Hiking Bear Canyon "7 falls" near Tuson, AZ

This was my second visit to Sabino Canyon. My first visit was during the summer and the heat limited me to short hikes. This second trip in January offered much better weather to hike in. It was also an exceptionally wet and snowy January so the water was really flowing.

We hike just over 9 miles out to the Falls and back, requiring us to cross the very cold stream 14 times.

Visitor Center at the parks entrance

From the parks entrance you hike (or take the tram) east through a large field of Saguaro Cactus and other high desert plants. 



The Saguaros cactus fields on the way to the trail

As you approach the edge of the field, you cross a bridge that takes you over the stream from Sabino canyon. The rain and snow that Tuscon had been receiving meant that the bridge was flooded, just high enough that it couldn't be crossed without getting wet. We removed our shoes and socks and made our way across.

High water was this bridge just before the start of Bear Canyon Trail

Once off the road and onto Bear Canyon trail, the stream crossings did not stop. The high water levels made it so there was no way to cross without getting wet, and so it was once again time to take off the shoes and socks and wade across the cold knee deep water. The bottom of the stream was mostly sand and small rocks which were painful to walk across with your feet so cold. On the way back we decided that taking the shoes off each time wasn't worth it and just hiked barefoot. I wish I had brought my Tevas on this trip.



Just one of the knee deep water crossing of the near freezing water (14 total)

The falls proved to be beautiful and worth the 4.5 mile hike it took to reach them. The combination of cold water and slick rocks meant that I didn't play on the falls as much as I do at other falls (no lele kawa).

The Seven falls at the end of the hike.

Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, AZ

On my way north to Flagstaff I stopped to visit central Arizona's escape from the summer heat, Oak Creek Canyon. Down along the creek it was impressive how much cooler it was. In the water it was really cool.

By far the worst part was the traffic, since there is just one road and everybody is trying to go to Slide Rock park or park along the road. I managed to park at the picnic area about a mile north of Slide Rock. From there we walked south along the creek until we reached a spot where you couldn't continue without getting in the water. We hung out at this natural pool for a while and I got a few small cliff jumps in.

 One of the small cliff jumps into a pretty shallow pool

Since we couldn't continue along the creek anymore we headed up to the road to make our way down to Slide Rock Park. The number of people at Slide Rock was overwhelming so we didn't stay. I did spot a huge cliff jump located under the bridge at Slide Rock, and a few guys were jumping.

Crowds at Slide Rock

More Slide Rock

Big Cliff Jumping under the bridge

-James

Lele Kawa

Grand Canyon

After living in Arizona for nearly two years, I made it to the Grand Canyon for the first time over 4th of July. A thunder storm rolling through kept the temperatures down, but led to some hiding from lightening strikes.

Mandatory Canyons Edge photo

Panorama shows some of the "Grand"ness

I parked at the south rim visitor center and started the day walking along the rim near the visitor center. After drinking in the views for a while and snapping some photos, we had a picnic lunch near the visitor center before jumping on the shuttle for Bright Angle Lodge.

I had no illusion of doing a rim to rim on Bright Angle, but I did want to dip below the rim as much as I could. Hiked about 2 miles and 2,000 vertical feet before turning around. Even this relatively short distance offered a pretty amazing change of perspective. The hike was followed by a cold beer at the Bright Angle Lodge.

View of Bright Angel trail from 2 miles down the Trail

Under the Rim

A lightening strikes prevented us from going to Hopi Point, so we headed back to the visitor center and jumped in the car to head over to the desert watch tower. Stopping at many of the points along the way.

 View out the window of the desert tower

 View upward of the inside of the desert tower

-James

Lele Kawa

Castle Dome 2, Second attempt second failure to summit.

A year later, and Castle Dome still undefeated. I set off on my second attempt at a summit of Castle Dome sure I could make it. Unfortunately once again it was not to be. I set of after breakfast, and had an easy drive to the wash. Once I arrived I was surprised to find that I was the only one there, the weather was perfect for hiking, clear and 60s.

I set off up the wash as we did last year. We followed the big stone arrow up the second wash to the right and directly at the mountains peak. The was was hard to walk in so we shifted slightly to the right following scattered rock pillars. There is really no trail after you leave the big wash, you just have to pick what you find to be the easiest way.

