download some offline maps for Google Maps, but he doesn't have enough storage space on his phone. I look and apparently he's still running iOS 10 because all the more recent iOS's have been too large to download on his 16GB iPhone 6. Oh well, he's got a paper map and turn-by-turn directions. What can go wrong? 
Okay, now back to us, we finish our hike of Passage 2 a bit earlier than anticipated, around 2:15 PM. The agreed-upon meeting time at Canelo Hills TH was 3:00 PM. So we relax in the shade, chat with the ranger who happened to drive by, etc. (By the way, we have a little, but not much cell service at this point, enough to have received a text at the time Dad left home, on schedule). By 3:45 PM, we're starting to wonder where he is, because based on when he left home, even if he had to stop for gas or something, he should definitely be here by now. So one of us gets out of airplane mode and tries calling him, no luck. Eventually, we decided that since I had talked over the directions with him, we'd leave my phone, which was below 20% at this point, out of airplane mode to be able to receive calls, and everyone else would conserve their phone battery for later use if needed. Eventually, the phone rings around 4:30 PM, and the conversation goes something like,
). The buzzing of power lines was heard in our ears the whole night, and it created some static with the sleeping bags...nothing that can't be dealt with, though.
I'd propose they should have just parked along the road and walked 100 yards. 
