ROAD TRIPS

Slide Rock State Park in Sedona is one of Arizona's most loved places. Here's your guide

Roger Naylor
Special for The Republic

Arizona Republic contributor Roger Naylor knows Arizona State Parks. He’s visited every one of them and now he’s written the book.

"Arizona State Parks: A Guide to Amazing Places in the Grand Canyon State," tells the story of each park. Chapters include everything you need to know about visiting, from campgrounds to hiking trails to guided tours. In addition, readers will find a list of nearby attractions, activities and events. Maps, charts and photos make it easy to plan adventures to every corner of the state.

Slide Rock State Park in Sedona is one of his favorites. Here's an excerpt from "Arizona State Parks: A Guide to Amazing Places in the Grand Canyon State" by Roger Naylor. Copyright 2019 University of New Mexico Press, 2019.

Slide Rock State Park

This place fills me with hope. It restores a little of my faith in mankind and that’s not easy to do.

By all rights, Slide Rock should have fallen by the wayside. It is a vestige of a simpler time and seems positively quaint. At heart, Slide Rock is a swimming hole. Those two words conjure up images of youthful innocence and lazy summer days.

Slide Rock State Park in Sedona is a popular swimming area in summer.

How can a mere swimming hole compete with heated pools, water-themed mega-parks and water slides as tall as skyscrapers? Yet Slide Rock, nestled in the heart of Oak Creek Canyon, is packed during hot weather. It’s a chilly little brook that flows through a narrow chute of smooth sandstone. And it’s filled with hordes of happy squealing kids and smiling parents.

That’s what leaves me feeling hopeful. I like knowing that pleasures can still be simple ones and that the outdoors still has the power to enchant even for the most hardened couch potato, game-glued youngsters.

Wait, there’s history, too?

Slide Rock State Park has a rich history but that’s easy to miss even though you walk right through the heart of it. From the parking lot, a wide paved path cuts across the grounds to the creek. It leads past orchards, buildings and an array of machinery scattered about.

Frank Pendley arrived in 1907 and established squatter’s rights at this creekside spot. During warm months he worked the land and spent winters further south, mining and trapping bobcats. By 1910 he had figured out how to create a unique irrigation system with a series of tunnels blasted through solid rock and flumes suspended by cables. He filed for ownership of the land under the Homestead Act and built a small cabin.

Then he set out to become a stationary version of Johnny Appleseed, planting and tending orchards in the meadows above the creek. He experimented with several varieties of apples over the years. Red delicious thrived so that became the mainstay.

In 1921, Pendley married Jane Hutchinson from another homestead in the canyon. Their house still stands, along with an apple-packing barn and a handful of tourist cabins built in 1933 because Slide Rock was a draw even back then.

Slip sliding away

Of course, I get Slide Rock’s popularity in the ‘30s. Those were hard times. Nice to be able to forget them for a while by taking a swim in a clear-running stream. Somehow Slide Rock’s popularity has only grown over the ensuing decades. The Pendley family continued to operate the farm until 1985 when they sold the property to the Arizona Parklands Foundation, which in turn sold it to Arizona State Parks.

People come from all over to this unusual spot where the stone banks throttle the creek into a narrow frothy chute creating a natural water slide 80 feet long with a seven percent drop from top to bottom. Algae on the rocks enhance the slipperiness. Nearby the creek widens forming channels and pools of varying depths, perfect for wading, swimming and cliff jumping.

On summer days, kids and grownups alike ping-pong through the slide one after another. Downstream there’s such a barrage of cannonballs it sounds like we’ve declared war on trout. All along the stony banks, folks sit in groups or stretch out on towels relaxing in the sun. In an arid landscape, water steals our hearts.

Glancing around at the idyllic little scene it’s easy to think it can’t get much better than this. But that’s the surprising secret of Slide Rock—it does get better. It gets better during all the other seasons.

Never an off-season

Show up in the spring when the orchards bloom and birds sing in the branches or in the fall when you can buy cider and bags of fresh apples at the Slide Rock Market or winter when the canyon is hushed and the cliffs are frosted with snow. Show up anytime when it’s too chilly to swim and your focus shifts to the jaw-dropping scenery. Slide Rock is one of the most beautiful parks in the system. Everyone is just having too much fun during summer to notice.

This new book by Roger Naylor explores the best of every Arizona State Park.

Tall sandstone cliffs rise above the orchard and bottomland, framing the pastoral scene. These are high walls of sculpted stone, the famous red rocks of Sedona growing even more colorful and vibrant with every mood of sunlight. This segment of Oak Creek flowing over bare rock is exquisite. Without the crowds, you see every detail. Without the crowds, you hear the entire symphony—that rapturous melody of falling water played out in a chorus of mini-cascades.

It becomes easier to explore the park. Hike further upstream past the slide and you’ll discover a shady riparian zone with trees growing on the bank and a series of ledges where you can sit and soak it all in. You can stroll through the orchards or around the homestead.

What becomes abundantly clear is that Slide Rock State Park is picnic nirvana. Spread across this little oasis is a ridiculous amount of prime picnic-worthy real estate. This is the kind of place that would have lured Yogi Bear, even if he had to kite a check to Boo-Boo for gas money. And if you’re too young to get a reference to Yogi Bear and his love of pic-a-nic baskets, better bone up on cartoon history.

That’s the kind of thing you have time to contemplate on a peaceful autumn day at Slide Rock while sprawled on a sunny creekside ledge, munching a fresh-picked apple. Now it really can’t get any better than this. Can it?

When you go

Slide Rock State Park is 7 miles north of Sedona on Arizona 89A in Oak Creek Canyon. The park is day-use only. Hours and fees change seasonally. 928-282-3034, www.azstateparks.com.

Meet the author

Roger Naylor will give presentations and sign copies of "Arizona State Parks: A Guide to Amazing Places in the Grand Canyon State."

Everyone who attends will receive a free day pass to Arizona State Parks. Anyone who buys a book will receive a free copy of the official Grand Canyon National Park Centennial Magazine, written by Roger Naylor.

For information, visit www.rogernaylor.com. Or follow Naylor at www.facebook.com/RogerNaylorinAZ or twitter.com/AZRogerNaylor.