Latest:	12 Nov 2023 (22 days ago)

Reported by:	EMoorcroft (330 reports)
Quality:	Good
Waterflow:
Wetsuit:
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Normal
Time:	5 hours

Team: 4 people with experience level Advanced

Trip report URL:

Comments: R 11 trees are dying and may no longer provide a good anchor source. Fun little route in oak creek. Fall colors were still nice.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
12 Nov 2023	Good			Normal	5 hours	4 people Advanced	EMoorcroft (330 reports)
Comment: R 11 trees are dying and may no longer provide a good anchor source. Fun little route in oak creek. Fall colors were still nice.
15 Jul 2023	Great	Very Low	None	Normal	7 hours	2 people Beginner to Intermediate	AZ Advocate (18 reports)
Comment: We looped the canyon, starting from the bottom and ascended up Sterling Canyon. The vegetative hardships contained within Sterling Canyon deserve special recognition as the density of raspberries, locust, and other such spiny/thorny brush is truly remarkable. Apart from that, it's a great approach, brutal but great type 2 fun. Even in the summer, with an early 5:30am start we were shaded for the majority of the hike up. If hiking up Sterling, it's much much easier to drop into Crack Addict from the Upper Parking pin instead of the head of the drainage, like the GPX track on rope wiki shows. Trust me, you'll have had your fill of bushwhacking in Sterling, so unless you're anxious for more of the same, just drop in from the upper parking pin. NOTE: If you owned a Sterling CanyonPrime rope which happened to get stuck on the last rappel, we hiked it out and left it at Peace Outfitters in Flagstaff. Just swing by to pick it up. Thank you Peace Outfitters!!
3 Jul 2023	Great	Very Low	None	Normal	10 hours	4 people Beginner to Intermediate	Az adventurer (1 reports)
Comment: Did the loop hike starting at the bottom from the highway and hiking up the ridgeline. Approach was doable but steep/loose in some sections. Canyon was overall mostly dry (small avoidable pools) except for the last rappel, where there was an unavoidable large pool of water at the bottom about waist deep. Replaced webbing at most anchors (except rap 10, we used 9 as an anchor for both 9 and 10). Awesome day and great canyon!
8 Jun 2023	Great	Deep pools	None	Normal	5 hours	4 people Brand new to Expert	Greatshaitan (41 reports)
Comment: Out here for a Mountain Rescue Conference and decided to run this guy. Was a fun trip with a couple of brand new people. Backed up the webbing on the rap 12. Also did a guided rappel to avoid the last swimmer, well all avoided but me :) We used two vehicles and exited to the road.
29 May 2023		Very Low	None	Normal	7 hours	2 people Beginner to Advanced	24evolution (2 reports)
Comment: Bottom up,so brutal approach. Logged 1400' elevation gain. Backcountry is LUSH and ABUNDANDANT. Beautiful canyon. Slung a pine to miss the water on R9. Deep swimmer at the end, avoided with an awesome partner and guided rappel. At the car just under 7 hours.
27 Nov 2022	Great	Very Low	None	Normal	4 hours	7 people Intermediate to Expert	Scientist (7 reports)
Comment: Since there is a construction zone, we did not park at the first switchback loop, instead started from a southbound parking past fish hatchery on 89a highway. Easy to find approach trail with some thorny bushes. There were just a couple of climbing spots that require good climbing skills. Nice and easy rappels with all anchors in good conditions. Second to last rappel was done by removing shoes and walking on a tree trunk in the freezing water with bare feet (ankle deep) or just walking with shoes on (gore-tex or canyoneering shoes with neoprene socks. Exit was easy to find and pretty fast.
27 Sep 2022 Trip report	Great	Very Low	None		7 hours	3 people Intermediate	Staceygirl (3 reports)
Comment: We did this as a loop from the upper parking and everything was just perfect until the exit hike, and I'm not talking about the fact that it started raining and hailing on us after rap 12. The GPS seems to be a bit off, and we wasted a LOT of time trying to make our way up some class 4 terrain only to be stopped by a chock stone. We went back down and finally realized we needed to go left to get into the correct drainage. I don't know if we found the best way, but we did it by following a near vertical gray wall on our left and climbing up some sketchy loose dirt until we got on a boulder. Then We were able to go left over another boulder into the drainage. We are hoping there is a better way that we just missed. After another while bushwhacking and boulder hopping, we saw that we had to go left straight up the loose dirt sides of the canyon through bushes galore. Again, not sure if there's a better way. It was very steep, but doable without any tricky moves or real exposure. Just pure grit to get through. If I did it again, I'd try for a car shuttle, as I've heard the 89 exit is not too hard.
