Beating the late-summertime blues…and heat!
It was getting close to the end of our kids’ summer vacation and we were looking for something exciting to do. We had already been on our major trip for the summer, an awesome float down the Green River in Utah, followed by a couple days in Moab, just exploring. So it was going to be tough to try to compete with that experience.
We live in the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix), and we were looking for something relatively close. Being the end of July, north was the most sensible direction to look if we were hoping to beat the heat. Let me sidetrack for a moment to mention that this is the year 2020, and we have been dealing with the Chinese Corona Virus for the better part of the year. Added to that, riots across the country have disrupted normal life, but I won’t get into details of all that here I just wanted to mention it because it sort of illustrates the mindset we were operating under. At the time of our little trip the state was in an effective lock-down and wearing protective masks in public was pretty much made mandatory. Anyhow…that was part of what we were looking to escape from.
Enter the sleepy town of Cottonwood, Arizona. I say sleepy because it is a small town, just a little more than 10,000 population, and because I’ve never been there before. And, just as in many cases, I was asking myself why it had taken me so long to ‘discover’ it. Cottonwood is not too far from Sedona, which is probably why it is often overlooked. We didn’t have a whole lot of free time on our day trip, to explore the town, but we did drive through a couple times. I noticed a good assortment of restaurants, brew pubs, tasting rooms, among other touristy, kitschy shops. If you’re interested in those types of little towns in the Southwest, Cottonwood would be a desirable place to check out. Again, we were on a time schedule on this day, so we didn’t get a lot of time in town to explore. We did, however, take a picnic lunch that we ate at the entrance to Dead Horse Ranch State Park, in a nice shady, wooded area.
We came to Cottonwood for another reason. We were seeking adventure in the form of adrenaline producing activities, and the folks at Vortex ATV were happy to oblige us. We were able to book online, so when we got to their small office, we were pretty much ready to go…once we got the rundown on the equipment.
Vortex ATVs provided us with maps, a newer Yamaha 4-seat UTV with a full tank of gas, and a cooler with water. Luckily, we only booked the two-hour option because it did get hot…very hot. I would definitely recommend doing this, but maybe in a cooler time of the year because the red rocks of Sedona are completely within range on a longer 4-hour rental. But for today, we followed a designated loop-trail though the desert for two hours and it was just the right amount of time. By the time we were done, we were ready to be out of the heat for a bit.
From the road to the river…
We dropped our UTV off, back at the office. Across the parking lot from Vortex ATV, we met our river guides from Outdoor Adventure Center. We had about an hour to kill until we put-in at the river so we drove a mile or so down the road into town and pulled off at Dead Horse State Park, where we found the shady place to eat and kick back for a bit.
After lunch we got back to Outdoor Adventure Center, met up with the rest of our party, and took off on the short drive to the put-in on the river. It was literally less than a 10-minute drive. Typically, OAC will shuttle paddlers to the put-in, but in this day and age of social distancing, we drove our own vehicle, following the van and kayaks to the river.
There were a couple of newbies in our group, so once we got to the banks of the Verde River, we had a short briefing on how to maneuver the kayaks, safety considerations and Leave No Trace. After that, it was time for launch!
Our guides from Outdoor Adventure Center were awesome and took care of everyone really well. Again, this is a pretty calm river, so safety isn’t as big of a concern as it is on bigger rivers. We stopped about half-way through the float, at an old blown-out dam or water diversion for a short break in the shade. After taking off from this spot we were headed through the two biggest rapid sections of this section of the Verde which for some, probably would have been missed if they weren’t pointed out. But they were perfect for my youngest son who is fairly new to kayaking.
The Verde River forms below the dam at Sullivan Lake and flows about 170 miles before emptying into the Salt River, near Fountain Hills. There are actually a number of dams along the entire length, and river flow is controlled by these dams. I’m not sure what the flow was that day, but it was a nice, lazy river with an occasional little rapid here and there, nothing more than class II though. One awesome thing about this river is that it is very green and shady, there are a lot of trees on the banks, so it makes a really nice afternoon paddle, even on the last day of July!
Paddling with Outdoor Adventure Center was a blast and the perfect way to cool down after a hot morning of screaming through the desert in a UTV. Booking the two activities can be done online easily and conveniently. We did two hours in the UTV and two hours in the kayaks. We left Phoenix at 8 a.m. and were back home by 6 p.m. and that was on a Friday. Not bad for a day trip from Phoenix! Overall, it was an awesome trip that was everything we were looking for. A little excitement, and a little cool relief…we found them both just two hours away in Cottonwood, Arizona.
Happy Trails!
