Years ago, long before i had touched a packraft, back when the idea of getting a raft was a faint glimmer on my horizon and i was instead looking at getting specialized packrafts specifically for canyoneering in the grand canyon, i would look upcanyon from the highway 288 bridge on my way up to the Sierra Ancha range wondering what mysteries were upstream.
I looked into the float briefly after i bought my first packraft but was quickly deterred by the class 4 rapids in the stretch and the aura that remained around quartzite falls which is currently a mere shadow of its former self. It has long been in the back of my mind as something i wanted to work up to, another in the line of progression of permitted western rivers that Andrew, Lindsay and i had slowly been working through. In fact, this year i decided to start upping my permit game and had applied for both a Deso and a Yampa permit, but only managed to pick up a yampa once things were openly released.
In February of this year, a friend of a friend put out the call, the salt had enough flow to be boatable and a permit had been drawn, plus several that were going on the trip had run it a few times before. A last minute flight was booked and before we knew it, we were in the van driving out to the Salt River canyon!
Looking downstream at the put in. What mysteries lie around that bend?
The crew for this trip was a bit more of a hodge podge than our usual, with a dedicated core and a few newcomers. Instead, we had a collection of those that could make the short timeline work, thanks to the lottery for incentivizing this over longer term planning.
After a late night arrival and 4 hours of sleep, Andrew and i were picked up by our shuttle vehicle early on Feb 29th and we set out. Its been a few years since i have been out to the Salt River canyon, but just like last year when Andrew and i were heading out towards the Gila region, Queen Creek canyon was in rare form, full of water from recent rains, misty and foggy and popping with wildflowers. Before long we found ourselves at the bottom of the salt river canyon. While quite as grand and colofrul as the Grand Canyon, this place with its more subdued scenery is quintessential arizona, a harsh desert cut through by water. In short order andrew sarah and i were rigged and ready to go, the rest of the crew, however, would still be a while. An hour or so later, the remaining members of the crew arrived, coming from other locations, including one from flag who conviniently grabbed our tribal permits. just after noon, we finally set out.
The rapids come in quick succession- Kiss and tell, then bump and grind, a river wide gravel bar pourover. We were just talking about how someone always has a problem at Bump and Grind, when, conviniently, i ran into a rock... After getting through the rapid i noticed i was loosing air fairly quickly. Luckily, after so many repairs in Alaska, i have become adept at fixes and we wer back on the water in 5 minutes. Maytag, Overboard, Grumman, and mother rock all passed without issue, and around 3 we got to Exhibition, one of our first bigger rapids. At this level, the Salt was a weird combination of low water and big hydraulics- in a weird way though where some of the big hydraulics were just rocks, others were water... Exhibition ended up being a long run through big waves and holes. Right after, Erik, one of the party, had to exit as he did not have time to complete the full trip. Cibecue came in on river right with some stellar rock scenery. I never managed to get up to Cibeque falls before it became instagram famous, so i am not sure i will ever get the chance but i can imagine it is a beautiful quintessential Arizona sight. Cibecue and Raft Ripper rapids both past without issue. At Mescal Falls, a hard river right against a wall with some interesting waves and a big hole, several members went for a swim. Luckily there is a decent pool to recover in right downstream. Right around the corner at mescal falls, the Saguaro first made their appearance!
Salt banks came in on river right shortly after the salt banks rapid. The travertine fallys were awesome. Apparently the small drips that fall into the Salt here ad a substantial portion of the salt in the river, pretty crazy that such a small flow can have such a large effect. Just after Litle Boat eater, we pulled over to stay for the evening (at 11.4 camp, one of many beautiful camps) with som enice cliffs downstream and a giant boulder in the middle of the river that just beggged to be climbed (unfortunately we didnt have a whole ton of lesiure time so i never got out to it).
Day 2 started abruptly wih rock garden. Shortly thereafter we had the first rapid with decent complexity- Rat Trap. Most of the rapids until now just required proper set up which was fairly easy. Rat trap was a horizon line that you had to choose the right entry into otherwise you got flipped. Luckily i made it thru by entering a bit high compared to others. Andrew, on the other hand, entered the pourover a bit farther in and got fliped. Twice. In the same spot when he walked around to try again. The cheese went off without incident, and then we dropped into the granite gorge i had been looking forard to at white rock. The Granite gorge section, while not the most action packed, was probably my favorite. I love the multi-colored Ruin Granite that you can find throughout this part of Arizona (and that we had seen a few weeks before while on the Tonto). At canyon creek we stopped for lunch, perched on a small granite boulder. For whatever reason, huge spiders love to be around both the granite and water- i have seen these "zelda" spiders as i call them, they kind of look like the spiders from the game, only in other granite riperian zones like Salome, interesting.
