Hike Soap Creek near the Colorado River, Arizona

This was a very enjoyable hike through a canyon to the Colorado River. There are numerous points where you are not hiking, but scrambling and doing some mild climbing. There's some tricky route finding involved.... look for the helpful cairns when you're stumped. The start of the hike proceeds through a sandy wash but the walls quickly spring up around you and the scrambling begins. After 0.7 miles of hiking/scrambling you'll reach the South fork of soap creek. Turn left here (JCT_1L on the map) to continue down canyon. The walls grow higher and the canyon gets more scenic in this section. Most of the scrambling is in this section as well. Soon enough, the canyon flattens out and you'll be back on relatively flat ground most of the way to the Colorado river.

Soap Creek is one of the first rapids that river rafters hit when they start their trek down the Colorado River. We were lucky enough to see some brave rafters pick their way through the rapid. These were hearty folk, setting out on the 50 degree Colorado River in December!