Once we reached the rock face near the peak is where things went wrong. After exploring the immediate  area it seemed like the trail looped counter clockwise around the peak, which appears to be sloped on your right as opposed to vertical rock faces on your left. This is wrong. The "trail" traces the face to the left, clockwise, through the saddle of the pillar and then up to the summit.

We made our way difficultly to the right. What appeared to be the slope turned out to be much steeper than expected and did not make for easy climbing. We continued counterclockwise as until we reached a cliff and a ridge line. At this point we realized there was no easy way up on this side of the peak, but it was 3pm and to late to hike all the way around to the other side. From there we made our way back a bit to a spot that looked climbable. The loose nature of the desert rock made for some pretty scary climbing but we were encouraged that we were going the right way because we were still seeing rock piles. As it turns out we were just not the only ones to go the wrong way. After climbing to what I believe was about 200 vertical feet short of the summit we decided we had to turn back.

On the way back we searched for a better route down, but since we were so off "trail", nothing looked good. Most of the seemingly promising ways down quickly ended in cliffs we were unwilling to down climb. Defeated we worked our way back down into the wash that we struggled up, making our slow way. We hit the main wash right at the arrow we turned at and headed back for the car. By the time we sat in the car the sun was set. We had made it just in time.

I am not sure whether or not I will attempt the summit a 3rd time. Now it seems there are no more wrong turns to make, but I am not sure if it is worth is.

-James

Lele Kawa

Devil's Bridge, Sedona, AZ

Another of the Grand Canyon side trips was Sedona. Devil's Bridge was one of the outdoor activities in Sedona that came highly recommended, I took advantage of my vehicle's clearance and drove to the trailhead, rather than hike from the parking lot. Managed to only bounce my truck off the rocks once along the way.

The trail is a nice gradual mile long slope up to the bridge. The whole trail offers beautiful views of the valley, especially as you get heigher. Maybe because it was noon in July, but the bridge wasn't very crowded. After the obligatory photo op, we turned back as a thunderstorm began to threaten the valley.

North up the Valley

 Devil's Bridge from below

Devil's bridge from above

-James

Lele Kawa

Lava River Cave, Flagstaff, AZ

Lava River Cave was an unplanned adventure as part of my Grand Canyon visit. I planned to spend the day heading up to Snow Bowl and taking the sky ride, but the weather would not cooperate. The thunderstorms prevented us from going up so we headed underground. I am aware that heading underground during rain can be a bad idea, but there was a ranger at the cave entrance and he never even suggested people not enter.

The below map is just from the parking lot to the cave's entrance. The parking lot was a crowded mess, despite being 3 miles off the paved road. I was lucky enough to arrive right as somebody was leaving and park next to the trail. The trail to the cave entrance is well marked and obvious (along the fire road). It wasn't until we arrived at the entrance that we realized how cold it would be in the cave. The average temp is around 40 fahrenheit, so we returned to the car to get long pants and sleeves.

After signing into the registry we made our way in. The first 50 yards was steep, loose and crowded. Once past that its about a mile of easy flat walking to the caves end. The ceiling height varies from about 4 feet up to about 30, but for the most part it is a comfortable 14 feet. At the end there is a pile of rocks and a hole in the lower right just big enough for an average sized person to crawl through. I wiggled my way in but all I saw was about 50 feet of crawling and graffiti, so I just backed out.

 Looking up at the entrance

Long exposure somewhere near the middle of the cave

The end

-James

Lele Kawa

Castle Dome, failed attempt

There aren't too many things around Yuma on my to do list that I haven't been able to do yet. Castle Dome is one of them. Castle Dome is the highest point in Yuma County. From Yuma it looks like it would be hard to summit due to its sheer sides facing Yuma.

The "back side" is less sheer, and can be hiked.

We decided to drive in the night before and camp at the base of the wash. Unfortunately shortly after we passed Castle Dome mine one of our four vehicles experienced not one, but two flats. Luckily one of the other vehicles was able to loan a spare, and we got two tires changed out in the dark.

Early the next morning we made breakfast and broke camp. By the time we broke camp, one older hiker had already started up the trail and another hiking group arrived.

We started off right behind that group. We were moving faster than they were and passed them up. This was our first mistake. The only one of our group who had done the hike stayed back at camp, leaving us with only vague directions.

