This post is for the second day of our trip to SE Arizona: Aravaipa Canyon. We go to the canyon almost every year. They allow 30 permits for entry on the west side, and 20 on the east side. We went to the east side. You can get permits up to 90 days in advance, and when we checked there was only one day and three permits available in the 90 day window. So you can see it is in demand. The west side is even more in demand because it’s closer to the city (Phoenix or Tucson). When we were there we didn’t see anybody else, except for one campsite, but no campers. Where were the 18 other hikers and their cars?
The drive from our motel in Safford to the trailhead at Turkey Creek is about 1.5 hours. There are 3 creek crossings (no bridge) to get to the first trailhead, and 4 more to Turkey Creek. They recommend four wheel drive vehicles for the second segment. We got to the trailhead at about 9 am.
The canyon is beautiful, which is why we like it. I included probably too many pictures – they all start to look the same. The thing that is striking to me is the sheer canyon walls, combined with the creek.
We hiked to Hell Hole Canyon (what a name!), which they say is 2.4 miles, but our GPS tracker shows that, with all of our creek crossings and side trips, we hiked 3.5 miles there, and 2.4 miles back, for a total of about 6 miles. We got back to the car at about 3:30, and to Safford by dinner time.
It was another great trip to Aravaipa. Our stop the next day was the town of Portal, which will be the subject of my next post.
