Siphon Draw

Ever since moving to this part of Arizona over ten years ago I have had a certain fascination with the Superstitions. No, not because of the legend of the Lost Duchman, but just because it is such an imposing piece of granite rising quite dramatically off the desert floor.

Our target for this hike was the Flatiron, the prominence just right of center in the picture above. Named, no doubt, for its similarity to the old time iron, the cut of its jut also makes it seem like the bow of a proud and mighty warship.

The hike, somewhat unbelievably, is only three miles from the trailhead to the peak. But along with those miles is 2780 vertical feet (roughly another half mile of up). Compressing that vertical rise into the short trail (the first half mile of which is fairly flat) means that the climb is well over 1000 feet per mile. In other words, there are several sections where the climb is just that, a climb—all fours, pulling up on trees and rocks.

The trail takes its name from a particular piece of smooth granite that must be a terrifying place to be in a summer thunderstorm. This chute (shown in the photo to the right), a little better than half way up, is worn smooth from the water that courses over it. A similar (and perhaps even more imposing) chute feeds in from the left, and one can only imagine that during a good rain the combined force of all that water shoots out from its bottom (seen below) with pretty impressive results.

After two hours of vertical challenge we reached the summit, which is truly vertigo inducing, but the views can’t be matched. We were in no rush to leave, spending time enjoying the view and munching on our snacks. But finally it was time to go down, and here’s the thing—going down is really a lot harder than going up. Going up is hard on your lungs and heart, going down is hard on your legs, and in particular the top of your thighs. Our legs soon felt like they were made of rubber and I was actually getting a bit worried, knowing that we still had to get down Siphon Draw. We rested a bit at the top to let our legs recover, and then found that cutting back and forth across it (mini-switchbacks) took out most of the bite. Surprisingly it took almost as long to get down, again a testimony to how steep it is (and the fact that above the draw there is really not much in the way of a trail). All in all a good recommendation from Michael G. (thanks, Mike!) for a Grand Canyon training hike!