Narrow Passage

BY: Peter Aleshire

MISNAMED WILLOW VALLEY OFFERS VIVID canyoneering CHALLENGE

WHICH WAY IS UP?

Treetops and sandstone spires appear to scrape the rocky bottom of Willow Creek's shallow stillness in the West Clear Creek Wilderness south of Flagstaff. To order a print of this photograph, see page 1.

WILLOW VALLEY.

The name calls up visions of a summer idyll. Grassy green vales, willowy willows, beckoning vistas. Got it? Forget it.

Someone must have been out in the sun too long when they named Willow Valley, a slotted canyon leading off the Mogollon Rim down into the red rock gash of West Clear Creek Canyon. The misnamed valley is really a slit between Coconino sand-stone cliffs that narrows until the only way forward is a vigorous swim down long pools between 1,000-foot cliffs. Maybe some-one named it in a fit of whimsy-or to make sure it qualified for a place in the Guinness World Records as the planet's narrowest "valley."

But don't sweat it. So long as you don't carry a picnic basket, the 7-mile struggle though deep pools, over pouroffs, across boulders and up climb-arounds makes a vivid canyoneering adventure. The tough 800-foot descent to the creek and the 7 miles of boulder-hopping and pool-swimming makes it a twoor three-day trek, best done in the spring or summer, so long as you avoid the monsoons of late summer.

Getting to the trailhead represents the only real navigational challenge, especially since it's best to leave a car at each end. Reaching the canyon bottom requires a steep drop down a short trail that leads through a nasty stretch of New Mexico locust trees and to the top of a 10-foot-high sandstone cliff. Ropes and climbing gear make the descent easy, but less well-equipped hikers can work around the rock wall through more locust trees on the left.

On the canyon floor, the Coconino sandstone cliffs close in quickly. A bewildering and ancient history has shaped the dramatic buttes and canyons here, so the climb down offers a geo-logical trip through time. The 270 million-year-old layers of sandstone were originally laid down as part of a vast, inland desert that would have dwarfed the Sahara. At that time, all the continents formed a single supercontinent dubbed Pangaea. As Pangaea broke up as a result of a current deep in the Earth responsible for the movement of the crustal plates, the vast interior sand dunes were buried and fused into the layers of Coconino sandstone that now cover some 200,000 square miles, with outcroppings in Sedona, the Grand Canyon and even Montana.

The Coconino sandstone layers have yielded no fossil bones, perhaps because the chemistry of the windblown sand doesn't allow for fossilization. However, paleontologists have found numerous tracks of small, early reptiles and the enigmatic tracery of the ancestors of scorpions and other insects. The various species of creatures that scrambled across the shifting, undulating sand dunes arose just before the dinosaurs began their 200 million-year reign.

But aside from the deep lesson on the Earth's history, the trek through Willow Canyon offers a first-rate canyoneering adventure. Less than a half-mile after dropping into the canyon, the first of four major pools stretches wall to wall. Debris in the water has sculpted the sandstone, accentuating the grain of the rock as a carver draws the grain from oak. Two of the four pools To order a print of this photograph, see page 1.

POISON POSIES

Early evening light softens Willow Valley's wind-weathered Coconino sandstone cliffs.

To order a print of this photograph, see page 1.

GAZING UP at the layered extravagance of sandstone, it seems impossible mere water and sand over time could have cut so smoothly through all that rock.

Requires a swim, so carry gear packed in dry bags. At 6,500 feet, the swim gets chilly except in midsummer. The pools also offer lots of opportunities for trout fishing, although only a pole that breaks down and fits into a carrying case will likely survive the long bushwhack through pole-snapping branches.

The next one-third mile down the canyon narrows is crowded with such pools. The second pool has a climbing route to the right, best tackled with ropes. But the third pool requires a swim. Cliffs rise on either side of the long, deep pool, and the still waters reflect the slit of the sky and the burnished glow of the ancient, fossilized sand dunes, marked with the secret footprints of creatures who viewed the dinosaurs as irritating upstarts. Gazing up at the layered extravagance of sandstone, it seems impossible mere water and sand over time could have cut so smoothly through all that rock. The fourth major pool also offers no alternative to getting wet, but it's wide and fairly shallow-normally about knee-deep.

Below the fourth pool, the canyon opens up as though trying now at the last minute to earn its name-Willow Valley.

For much of the year, the stream plays hide-and-seek in this stretch, sometimes disappearing into the sand, sometimes reappearing where underground rock layers force it to the surface. Here the canyon offers the occasional thicket of actual willow trees. Cottonwoods and willows dominate these lower stretches, especially below where the canyon connects to the Verde River. Biologists Steven W. Carothers and R. Roy Johnson did a comprehensive study of the insects, birds and animals in the area. They concluded that the cottonwood-willow wildlife habitat rates as perhaps the richest habitat north of the tropical rainforests. For instance, these riparian corridors provide a lush highway for almost every migratory songbird in North America. Many birds move up out of the tropics and Mexico along these leafy streams to take advantage of the explosion of life in the willows and cottonwoods every spring. Carothers and Johnson counted an average of 847 pairs of birds representing 26 species for each 100 acres of cottonwood-willow habitat along the Verde River. In West Clear Creek, they found 200 to 350 pairs per 100 acres. That's nearly double the number of birds nesting in Eastern forests and 10 times as many nesting birds per acre as in the surrounding brush, grassland and desert areas.