25 Sep 2022	Great		None		5 hours	2 people Advanced	RFontaine (154 reports)
Comment: A really great underrated canyon (crack) route. Lots of great cliffy raps down into interesting cracks with small bits of sculpting. Very fun and dry until the bottom of last rap. The pool was only ankle deep. We did the upper loop, parking near the top exit, no shuttle. We hiked down the opposite side of the drainage easily with minimal brush. Hiking out we turned left at the exit drainage. If you go this way, the GPX map can be deceiving, be sure to cut off up to the left into another drainage, once the first drainage starts to get vertical. Following the other drainage, we eventually got to the point where you cut left again up the brushy hill. We took a sharper left and B lined it through the brush up to the truck. There were some class 5 climbs to negotiate going this way that I wouldnt recommend for most, follow the less direct route via GPX. Over all very fun day! Definitely recommend doing this one!
21 Jun 2022	Great	Very Low	None	Normal	9 hours	2 people Advanced to Beginner	Cooper smith (15 reports)
Comment: Very casual pace enjoying shady canyon walls on a warm day. Started from 89, Ridge Approach was fairly easy to follow. Anchors in good shape, pulls all went smoothly. Pool on final rap only calf deep if using log to walk across middle.
22 Apr 2022	Good	Very Low	None	Normal	6 hours	2 people Advanced	Nclegg (308 reports)
Comment: 1.5h approach from 89A to R1 via the ridge. Ridge trail appears to be improving. Large chunk of snow at the base of R4. Keep an eye on R11 root system anchor which is beginning to loosen. R12 pool was waist depth. Lots of downed trees just beyond R12. Experienced a light flurry of snow somewhere around R11. Underrated canyon IMO.
28 Nov 2021	Good	Very Low	Rain jacket	Normal	5 hours	4 people Advanced	Nclegg (308 reports)
Comment: 5 hours making a loop from the 89A parking - no shuttle. Approach via the ridge took 1h 15min moving at a swift pace. We picked a few class 4 lines though you could probably get away with only class 3 scrambling. Some thorns in a couple sections, but better quality than expected. This approach is certainly steep and strenuous but offers great scenery, and someone from our group who has run this route several times reported it was a better option then boulder hopping up sterling canyon. Did 11 rappels total, combining R9 & R10 and downclimbing R13. Pool at the base of R12 was waist deep and cold. Set a guided rap for the rest of the group. No other water throughout the route except for some avoidable pools along the exit.
9 May 2020	Good	Deep pools	None	Normal	4 hours	5 people Beginner to Advanced	Erek (207 reports)
Comment: Two pools with water. First, shin deep if stay on log in water. Second, hip deep for first person but can make it only knee deep if first person across stands on log in water to make it stable for next people. Max rap did was not more than 80' can do it with a couple 100' easy. Remains of mountain lion at one of the middle raps. Did canyon as car shuttle. 4 hours from upper car to lower car. Road in is doable with high clearance, 4wd not needed.
13 Oct 2019		Dry	None	Normal		5 people Beginner to Intermediate	Danelle (17 reports)
Comment: Group of 3 adults ran this canyon with 2 kids by setting up a car shuttle to save some hiking time. Not a true 'canyon', but some neat rappels down a fault crack. A couple awkward starts and tricky down climbs. Beta says 10 rappels, we did it with 12 ( an extra between rap 8 and 9, as well as a bonus Rap on the exit instead of a down climb). Be mindful of rope pulls on many of the raps, lots of cracks and areas for potential rope magnets. The last drop ends in a pool. The first person down may get wet, but can set up a guided rappel for the remainder of the group. Canyoneers Beware: Between Rap 5 and 6 came across a large mountain lion (it was freshly dead), and was moved DCR against a tree out of the water course! Hope it doesn't scare the next group as much as it did us.
12 Oct 2019	Good	Dry	None	Normal	6 hours	5 people Beginner to Intermediate	Davidsnaz (23 reports)
Comment: Set up a shuttle for this route for Simplicity but ended up having to hike in additional mile and a half a large log across the road. Dropping into the canyon off 535 a has some brush and log hopping but nothing crazy. Watch out for the mountain lion down Canyon right just before Rappel 6. We found it taking a permanent siesta the Waterway and removed it possibly to the Chagrin of those who enjoy good Canyon stew. The big repel has been set up as a two-stage off of we set up a guided Rappel most of the group out of the water.
5 Aug 2018	Good	Very Low	None	Normal	5 hours	4 people Brand new to Intermediate	AZ Advocate (18 reports)
Comment: Really fun day out. The pipe was a bit spooky but other than that, it's all pretty easy. We were able to avoid the pool at the bottom by walking around the edge. 11 raps in total for us.