In mid-May our niece, Mira Zola, spent several weeks in Scottsdale, AZ taking care of her ailing grandmother. We seized the chance to see her and get her out into the canyons for a day, so we planned a lightning weekend trip to Arizona with our new RV trailer. Eric Hardwick had just been telling us he wanted to get into some Arizona canyons so we invited him along for the weekend as well.
On Friday evening after work, we set off on a five-hour drive to the West Clear Creek Wilderness in Arizona. We agreed to meet out in the middle of absolute nowhere on a Forest Service road where we were fairly certain we could park the RV for the night. Everyone was traveling by themselves. What could possibly go wrong?
It was just past dusk when we arrived at the meeting point. We drove down the road a little ways until we found a great pullout with a turnaround for the RV. We unhooked the car and set up camp. Mira’s ETA was just about the same as ours, but we had no cell signal and there was no way to tell her exactly where we were. I thought I saw lights in the next clearing, so I walked up to find Mira parked in the clearing with her lights on and the doors locked. I walked over right in the path of the lights so that she would see me, but apparently, she was looking down at her phone, so when I knocked on the window she jumped out of her skin. There was a bit of the Blair Witch vibe for sure, being alone in the deep woods without any signal in the dark. We had a good laugh, and I led her over to our site.
The only problem was that Eric was missing in action even though he had begun his drive around the same time as the rest of us. After waiting around for about a half hour, Max and Mira drove off to find some cell phone service and check up on him. It was getting late. They returned about 15 minutes later and informed me that we had a miscommunication and Eric was actually about two hours away at our camping spot for the following day. Whoops! We should have triple checked where we were meeting. Definitely a lesson learned.
The next morning, Eric rolled in early and after sharing breakfast, we got our gear ready. It was fortunate that Mira had left her wetsuit with us the previous year, so we were ready to go! Our target was Bear Canyon, a short but very cold canyon with an exit to the gorgeous West Clear Creek that we also wanted to explore. Yet another great candidate for a hikeaneering route! There are no permits required for this route, and beta is available at: Bear Canyon – ropewiki
We took a short drive on a very bumpy dirt road to a pullout and set a shuttle to the Point Trail, a popular trail going down to West Clear Creek. Then we headed down into a lovely Ponderosa Pine forest. A few minutes later, a channel began to form and then rock walls grew taller and taller as the channel became a canyon. Water appeared in the form of pools and potholes but was mostly avoidable in the beginning.
Nearing the technical section, as the canyon walls narrowed, there were several downclimbs that took us into the heart of the canyon. This is where the water really started, so it was time to suit up. The first rappel was very short, down a rabbit hole that led to a chest deep pool. Bear Creek is known for its particularly cold water due to the dark and narrow nature of the canyon and wow does it live up to that reputation! Every time I put my hands in the water, they felt like they were going to go numb.
Immediately after the first pool, we swam through a deep pothole with a lip to climb out onto and found a rappel station on a wall that took us into the beautiful sculpted white sandstone narrows. Green moss covers the walls, adding an ethereal beauty to the stone. We waded/swam through the narrows until we encountered another short but very awkward rappel underneath a large log spanning the canyon. Then we found a sunny spot to warm up and rest a bit. The last section of the canyon is perhaps the most beautiful, featuring breathtaking narrows and a few easy downclimbs. Alas, the canyon ended too soon and we emerged into a green riparian corridor with a lot of shrubs and frog-filled pools.
A scramble and bushwhack brought us to the confluence with West Clear Creek. What a gorgeous place. As Eric pointed out, the walls of the canyon are very reminiscent of Zion. A late lunch was in order as we sat on the banks.
The waterway is quite wide and deep in places, with many huge boulders strewn throughout. There is a riot of trees and riparian vegetation framing the tall sandstone cliffs. We scrambled our way to the bottom of Sundance Canyon, about a half mile riverwalk from the end of Bear Canyon, and admired the last free-hanging 180 foot rappel. Then it was time to pay the piper. We backtracked a short distance to the Point Trail, a well-worn and steep trail that ascends about 700 feet up a forested slope to our shuttle vehicle. The trail is very clear but requires some scrambling. The scenery made me feel like I was back in Washington with lots of trees and dead wood on the ground. We had planned to do Sundance after Bear but none of us were feeling it, and so after dinner we sent Mira back to Scottsdale and headed up towards Flagstaff for the next day’s adventure.
This was our first canyon in the Mogollon Rim area and what a great introduction to this gorgeous area! We are hoping to come back and explore more of West Clear Creek and the surrounding canyons.