Canyon Creek itself came in clear and warm after making the long treck down to the Salt from the Mogollon Rim area. It looks like, given proper flow, it could be a fun side run! After lunch we were met with Granite Rapid, where Sarah got flipped over backwards on a sleeper hole at the end of the rapid. The granite gorge was all too short, and soon we were emerging from the Salt River Canyon area into Gleason Flat. A few years ago this was the site of a large flashflood that pushed the river into a new channel and mostly blocked flow requiring a long portage. Luckily, high flows from the previous year and small boats meant we were able to pick our way through the braids without needing to portage anything. After a few miles of open floating i was glad that the walls came in close again. Devils Pendejo was next, a rapid that is almost an exact copy of Mescal Falls, a hard right at a wall. Then came Eye fo the needle, a nice choke point that was fairly exiting. Just upstream, Ross flipped on a rock and the bulk of the crew ran through the rapid while i stopped with Ross, helping him get ready before dropping in. Shortly after came the first CL4 of the trip, Black Rock. This was a step up in terms of what we had seen thusfar, a decent pouroff with a moderately sticky hole. I wasnt feeling it so most of us portaged just upstream of the rapid on the left, only requring a boat cary of about 200 feet. Guzy and Becca decided to give it a shot. After setting spotters and safety, Becca ran thru and made it through the drop but flipped trying to navigate the hard right on a wall just down from the pouroff. Guzy chose a different strategy and just rammed righ into the wall after the drop, and after rebounding was able to easily paddle away, interesting strategy that i havent really seen before. At this point it was getting late in the day and we paused at upper corral canyon, debating whether to stop or not. The site looked less than stellar though, and because we still had another hour and a half of daylight we moved on. If i have learned anything in my time on the water, its that most issues happen late in the day. Sure enough, at Upper corral Rapid, Sarah flipped and went for a pretty long swim. Luckily, as sweep, i was able to get her paddle and boat to the side and she didnt have to bushwhack too far to get down to her boat. Taking this as a sign, we pulled over at Yankee Joe, which was probably my favorite site, both beautiful and open while also having decent tree coverage. With nerves running high about the Cl4 rapids we would have to confront the following evening, Sarah decided to join us at out sleep site (usually we all dispersed fairly well) for some company. We had a bonfire and closed out the night.
The next morning, we all packed up and explored as we saw fit (Sarah and i both walked a fair way up Yankee Joe Canyon, a cool side canyon with flow that came up and went back down within a few hundred feet). Just upstream of camp there was also a great perch that andrew and i used as our business spot, definitely one of the better spots i have had in a while.
Because anxiety was high, we stopped to scout the first rapid we came to on day 3, Lower Corral Rapid, which turned out to be pretty straight forward. In quick succession we hit Pinball, and then the Maze, supposidly our first class 4 of the trip that we would all run. In reality both were just boulder gardens with a moderate amount of manuvarability needed but generally without any major difficulty.
This river is very geologically interesting, and after the Maze were-emerged out of the basalt back into the brown and white quartzite, a sign that bigger things were coming. Quartzite, which used to be the monster of the run (a 15 foot CL6 fall) but in the 90's was blasted to become a much more mild drop. We stopped well before (maybe too far before) quartzsite and hiked up a few hundered feet on the bend before the falls to scout (this is suggested by the guide). While this might be good at high water and in big boats, we quickly found that this was a bit absurd (but gave great views of the area!) We instead chose to scout in ernest on a gravel bar just upstream of the rapid on the right. At this level (~700 CFS) Quartzite was a two stage drop, both fairly straightforward (CL3 at best at this level) with a large pool below.
Just below Quartzite was Corkscrew, probably the most complex rapid we saw, a somewhat doubledrop that falls right then left with some interesting laterals and holes and one large hole at the bottom. Portage would be difficult and potentially dangerous (required moving across flow that would sweep you right into the rapid then navigating some large slick boulders). After some discussion we arrived on the strategy that each of us would prefer to try. Many of us would try to sneak in on the far right, then ferry hard left to avoid the large hole. Becca ran first and chose to come in on the left instead, and immediately flipped. Guzy ran next and flipped on the bottom hole after not making the ferry, as did Ross, Sarah committed to going right around the bottom hole and made it! Andrew managed to mostly get to the left of the bottom hole and also made it! Finally, i dropped and stayed hard right and went mostly around the bottom hole, clipping the right side. Definitely it was a step up for me but not so much so that it felt uncomfortable. Quickly we ran through Sleeper (guzy was still swimming) and we were through! Only a few easier rapids remained. Just around the bend we pulled over to back in our success and have lunch, what an eventful morning it had been.
I tried to savour the remaining wilderness stretch as much as possible, with some rugged walls and cacti. Cliffhanger went without difficulty and Soon we were at Cherry creek, a beautiful clearwater stream flowing off the Sierra Ancha from the north with some decently sized trout in pools. We filled up on wanter and set off. Just as we emerged into horshoe bend the wind started to pick up. At the apex of the horshe, a large group was having a party down by the river and gave us a bunch of hoots, stoked to see that we were on the water (even a couple of girls flashing us too! They flashed the ladies in the lead tho, probably thinking we were all just a bunch of dudes). A bit farther down i saw what might be the most Arizonan thing i have seen- a prickly pear growing insdie the crown of a Saguaro, shocked by the sight (that no one else saw) i missed my opportunity to grab a picture. We camped at Coon creek, a beautiful site set amongs Arizona Sycamore and Cottonwoods with a nice creek running through it. Andrew and i took some beers and walked up stream a ways to enjoy sometime away from the rest of the crew. Larger groups can be fun but i found myself longing for the simplicity of trips with just andrew, lindsay and myself. Some river rangers stopped by when we got back to camp, first run of the season for them. I would have loved to have some time with the older ranger, he had apparently been patroling this stretch for a few decades and i am sure had much to tell. Our final night had the group swapping stories as we had finally gotten to the point that the group was coalescing.
Morning of day 4 started slow again, which gave more time for us to enjoy the fresh spring leaves at sunrise. We stopped at dry creek, which, contrary to its name, had a lovely waterfall that we walked back to. Andrew, Guzy and i opted not to put on dry suites as we didnt have any major rapids left per the map. Of course we still had quite a few riffles, some fairly large that might even have been CL2, one of which Guzy flipped on. All too quickly we got to Pinal creek and the final granitic gorge of the canyon, the portal that i had looked upstream towards so many times before. I am a bit sad that i no longer have that mystery but so glad that i was able to finally experience this section of arizona, and i am sure i will be back with Lindsay someday. We closed out the trip at a mexican food restaurant just outside of globe. With a second trip in AZ now in the bag, my mind cant help but wander to all of the other possibilities the arid state has to offer.
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