Crawdad Canyon - Canyoneering Outside Phoenix Arizona

Crawdad Canyon is my latest canyoneering trip that I found myself scrambling and swimming my way through. Crawdad Canyon is not the official name this canyon goes by though the group I go with switched the name to Crawdad to keep people away from the canyon that my trash it. It is disappointing to see the lack of respect some people have for beautiful places.

Crawdad Canyon starts slow with a dry drainage or entrance canyon until we run into a nicely flowing stream. I was pleasantly surprised with this canyon as I expect most scrambling with a few places where we would wade. Instead we spent the entire time in the water. There were numerous pools that required swimming and we spent the entire trip in a good flow of water. The flow also kept the water clean which was a nice change from the stagnant water you can find in some canyons.

Crawdad Canyon is not a technical canyon though it is well worth the effort. There are plenty of challenges throughout the canyon at a moderate level. There is nothing of exceptional technical ability though you will have your fair share of endurance as the canyon took close to 7 hours to get to our shuttle car.

Our groups given name of Crawdad Canyon is because of the thousands of crawdads and tadpoles that you find in the water. The whole canyon was streaming with wildlife from fish, snakes, butterflies, and even a havalina that we scarred up. I missed the wild pig as it was behind me which sucked.

If you want to find out where this canyon is you will have to email me using the contact form on the right hand nav and if you are lucky I will tell you. What I will say is that this canyon was a lot of fun and a great canyon to do on a hot day.

Piestewa/Squaw Peak Circumference Trail

I joined a local hiking group. Well before I could officially be a member I had to do a test hike with one of the group coordinators. The goal of the group was to have fit hikers and canyoneers, and I had to be approved. It was an interesting drive to the hike knowing I had never had to be approved to hike before, though I don't need approval to hike just to hike with the group.

To keep the little or no expense to an end I did make the cut. Basically if you can keep up with the group then you are in. If you couldn't hike with the group then I don't think it would be much fun to go with them anyway. I am excited to find a group of people who are fit and like to go canyoneering.

Our hike was the Piestewa/Squaw Peak Circumference Trail which was a 4.5 mile hike in and around Piestewa Peak which used to be called Squaw Peak. Piestewa Peak is in the heart of Phoenix which makes it a popular hike for tons of people. The trail we took is a longer trail than the summitt hike and we had most of the trail to ourselves. The great part of this hike is that most of it was in a shade, which was a great supprise since it was 90 degrees while we were hiking.

I look forward to joining the group on one of their next canyoneering trips.

Canyoneering the Jug

I am looking forward to my trip this weekend. The Saturday I am going to find my way through the canyon called the Jug. The Jug has become a fairly popular canyoneering destination outside of Phoenix. The Jug is a serious drop into the earth of of the Salome Creek before it enters Roosevelt Lake.

I am using a new rope designed specifically for canyoneering. I will let you know how it works. It is supposed to keep its structure even when soaking wet. According to what I know of the Jug it is going to get its opportunity.