Salt River and the White Mountain Apache tribe land to be exact.
The Salt River gets it’s name from salt banks that jutt out near the side of the river just after the Black and White river confluence. This raises the salinity of the river, hence the name. It’s a big source of water for Phoenix, AZ along with the Verde river.
A buddy of mine is sort of an action figure. He’s done ski patrol for 30+ years and been a river guide for over 10. He holds down a normal job on top of this. I met him riding dirt bikes and after a couple of epic rides gone wrong, we grew a strong friendship that is unlike any made without trials and tribulations. We were joking that we’ve only hung out 5 or 6 times ever in our lives, but each time has been an adventure so it seems like so many more. He has been telling me to come out with him and do some rafting for years. He now operates on a private non-commercial rafting permit so he doesn’t take money and just loves to go for the fun of it. Our season here in Arizona is short so you need to jump while the water is high!
This was finally our time to go. Being odd, I couldn’t just drive out the 2.5 hour drive to the starting point the morning of. We wanted to use this as an excuse to spend a long day exploring our way out there via dirt the day before. So, we loaded up the truck for one of the shortest offroad trips we’ve done recently. It’s fun to only have to plan 1 lunch, 1 dinner and 1 breakfast!
I decided to take a road that I took by mistake a decade ago. I know that it connected to the salt river back then and I just really hope it still did. We’ve had the wettest winter I can remember so every seldom used road is in question.
We headed out some more well known roads and stopped to take a look at a corral made of Marston Mats. (Marston Mats may look like traction mats that we readily associate with Overlanding, but they were originally made to create landing strips on remote pacific islands during World War II. The mats connect together to form a solid surface for planes to land on. Millions were made and I often see them used to construct corrals and much of the border wall with Mexico is made out of it.)
Although they look like traction mats, these are steel and pretty darn heavy.
Keeping moving we noticed that creeks that normally trickle in summer were flowing nicely!
Not long after the last creek crossing we turned onto an obscure side trail. I wouldn’t even be curious where it went if I hand’t popped out from it by mistake almost a decade ago. It truly looks like a trail that will putter out and die. Soon enough it starts to look more established and you start to believe it might go somewhere after all. We were putting along and our only company were cattle.
Get out of the damn road you idiots!
We popped out at the Salt River several times as we headed deeper into the reservation. Some amazing camping and fishing spots along here that looked like they were once heavily used given the old signage that was now long rotting away.
This water crossing had no recent signs of vehicles coming out the other side so we decided it was well worth finding out that it was safe. There was a nice little lip that had been created by the higher waters I assume from some rains earlier in the week. I wanted to make sure we could make it out.
Sometimes you’re midstream and your feet are freezing so badly it’s giving you the same sensation as a brain freeze and then you look up and see a great view. “hhhh-hand mmmh me the camera.”
The water really wasn’t that deep. It was fast moving, but just not high enough to matter so we went in and popped out the other side with just a little tire churning to rip a channel for us to come up.
Moving right along we passed the intersection where I’d happened upon this trail so many years ago. Now it was all “new to me” trail. Immediately we passed a “Road Closed Ahead” sign. It was in pretty good condition so I couldn’t decide if it was recent and therefore maybe correct. I had a bad feeling, but we’d been cruising all day so there was NO way I was turning back now unless we had to. Thankfully, it was full of it and we never did see any reason the road was closed.
The more we drove, the more tracks we saw. It was like the road was improving itself with each half mile. Once we saw the river we knew we must be getting close to where the seasonal rafters would be.
Sometimes you feel horrible for a mistake. I was driving along down a fairly steep grade and I saw him just before I ran him over. I heard a loud pop. The kind that made me think it could have even been the tire popping, but it somehow seemed tinny and less thundering than that. Unfortunately, I’d popped this pretty good size rattler.
I really felt bad about that the rest of the day and still do. Sometimes you make mistakes. By the way, I hate snakes. They do scare me, but I really find them fascinating and respect them. Only one found in my yard would meet it’s end. Out here, these little guys are great rodent control and it’s their turf. I never want to be responsible for one dying.
Once we got to the river we picked the first spot we could find far away from the virtual city of hundreds of professional rafting guides that camp up river. This spot was ours and it was pretty damn nice.
With that, we cooked dinner and went to bed. The river acting as the best surround sound white noise machine. The next morning we drove the 10 or so miles up river to meet up with everyone else.
Thus endeth the overland adventure. Thus beginneth the overwatering. The week before most folks on the river was wearing dry suits or wool layers with the snow runoff water temp in the high 40's and low 50's and the air temp not much higher. This weekend we were thankful for the unseasonably warm 90 degree day so we were able to do with a lot less layers!
We were doing a section of the Upper Salt River that was class III/IV rapids. https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/123
Scooby, the guide and Penny the rafting dog.
Jumping out to check the line on a class 3 called cheese grater if I remember right.
We kept cruising down river and even spotted a Bald Eagle fishing.
All in all it was a good day. The water was cold, but it was still nice to put your feet in and cool off. We didn’t have the raft flip over which was pretty good since Scooby said that they had several fallout’s the day before and the following weekend the entire boat flipped in this section. I was setting the pace (trying) in the front left of the boat and on one drop the wave pinched the boat and sent my flying. I landed back in the middle of the boat next to everyone else. It was pretty funny and I scrambled back to my position to finish out the section of rapids. Penny the rafting dog maintained a look of “WTF ARE YOU IDIOTS DOING THIS FOR” the entire day and really just loved to get back onto dry land, but she was a trooper.
The sum total of the day was the realization that I need to do this more than once a year. I’d never rafted in AZ and every time I did seemed to be on some trip to California or Colorado. It was quite a DUH moment to be 2 hours on the highway from home. I’m not going to buy my own boat or anything, but it sure has got me thinking and looking at prices of gear!
Here is a little video of the day. Yes, it would be better if I had some sort of helmet mount so it wasn’t just video of before and after! Next time.