Is It Hot Already?

by Nick Coons
Apr 9, 2003

We've been "blessed" with beautiful weather for an extended period of time so far this year. Now it's starting to warm up; or what we call the beginning of the Arizona

Arizona	(air-i'-ZON-u')
The State of Arizona comprises the extreme south-western portion of the United States. It is bounded on the north by Utah, on the east by New Mexico, on the south by Mexico, and on the west by California and Nevada.

six-month-long summer season. I knew it was too good to last.

Of course, the changing seasons here bring a whole new group of things to do. Being a native, it almost has to be at least 100 degrees outside before the water is warm enough to swim. Jumping into a swimming pool, lake, or other body of water when the water is less than 80 degrees makes me feel like a popsicle. When the temperature in the Rim Country gets up there, swimming in the creeks where the water pools up is great.

I used to swim at Christopher Creek right off of Highway 260. I've heard that since the Rodeo-Chedeski fire that the creek is no longer there, or something to that effect. I found several great places in that creek to swim, climb, and a waterfall to relax underneath.

There are also various places to go cliff-diving. This can be a little scary your first time. Keep in mind that since these are not publicly maintained that you should check the pool of water and how deep it is before jumping into it from any great height. The water-in-the-wild is not known for it's transparency, and so without thorough examination you don't know if you're jumping into a pool one-foot deep or 100-feet deep.

As you may know, if you've been keeping up with the articles on this site, or you've looked outside at all this year, we've had quite a lot of rain and snow, depending on which part of the state you're talking about. I'm looking forward to the run-off increasing the water levels of all my favorite swimming holes.

And once it reaches 100 degrees outside, I'll be ready to jump in!

Added April 23, 2003 - After this article was published, I found out that it was Canyon Creek that was closed due to the fire, and Christopher Creek was not harmed.