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| Hiking | 7.00 Miles |
2,500 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.00 Miles | 7 Hrs 30 Mns | | 0.93 mph |
| 2,500 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | My son-in-law, Lloyd, and I started our hike into Pueblo Canyon at Pottery Point after camping for the night at the Devil's Chasm trail head. We had completed the hike to the Devil's Chasm Ruin the day before. I'm not sure how this location got the name Pottery Point - I saw the name used in some previous triplogs. A more descriptive name would be "Cow Pie Point" since a herd of cows uses it as their favorite gathering point and bath room.
The hike up the old mining road was relatively easy except for the elevation gain and the ankle twisting rocks. At the end of the road the trail enters a thicket of manzanita but we found the trail well worn and fairly easy to follow except for a few side forks. Someone had clipped many of the most offending branches. After the trail reaches the south side of Pueblo Canyon it follows a ledge up the canyon, crosses under the water fall and continues down the north side of the canyon to the main ruins. Absolutely fantastic views of the ruins on the north side from the trail along the south side. The trail along the ledge can be a little trecherous in places where a slip on the gravel surface could lead to a plunge off the side of the cliff. Lloyd who does not have trekking poles was clinging desperately to any bush he could lay his hands on - a good thing since my daughter and their three children would blame me for his loss if he fell off the cliff. I found my trekking poles were great for keeping me connected to the trail but tended to get in the way going through the manzanita.
There was only a sprinkle of water going over the waterfall but it was still impressive. This entire hike would be well worth the views and the waterfall experience even if there weren't any ruins.
The ruins were impressive with many rooms which left me wondering how they were able to sustain that many people in such a remote place - must have had an extensive supply chain. There were numerous collections of pottery shards laying on boulders and on top of low sections of the walls. I found it interesting that their pottery had a less finished appearance than shards I've seen in Hohokum ruins along Cave Creek. Many of the shards had rough surfaces, some appeared to have a pattern in the roughness, unlike the smooth almost polished surface of the Hohokum pottery. Another thing I found surprising - after finding our way around the entire length of the ledge leading to the outermost ruin on the north wall, there was a cow pie. Those range cattle are amazing beasts.
We took our time on this hike stopping to take lots of pictures, exploring all four sets of ruins and taking it very slow and cautious through the more trecherous sections of the trail - total time was about 7.5 hours. We camped at Pottery (Cow Pie) Point that night and explored the length of the point the next morning looking for pottery shards which might explain its name - we didn't find any. |
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