Verde River Recreation

This Labor Day weekend, I took a short kayak trip down the Verde River with my friend Ellen. We had kayaked before, but the stretch we did turned out to be full of surprises and treacherous. We had consulted paddle maps which are accessible on the Verde River Greenway website, but that did not help.

This time, I was sure it would be a piece of cake. Let’s see what happened.

We put in at the new Lower Tapco access point in Clarkdale. This is part of the Clarkdale expansion of services to the river in its project called Verde River @ Clarkdale.

Since Ellen has an inflatable kayak, we found some shade to work the pump in order to blow it up.

OK, ready to get on the river!

We enjoyed calm water, then some riffles.

On the riffles I could not use my camera  – I kept it safe in a waterproof bag. We had dumped before, so I was not taking any chances.

There is one portage at the diversion dam.

We enjoyed plenty of placid areas of the Verde River. This trip strengthened my personal connection to the river so I want to protect and preserve it.

The Verde River is rare in the southwest in that it flows throughout the year. Look at the huge contrast of the trees and plants just next to the river with the surrounding dry hills.

This short trip ended right after passing under the bridge to Tuzigoot National Monument. There are several places to exit before hitting more rapid waters.

We deflated the boat, loaded it in the car, and went to pick up my car at the Lower Tapco access point.

All in all, it was a 2 1/2 hour trip, very enjoyable!