Lower Devil’s Canyon with friends
Some friends of mine from southern Utah came down to visit for Christmas. They are making a road trip through the southwest, hitting some of the region’s best climbing, and decided to give Oak Flat a chance.
Most importantly, it was great to be able to spend time with them, and to share an area very dear to my heart. Oak Flat, which is about 70 miles east of Phoenix, has been a formative place for me. I spent about six months in the area during the winter of 2019 and spring of 2020, including during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. When states started to lock down I was living in a van and had to make some tough choices about where I was going to stay. I decided to make Oak Flat my home while the pandemic was unfolding across the U.S.
During that time I met some of my closest friends, and made some enduring memories. I also got to know the area pretty well, and it has become one of my favorite places to visit. One area in particular — Lower Devil’s Canyon — really captured my imagination.
It’s remote, with a rugged road to get in, and it hosts one of the most picturesque desert streams I’ve ever seen, plus a multitude of spires of volcanic tuff. It feels epic, and yet welcoming.
Lower Devil’s Canyon is known to Phoenix climbers for basically one route — Pathological Optimist on The Totem Pole. It’s a single pitch of 5.10, but plenty of people make the trek to Lower Devil’s Canyon just to do this route. It climb’s the east face of the the 100-foot free-standing tower called The Totem Pole, and tops out on a flat summit that probably isn’t more than 20 square feet — six feet across and three feet wide. My friend Bradley Hughes came to Superior, the nearest town to Oak Flat, last spring, and joined me for a day in LDC expressly to climb the Totem Pole. He was not disappointed.
My friends arrived here in the middle of our first real rain this winter. It rained solidly for almost three days, and the parched desert drank it up. When the sun came out, the air was clear and the ground dried quickly.
I met them at the Oak Flat campground on the night of Christmas Eve, then joined them for Christmas Day climbing at The Pond. I made some phone calls to family and friends while they put up Dead pool and the route to the left of it. Eventually we moved over to try the area classic Pocket Puzzle, and I got on Blisters in the Sun, which I was happy to send second go.
The next day we drove out to Lower Devil’s Canyon. It’s one of those places that I love to show off. It could qualify as a state or national monument, but it doesn’t get a lot of attention.
The five of us — Kaleigh, Adam, Italia and Tori — went into Hackberry Creek, and followed the pools down to where the climbing began. My friend Tori changed into shorts and jumped in a small pool of water — which was perhaps 50 degrees — and then popped up with a whoop.
We took our time scouting routes and enjoying the welcoming feel of the place before setting up at the base of a large pillar, where we hopped on two beautiful trad climbs in the 5.8 range.
Kaleigh meditated beside a pool, a serene look on her face, until the sun crept up the hillside behind her and she was left in the shade. I saw her move up the hill with the sun, breaking her meditation every 10 minutes or so, until she was perhaps 40 feet up from where she started. Italia found a sunny place near the base of the climbs to draw the canyon and do some writing.
I took a six or seven minute dip in the pools and watched Tori slowly climb the face of one of the giant volcanic pillars.
Some beta for this area: bring a small rack and draws even sport climbs. They usually will take a piece or two. And embrace the adventurous feel of the area. Welded cold shuts aren’t rare, and there are more than a few old bolts out here.
We ended up hiking back up to the Glitterbox area, which is one layer of rock pillars uphill from Hackberry Creek, but never mustered the energy to climb the Totem Pole. I was kind of hoping the crew would want to climb it, just for their own sake. I have probably climbed it six or seven times by now, so I wasn’t particularly motivated to get on it again. Perhaps it will give them a good reason to come back.
Instead we sprawled out on a pillar that looked into the heart of the canyon, talked about a wide range of things, and looked at the canyon through Kaleigh’s binoculars. It felt good just to show my friends this place, to have them see and appreciate a spot that I think is so special.
As we hiked out we heard a kind of growling, yelping sound, which we figured was feline. It was hard to tell how big it was, but there was definitely some kind of wild cat in the canyon. It was a perfect way to end a serene day.