Hermit's Cave Canyon

This short canyon with beautiful views of the lake can be added to your kayak trip and completed as a day trip combo. Tonto National Forest parking permit is required and a water craft is needed. You can obtain a Tonto National Forest parking permit at the Apache Lake Marina or where ever suited and park there or park over at Crabtree Wash (ideal) next to the marina.

We used kayaks. It took us a few hours (one way) to paddle to the canyon on this very scenic lake. Paddling on the right side of the lake along the bluffs makes for a more scenic float, then cross the lake to the cave entrance. When you get to the mouth of the canyon you can drag your kayaks over to the right side of the large leaning boulder that forms the cave and leave them there. Scramble up through the inside of the cave and out the top and begin to follow the track up to the drop-in point.

We brought a 200ft rope and a 100ft rope. One of the drops ended up requiring a longer rope due to the available anchor point being set pretty far back maybe 40ft. We tied the 200 to the 100 and went with that.