The Seven Cataracts Adventure Hike – A Mountain Sliding And Canyoning Exploration In Willow Canyon
Arizona is a stunningly beautiful and tremendously diverse state with topography ranging from low-lying desert landscapes to high mountain peaks and alpine forest ranges. However, more than any other geological feature, Arizona is widely known for its beautiful and remote rocky canyons, deep gorges, waterfalls, and ponds that are scattered throughout the state. What I find even more amazing, though, is that many of these wild canyons are accessible via “non-technical” hiking trails that require no ropes and are literally within a day’s drive from Phoenix or Tucson. For a great day trip and late summer to early fall hike, if you’re up for a more exciting challenge and an extraordinary and scenic day trip, then take a canyoning and mountain sliding hiking adventure to Seven Cataracts, and explore Willow Canyon, Tucson, Arizona.
It was the Labor Day holiday and early Sunday morning I left Phoenix around 6 am leaving town on I-10 East arriving in Tucson at 7:30 am At the Ina exit Road, I exited the highway and turned left, heading east 8 miles, meeting the TLC Hiking Group, led and organized by Eric Kinneman, at the Westin La Paloma Resort and arriving at 8 am. Because parking was said to be limited at the trailhead for this hike, we shared it together and left for the hike and day trip east on Sunrise Blvd. at 8:25am.
The beautiful drive up Sunrise Blvd through the northern stretches of Tucson and through the rolling foothills of the beautiful Santa Catalina Mountains has always been a favorite of mine. The Santa Catalina Mountains are the highest mountain range in Tucson, reaching as high as 9,157 feet at their peak, Mount Lemmon. To get there and to the trailhead for our hike, we switchbacks through Tucson, drive east on Sunrise Blvd to Swan Road, turn right (south), onto River Road, turn left (east), then we turn right on Sabino Canyon Road, left on Tanque Verde Road and head east on Tanque Verde Road until we reach Catalina Highway aka “Mount Lemmon Scenic Byway” and then turn left again .
It was about 4 miles after turning left onto the Catalina Highway that you enter the Coronado National Forest and begin the winding ascent into the rugged Santa Catalina Mountains. Although it has been a long time since I was last there, I was still in awe of how beautiful and wonderful this trip really is. Immediately as you move up in elevation starting at 3000ft the views are absolutely stunning with each hairpin turn offering an amazing new rock formation or a gorgeous canyon view in the distance. If you like to stop and take lots of pictures, as I always do, you have plenty of opportunities to do so because this tour offers a number of viewpoints to enjoy along the way. However, at approximately mile marker 5, just past Canyon Overlook Mill, there is a pay station where you must purchase a $5 Coronado National Forest Day Use Recreational Pass if you plan to stop anywhere later in the path. We bought the day-use passes, one for each vehicle, and traveled another three miles until we reached Seven Cataracts Vista Point, just past Thimble Peak Vista and about mile 8 and about 1/3 of the way up Mount Lemon.
We stopped at the Seven Cataracts Vista Point, and our trailhead, parked, and began our hiking and canyoning adventure for the day at 9 am. The view looking down into Willow Canyon below was absolutely beautiful, but also incredibly steep! Right off the bat, the drop off at Willow Canyon on this “day use” trail was intense, to say the least. Estimated to be about a 1000-1300 foot descent down a 60% grade all loose dirt, gravel and rocks, each of us had to literally drop to the ground on our “butts” and out of a section to another, slide it down for about a full ¼ mile until we’ve hit the bottom. What a site it was to see too, really exciting and great fun! However, this “unofficial” trail, used mostly by experienced canyoners, is considered very difficult, some even say treacherous or dangerous, so I would not recommend doing this hike on your own unless you are an experienced canyoner. or have a canyon hiking guide with you.
Once we all safely slid down and reached the bottom and after a quick group photo Eric began leading our group on our canyoning exploration further down Willow Canyon scrambling, boulder hopping and climbing class 3 to through partially open waterfalls. Really beautiful and spectacular scenery too! We continued for about ¼ mile where we had come to some really nice falls and relished the opportunity to freshen up, rest and enjoy the peaceful tranquility and beauty of this remote and lesser known wild canyon. Meanwhile, Eric, along with several other adventuring members, traveled another 1/3 to ¼ mile, and after more scrambling, rock jumping, and class 3-4 climbing, they came to a beautiful 100 foot water fall and a bigger hole to swim deep enough. he said that even with a jump off a 10 foot cliff, they couldn’t hit bottom! Amazing!
After about an hour of rest, we decided it was time to start heading back. Now it was time for the most challenging part of our canyoning adventure: coming back! So we started our hike back through Willow Canyon the same way we came, scrambling, boulder hopping, wading through pools, then back up through the waterfall. However, it only took a little time and within minutes we had all safely made it back to the base of the hillside we had originally “slipped” onto earlier. It was here that we settled back in with Eric and then split into two groups. You could decide to do the ascent in the same spot you came down with a 60% grade on all loose dirt and gravel, where Eric said it was for every 3 steps up, a slide of one or two steps back. Or my friend Dan decided that it seemed like if he took it up a bit more to the left, he could more easily scale it over the rocks and cliff to the top. So I, along with several other members, followed Dan’s lead and hand over foot, slowly and carefully climbed it up, section by section until we safely reached the top. Wow, for me and someone who is afraid of heights, and has no rock climbing experience, it was challenging, but so much fun and an amazing workout too!
Once back at the top and in the Seven Cataracts Vista parking lot, we waited for the final members to return safely, then at 12:15pm we got back in our cars to drive the rest of the way to Mount Lemmon for lunch. at the Puerta de Hierro Restaurant. The views along the way were once again spectacular as you go from 5,000 ft elevation to the Mount Lemmon Sky Valley, approximately 8,200 ft elevation. Although the signs of the devastating Aspen fire of 2003 were noticeable, it was still very beautiful and the temperatures at this time of day, in the low mid 80’s, were very cool and refreshing.
However, with the 2.5 hour wait in the restaurant, due to it being a weekend and also a holiday, we decided it was best to turn around and head back.
We got back to Tucson around 2 p.m. , headed back to Phoenix from there to return home around 6 p.m.
Overall it was truly an extraordinary canyoning exploration and waterfall hiking adventure with TLC Hiking Group, carefully researched, well planned and thought out to the last detail by Eric Kinneman himself. He really had it all, incredibly beautiful, exciting, but also very challenging. I think this hike is best summed up in Eric Kinneman’s own words, in which he quotes, “The Seven Falls Waterfall Adventure Hike is an amazing hike that I highly recommend to people. It will test your fears, He will give you an amazing workout and take you through magnificent canyons, a 100 foot waterfall and a swimming hole rarely seen by anyone. What more could you ask for!”
