Pumphouse Wash

Pumphouse Wash

In a place as crowded as Oak Creek Canyon you have to go pretty high up the watershed to leave the riffraff behind. Pumphouse Wash drains the top of the canyon. At 6000 feet elevation this hole is at the practical cutoff for swimming holes considered warm enough to be comfortable. But it's a near classic and to leave out this and the two other places featured on the following pages would be a glaring omission.
The big show is crescent-shaped and about 40 feet wide. Water arrives through a rifle-notch channel cut deep into the basalt and over a fall about 10 feet high. The rock has big, blocky fractures. On the right as you look upstream it’s loose and brushy. Action is on the left wall. It's around 40 feet high with good seating and a ledge at 20 feet that may be jumpable, but I wasn't able to confirm this. Seating at the water is sparse, mostly cobble with a couple of sofa-sized boulders. Note: If the water is high enough to cover the lounging rocks, chances are good that it will be too cold to jump in without suffering an embarrassing temporary physical affect. (Guys, you know what I'm talking about.)
Expectation of privacy is fair. You'll find better privacy about one-half mile farther down where a wall running southwest creates a basin about 70 feet long. There's a rope swing attached to a spruce tree, but it looked more like a place to pass through than a destination.