We missed our turn up the wash, marked on the below map as missed turn. We headed up the next wash when the trail seemed to go cold. It was hard hiking up loose and steep rocks that lead to a ridge line that did not connect with Castle Dome.

Top of the ridge looking away from Castle Dome

-James

Lele Kawa

Up to "Shit" creek with a Paddle board

I finally did it. I paddled a SUP board from Gateway Park in Yuma, up river to the confluence of the Colorado and Gila rivers, here often referred to as shit creek.

Board in front of the Ocean to Ocean bridge

It happened to be a little cooler this time, but I still set out around 1:30 in the afternoon sun. The cool weather must have scared away most of the floaters, because there were only 3 groups that I saw.

Going upstream was burning my arms out. It started to seem like I would never make it. There were a few times I though about turning back to attempt another day, but I pressed on. Eventually I made it to "shit creek". It wasn't very crowded, just a few people camping out and some trucks tooling around.

I decided to head up the Gila for a just a little bit. It proved to be too shallow after not very long, so I turned around and went up the Colorado for a little distance. Once I found a little beach to myself, I stopped for my break.

View during my break

After my break was the easy part, downstream. I kept a pretty good pace on the downstream, paddling the whole way rather than just floating. The worst part was the sun had gotten low and was in my eyes the whole way. I arrived back at Gateway Park just as the sun was setting.

-James

Lele Kawa

Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival

This year Yuma hosted the 22nd annual Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival. I took it as an opportunity to break out the camera and take some pictures.

It didn't hurt that they were pouring beer and serving barbecue. For $15 they had tethered balloon rides, to a high of 75 feet. It sounded better than it looked, so I didn't partake.

After my food and drink, I picked my seat in the stadiums bleachers. My seat seemed to provide a pretty good angle for seeing the balloons for the glow.

Watching the balloons inflate with the sky still bright was underwhelming. As the sky got darker the balloons started looking better.

After it wasn't getting any darker, I decided to wander around the grounds. It was kinda cool feeling the heat from the burners in all directions.

As I was leaving, I turned to see the balloons from the parking lot. I think this gave one of the best view. Being farther away evened everything out a little better.

-James

Lele Kawa

Stand Up Paddle boarding the Colorado River.

I finally got around to stand up paddle boarding on the Colorado River. In my typical fashion I went in the hottest part of the day starting around 1:30. I took off from West Wetland Park and headed up stream. I didn't have any plan on how far I would go, but I knew I wanted to go at least as far as Gateway Park, about one mile up stream.

There was no shortage of people doing float downs on the river. Almost every one of them asked me what I was doing and told me that I was going in the wrong direction.

The river in the area I paddled varies from about 1 foot to 5 feet in depth with a bottom of sand and the occasional beer can from lost form one of the many people floating down. The river really is the only oasis here in the desert of Yuma.

The first mile was peaceful, I only encountered one family flowing down. I let them try my board for a little while.

At Gateway Park the river was full of people and I threaded my way through. I continued to get a lot of attention as I paddled by. Upstream of Gateway Park was when I started passing the giant flotillas of rubber rafts and some jet skis. I also passed by the sherif in their air boat, that you could hear long before you saw, as its made its way down stream.

I am happy with this trip as a whole. The only bad part was the heat. Next time I will start earlier in the morning and try to make it all the way to "Shit Creek" as the convergence of the Colorado and Gila rivers is known. I will also try to get video of next time. I thought I had things set up this time but when I got home my camera hadn't recorded anything.

If you zoom in, you can see on the map below the upstream route wasn't nearly as strait as the down stream.

-James

Lele Kawa

Piestewa Peak, Phoenix, AZ

What better to do for Memorial Day weekend than hike a peak renamed in memory of Army Spc. Lori Ann Piestewa. It is one of the two peaks in the middle of Phoenix. I was surprised by the crowds, there was a steady stream of people heading up and down. The path was partially reinforced, but clearly needs more work, because in its current state it only seems to make the walk more difficult. There are a lot of awkward steps and stone cemented into place edge up.

Over all it was a pretty good hike. A short climb to the top of a mountain with views of downtown and the areas surrounding Phoenix. A good bit of cardio to start the day.

 Looking up to the top

 Downtown

 The trail

 The peak

 Survey marker at the peak

Looking down at the trail from the peak.

-James

Lele Kawa