Compared to the Verde Valley’s natural, refreshing refuges, water parks are all wet.
Swimming holes are ready to relieve the local paddler and overheated traveler alike from the 100-degree summer days flowing back into Camp Verde, Cottonwood and their sizzling vicinities.
Take the pause that refreshes here and read up on some new finds as well as updated requirements to take the plunge in old favorites along the Verde River and its creek tributaries.
Camp Verde
With a new reservation system in place at Fossil Creek, the pools of Beaver and Clear creeks beckon north and east of the Town of Camp Verde.
The most challenging hike is to “The Crack,” a petroglyph-pitted channel 70 feet long through 25-foot-high red sandstone walls three miles along Wet Beaver Creek along the Bell Trail.
As on most Arizona hikes, watch for rattlesnakes. Also, avoid taking the plunge from the ‘tongue’ at crack’s end, as the water is not deep enough for diving.
Get off Interstate 17 at Exit 298, but take Beaver Creek Road instead of State Route 179 on the other side of the freeway. Continue onto Forest Road 618 toward Beaver Creek Campground and follow the signs to the Beaver Creek Visitor Center. Park in the lot just before it at the Wet Beaver Creek Trailhead. Follow this trail three miles to just upstream from where the trail crosses the creek at Bell Crossing.
Less-experienced hikers and families can avoid this at the Wet Beaver Creek pool, just a quarter-mile off FR 618. Children and adults alike can build their tans, catch crawdads and play Tarzan over the 50-foot-wide by 30-foot-deep pool.
Go past the visitor center, parking at the area designated for day use only, across the road from the campground. Picnic facilities are available for a fee per vehicle but restrooms and parking for non-campers are free.
Return to the freeway and drive 11 miles south to Camp Verde and the SR 260 off-ramp just over six miles east of town until you see the stand of cottonwood trees. This is West Clear Creek Campground, which has its own swimming hole.
Cottonwood
Turn left on the road to the Tuzigoot National Monument road just off SR89A between Cottonwood and Clarkdale to begin the first of several opportunities to swim and kayak in the Verde River. This road descends into the second-largest canyon in the state next to the Grand Canyon, Sycamore Canyon.
Off-road vehicles are recommended to reach further points upstream such as the Parsons Trailhead, a point beginning 11 miles past the Verde River crossing near Tuzigoot on FR 131 between Cottonwood and Clarkdale. This is a very popular start to a 1.5-mile hike along the Verde to Parsons Spring, surrounded by shady green trees, where swimmers can also cliff-jump.
Just a couple of miles east of Cottonwood, as State Route 260 divides heading from Camp Verde, lies the Black Canyon swimming and boat access area. This wild, half-mile stretch of the Verde River also has a picnic table and barbecue.
Go back up through Cornville, halfway between the Oak Creek School and Oak Creek Ranch School, to find Mormon’s Crossing and the Little Red Schoolhouse over Oak Creek.
Also known as The Rapids, the Little Red Schoolhouse — so named because it was once where a one-room schoolhouse was in which were taught the original settlers of nearby Page Springs — consists of a swimming hole in Oak Creek below a ridge with the creek cascading over slide rocks in stairstep fashion. Local teenagers often catch crawdads there or swing from a rope at Mormon’s Crossing, a still pool with a sand and rock bottom a quarter-mile to the east.
Sedona
Slide Rock State Park is just one of Oak Creek Canyon’s many swimming areas.
A lesser-known but just as picturesque swimming area in the canyon’s north end is Pumphouse Wash, where scattered pockets of deep, clear water lie still in pools a half-mile upstream from below the first curved bridge of State Route 89A’s switchbacks.
At the southern end of the canyon, Grasshopper Point remains a popular spot for swimming as well as diving.
Drive out of Sedona north on SR 89A past the Midgley Bridge crossing. A U.S. Forest Service sign for Grasshopper Point will be on the right. Follow the road down to the parking lot just above Oak Creek.
Continue north nine miles for the turn to Slide Rock, and drive another three miles for another left turn to park just south of the wash bridge.
For explorers in town looking to discover a swim further south, Chavez Crossing and its group campground come recommended.
Turn off SR89A and go past Sedona Red Rock High School on Upper Red Rock Loop Road. As it turns into Forest Road 216, continue to the intersection with Chavez Ranch Road and turn left. Follow the road to Oak Creek for a kids’ water play area, or turn right on Chavez Crossing Road.
For more information on camping, fire and other restrictions and these and other swimming holes in the area, contact the Red Rock Ranger District at 203-2900.
For more photos and full Fossil Creek restrictions, please see the Wednesday, May 25, issues of the Camp Verde Journal and Cottonwood Journal Extra.