The leafy shading of the trees sustains every link in the food chain. For instance, streamside trees help spawn trout. Their roots store the water, keep the water clear, prevent erosion and create overhanging banks where the trout can hide. The canopy of leaves cools the water then drops into the stream to provide nutrients for the microorganisms, which feed the insects, which, in turn, feed the trout. All told, about 70 percent of the nutrients the fish use come from the vegetation growing in the stream.

Unfortunately, a century of cattle grazing, dams and water diversion has greatly reduced the state's store of cottonwoodwillow habitat. That makes the small streams in hidden places like Willow Valley all the more precious since many of the creatures living in the area depend on riparian areas for some vital portion of their life cycle.

The Willow Valley human adventure turns into a soothing, hop, skip and ramble through a leafy canyon for the next 1.5 miles. The lower reaches offer a variety of alluring campsites and a scattering of fishing holes. The first sign of an actual trail takes shape at the confluence of Clover Creek. Below this point, Willow Valley and Clover Creek merge to create West Clear Creek, which runs on down to the Verde River.

After another half-mile of boulder-hopping, the Maxwell Trail leads up the side of the canyon through the ponderosa pines a few hundred yards before the canyon makes a sharp right turn. A half-mile climb brings you back to the rim of the canyon. If you leave a second car there, you'll be very happy. If not, you'll whine and moan for the anticlimactic 3-mile walk back to Maxwell Tank where you started.

Odds are, you'll wind up footsore and heart-healed, soothed and energized by the sound of water, the sky-graced pools, the gleam of trout and thoughts of Coconino sandstone. Moreover, you can savor the inside joke of the worst-named slot canyon in Arizona. HLocation: 40 miles south of Flagstaff.

when you go

Getting There: From Flagstaff, drive south on Lake Mary Road to about 7 miles past Happy Jack. Turn right onto Forest Service Road 81 to the turnoff that sits north of a bridge over upper Willow Valley Creek. Take Forest 81 for 3.1 miles before veering left onto Forest Service Road 81E. Drive another 3.8 miles on 81E veering to the left at the junction with Forest Service Road 693. Stay left on 81E for another half-mile to the junction of Maxwell Trail Road and Maxwell Tank Road. To drop off a shuttle car, take the road to the right for 1.5 miles to the canyon rim. Leave one car there and backtrack to the road junction. Continue left toward Maxwell Tank to an unmarked junction at 9 of a mile, but keep to the left another halfmile to Maxwell Tank. Leave the second car here and head for the canyon.

Travel Advisory: Swimming is required to reach Willow Valley.

Warning: Don't cross the creek during heavy rains in the summer monsoon season.

Lodging: Nearby Flagstaff offers many hotels and bed-and-breakfast options.

Information: Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce, (928) 774-4505; www.flagstaffchamber.com.

More Canyoneering Adventures ARAVAIPA CANYON

Follow Aravaipa Creek through the length of the canyon and see more than 200 species of birds including black and zone-tailed hawks. The 22-mile round-trip hike lends itself to an overnight stay, but many day hikers trek part of the way and turn around. Permit required.

Location: 120 miles southeast of Phoenix.

Information: Bureau of Land Management, (520) 348-4400; www.blm.gov/az/rec/aravaipa.htm.

BOYNTON CANYON

A 5-mile round-trip hike though red sandstone cliffs, manzanita, Gambel oak, ponderosa pine and bigtooth maple trees leads to one of the famed Sedona vortex spots. A steep scramble up sandstone rocks at the turnaround rewards hikers with an impressive view of the canyon below.

Location: 32 miles south of Flagstaff, 2 miles west of Sedona.

Information: Coconino National Forest, Red Rock Ranger District, (928) 2824119; www.fs.fed.us/r3/coconino/recreation/red_rock/boynton-tr.shtml.

CIBECUE CANYON

Chase Cibecue Creek upstream and expect to get your feet wet on this 3-mile round-trip hike to an 80-foot cascading waterfall. The longer and more technical 7-mile hike through the rugged sandstone canyon requires a permit and an Apache Indian guide.

Location: White Mountain Apache Reservation (194 miles northeast of Phoenix).

Information: White Mountain Apache Wildlife and Outdoor Recreation Division, (928) 338-4385; www.wmat.nsn.us. Coconino National Forest, (928) 527-3600.

Offering no recourse but to swim its upper end, Willow Valley's narrow passage between slick sandstone cliffs (above, left) indoctrinates hikers to an amphibious adventure.

Sandstone cavities yawn like monstrous mouths over Willow Creek (this page) upstream from its confluence with Clover Creek that forms West Clear Creek.