01. Perkinsville to Clarkdale Wild

Access in Perkinsville is complicated by private lands. Watch for barbed wire; this is cattle county. Put-in at the Perkinsville Bridge. There is a dispersed camping area here. Once you pass Perkinsville and pass under the railroad bridge- behold the Verde Canyon. The carving of this canyon was catalyzed by the kiss of the Black Hills and the Mogollon Rim millions of years ago. Enjoy your decent into the stratigraphy of the Colorado Plateau.  Stream flow increases in the vicinity of Mormon Pocket (see USGS topo) as the result of springs in the stream channel. This is a spectacular, wild place. Watch for bear, elk, and even coatimundi! Beware strainers in the riparian jungle. More beta needed. You'll exit the Verde Canyon roughly at the Sycamore Creek confluence. Flows will increase once more as this perennial, spring-fed stream adds water. There are private lands for roughly .5 miles upstream of this confluence along river left. A rough 4x4 forest road comes down to the river a little way downstream from the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness trailhead. The last .25 mile of this road is exceptionally steep and rocky. However if you make it down to the river this an excellent RAP for a shorter trip. From the Sycamore Creek RAP, the river enters a narrow, basalt gorge shortly after a USGS gauge on the river left. There are numerous rocky Class II rapids along this stretch. This a narrow stream corridor with narrow floodplains. This is a tormented place; floods rip through there, evidenced by the hammered riparian forest throughout. Watch for strainers! Shortly after SOB Canyon, the river begins to leave the confines of the basalt gorge and widens out as it begins to enter the Verde Valley. As a result, the river gets shallower. Watch for fencelines and weird, old mining infastructure and stream channel alterations. Information from AZ Rivers, Streams, and Wetlands Study, 1989, AZ State Parks Also see the other segments: Clarkdale to Camp Verde Camp Verde to Beasley Flats Beasely Flats to Childs Childs to Horseshoe Reservoir Horseshoe Reservoir to Bartlett Reservoir Bartlett Reservoir to confluence with Salt River