I've Searched for this Spot for Years - The Red Box of West Clear Creek

Before you see this thumbnail and think "Hey, I'm gonna go check out this beautiful swimming hole!" you should watch the entire video. West Clear Creek is a beautiful but absolutely rugged, unforgiving and remote area. And this is one of the most rugged and remote sections of that brutal country. It's either a semi-technical to technical (meaning ropes, harnesses, helmets) or a 2~3 day hike/swim from a 'normal' trailhead. The roads are trash too, so high clearance 4WD is required. It's pretty. But it's extremely difficult to access.

Anyway.....

If you are familiar with the Hanging Gardens, then you probably have heard of the White Box of West Clear Creek. Essentially it is a long section of slotted up canyon alternating between swims and boulder hopping. I've heard of a similar section in West Clear Creek that was called the Red Box, but I have never seen a picture or spoken to anyone who has been there. So I've tried to get there. For years I've tried to get there. And over and over, I failed. Finally, my buddy Nick said he'd found a path that would drop you in just downstream from the fabled Red Box.

Things immediately did not go as planned when we saw a landslide had knocked out the section of canyon we planned to descend. After some searching, we found an alternate route. I want to stress that the route we took was NOT an established trail. There were sections were a hand line was required. We found the old, tattered remains of previous handlines....probably left there years ago by the person Nick got the route from. So you have to bring your own. (We took ours with us.)

Eventually we got to the bottom. And we found we'd dropped directly into the section I'd been looking for. The Red Box of West Clear Creek. I can't describe how beautiful this section of the canyon was. The video will do that for me anyway.

And then West Clear Creek reminded me why it's so infamous. I slipped and twisted my ankle. I was lucky enough that it wasn't so bad that I couldn't walk, but it certainly didn't feel good. I rested for a bit while Nick went out and did Nick things.

When he got back, we headed back to the exit. I was excited to sit and rest some more while we waited for the sun to go down. Did I mention it was over 100 degrees and the exit was full sun? It was. Because I'm an expert planner.

Anyway, Nick is not the wait around type, so he continued downstream and I followed. Kind of out of spite. Mostly out of spite. OK, it was entirely out of spite. I'm glad I did though, because after just a short bit we came to the most amazing spot I've seen in West Clear Creek. There was a section with a small waterfall, followed immediately by an alcove with a large tree and a gushing spring. Immediately after this was the most gorgeous section of narrows. I'm glad I went. Don't tell Nick.

Then it was time to leave. On the way out, the day's activities caught up with me. I quickly started to struggle. I'd love to say it was the heat or my ankle, but it was probably just that I'm out of shape and ran out of steam.

But we made it to our trucks and on to Camp Verde for some Mexican food. We may or may not have broken the speed limit to make it before they closed.

If you're reading this, I will give you a cookie. I always wonder if people read these things.

I'm lying. There are no cookies. You get nothing. But thanks for reading this anyway.

Music by Artlist:

Yoed Nir - Cello Suite No1 in G Major
Damon Power - Our Last Memory Dance
Tankestrom - Be Still the Earth
HillTopTrie - Sloop John B
The Duke of Norfolk - Dylan Thomas Bitter Bitter
Israel Wasserman - Under My Skin

Music by Epidemic Sound:

Son Habana - Escucha Mi Salsa