Tom Grundy's Salome Jug Page
Arizona has many wonderful things in it, but most of them are hiding. One such place is a granite canyon on Salome Creek, known as Salome Jug. This is in the Tonto National "Forest" near Roosevelt Lake. Julie and I drove down to check it out one evening, and slept in the desert on the way. The next morning we completed the drive on the 10 or so miles of bumpy but decent dirt road out to the trailhead. While we were packing our bags at the trailhead an SUV drove up with the stereo thumping. When the guys opened the back door to get something out, a rattle and clatter of bottles and cans poured out. With a laugh, they threw it all back in and headed down the trail. We let them go ahead of us. From the trailhead it is about a 2 mile walk on an old jeep road down to the canyon. It wasn't very hot in the morning walking out, and the blooming saguaros and other cacti were interesting to see. We stashed a water bottle and headed upstream to the start of the jug.
Julie at the trailhead
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saguaro flowers
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Julie looks down at the canyon
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Julie along the creek above the jug
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We overshot the first place to get down to the creek, but it was a pleasant rock-hopping stroll down to where the walls rose up and came together to force us to take to the water. That is where I triple bagged my camera and the photography ceased. Julie had her shorty wetsuit, and I had wet suit pants and socks. In addition Julie had a small cheap (leaky valve) Chinese inflatable pool toy ring and I had a 3/4 length inflatable air mattress to help keep us from drowning.
The water was cold, but not icy. At first we were just wading, but soon there were pools deep enough to require swimming - or more accurately floating across. The pink granite walls and clear blue-greenish pools of water were spectacular, the sort of thing Disney is trying to copy when they make a ride. There were sunfish and tadpoles swimming about, and water worn channels and falls between pools. Up on the rim were saguaros and other cacti adding to the surreal nature of the location. We were there at a good water level. There was enough flow to keep the water clear and clean, but not so much that it was scary. Supposedly as the flow slows down a lot more algae builds up making things much more slippery. Then scum starts to collect on the pool surfaces, and although warmer, the water is much less pleasant.
As we continued on down the canyon the walls got higher and the pools bigger. We stopped on some big flat rocks to bask in the sun like lizards to warm up a bit. Unfortunately it just seemed to make us colder as soon as we got back in the water. We caught up with the other party at the rappel. They were going down the waterfall, so we backtracked a little to another warm rock and waited there for them to clear the station. Once they were done, we headed to the dropoff and traversed (pretty easy, plus there was a handline) out to the station on the right. From there with our ~75 ft. rope we were able to rap straight down clear of the sloping fall, and kick over to the far side for a dry disconnect. (getting off of the rappel line while swimming in the current can be a bit of a pain). A few more swims past overhanging walls (with bats squeeking in the cracks) brought us out of the jug. I quickly pulled the camera out to get some pictures of Julie swimming out (2 of the 3 "dry" bags had leaked, so it is good that I went for quantity). Then we prepared for the hike out.
The start of the jug from above
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Julie swims out of the jug (crop of next pic)
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the end of the jug
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Despite being rather chilled, we quickly warmed back up hiking uphill in the close to 100 degree sun. I picked up my unnecessary extra water bottle (training right?) and we hiked back uphill to the truck. From there it was a long hot drive back to Flagstaff, where I soon took a much needed nap.
As usual we saw some interesting things along the trip like a lot of Elk, some deer, loud birds, egrets, herons, and ducks, fish and tadpoles, lots of healthy green looking cacti and other desert greenery, as well as a giant spider, a high speed pile of lint insect, a green lynx spider, and some lizards.
Julie exits the jug with "life" ring
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green lynx spider (Peucetia viridans) on a cactus flower
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