Canyoneer Waterslides Canyon Tonto National Forest, AZ

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This is a technical canyon. If you are unfamiliar with how to build anchors or the gear required for canyoneering do not attempt this route.

Waterslides Canyon is aptly named for its natural water slides, but it requires a fair amount of work to get to the fun section. The route follows the officially named Bull Canyon watercourse. We set up a shuttle as not to miss the top few rappels, as was recommended to us. Others would recommend starting at the bottom and heading up to the middle section of the canyon, dropping in at the waterslides and skipping the nonsense rappels higher up. Either way you do it, weighing if the four or so waterslides are worth the effort should be considered. My trip report is based on using the shuttle route (top to bottom).

The road out to where we dropped off the end car for when we were out of the canyon was fine for any vehicle, but the upper (start) trailhead requires a car with decent tires and mid-clearance. The road is in good shape except for one rocky and steep section that will likely deteriorate further. From the trailhead, we started along an old marked forest road, leaving it after about a quarter mile just after a hairpin turn for a watercourse visible through the brush. A 50 foot bushwhack led to the slickrock watercourse, which we followed to the first rappel. The first rap was just a drop off the cliff bandy rim. And then there were a few more like this. This first bit of the day felt more tedious than anything else and we weren't psyched just yet.

A long walk down the watercourse involved some rock-hopping and a couple more easy, tedious rappels off minor cliff bands. A short Class 2+ downclimb led us into the confluence with Deep Creek. There wasn't any flowing water, which was a bummer since apparently this confluence is where the quality of the waterslides could be deduced. At this junction, we headed to the right. After some more rock-hopping, the canyon became lush with vegetation and lightly flowing water. We came at a not-super-great time of year for water flow, but we did have enough to keep the canyon interesting. After getting through the green section which also got a bit swampy and obstacle-course-like at times, we made it to the start of the slickrock granite formations that indicated we were close to the waterslides. The first waterslide is avoidable, but it's probably my favorite one. At the time of our visit, this two-part slide's second pool was too shallow, so we instead pulled a Class 3 move to escape the first pool and safely downclimb instead of risk breaking our ankles.

The next few slides were also very fun, one of them including a much steeper grade into a deep pool. Another had a hump in the rock, tossing a few of us in weird directions. Good times. We were having a lot of fun and enjoying the greenery and deep pools. After the last major slide, the canyon opened up for a short time, where we followed the slickrock granite for a bit. A couple of big pools required swimming as the canyon started becoming more narrow. Through this narrow section, we encountered two more rappels and a very pretty swimming section. It was a nice finale and made the canyon actually feel like a canyon rather than the very much wide open vibe we were previously feeling.

It will be obvious when the last technical section is over when the canyon opens into a wide wash. A long stretch of rock-hopping with some bushwhacking and animal trail finding brought us to our second car.

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Starting down a forest road from the trailhead. Shortly after, we left at a hairpin turn and bushwhacked for a few feet into the slickrock drainage.

Within the slickrock drainage.

First rappel, just an annoying cliff band.

Looking back at the rappel.

Another cliff band rappel.

Some interesting rock formations as we continue descending.

Another cliff band rappel.

Class 2+ down climb into Deep Creek. No water here apparently means there is little to none at the waterslides, which ended up being quite true.

Some swamp and bushwhacking as we continue descending.

Minor bushwhacking.

Approaching some fun granite obstacles.

The first, and most fun, waterslide.

The bottom of the first waterslide is visible at the top of this photo. Due to water levels, we didn't slide down the second one, instead needing to up-climb out of the pool using a Class 3 move. Where I took this photo is the descent route (also a Class 3 move) to get below the slides.

A fun obstacle.

Part of the fun obstacle to avoid the pool.

Another very fun water slide.

Looking back at the water slide, which has a drop off.

A waterslide with a hump that knocked a few of us around. It was quite silly. You can see the Waterslides Canyon drainage continue ahead.

Looking back at the waterslide with a hump.

Navigating some slickrock obstacles as we continued down the drainage.

After some drainage-walking, we encountered a section of very pretty narrows.

A pool we jumped off as we entered the narrows.

A rappel through the narrows.

Looking back at the first rappel in the narrows.

More narrows, which included swimming and minor down climbs.

At the end of the narrows, we reached a final rappel (center).

Looking back at a down climb, just before I went down the final rappel.

Final rappel.

Looking back toward the narrows.

A slog on boulder-hopping terrain back to the car.

Looking back.

Almost back to the car.

The Four Peaks, seen from our campsite later that night.

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Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I’m not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!