DESTINATION Generic 264 Photosets
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| Cave Creek Canyon Ruin Trek, AZ | | -
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| | Cave Creek Canyon Ruin Trek, AZ | | | |
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Cave Creek Canyon Ruin Trek, AZ
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| Hiking | 8.10 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 8.10 Miles | | | |
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| no partners | | Another hike in the Spur Cross - Cave Creek Canyon area to confirm the locations of four Hohokam ruins identified in an old archeology report. Two of the ruins are fairly well known and are included on the ruin hike periodically given by the park ranger. The first ruin I visited is so large and the crumbled down rock walls are so visible that I first spotted it on Google Earth. It is on a well used side trail about 0.2 miles off the Spur Cross trail. Beside this side trail is one of those "Closed Area" signs - I assumed that meant stay on the trail although you may interpret it differently and prefer to go on one of the park ranger guided ruin tours. Much of the southwest side of these ruins can be readily seen from the end of this side trail without actually entering this archaeological site. Per the archaeology report this site had approximately 30 rooms in two compounds surrounded by peripheral walls. These walls are now rows of rocks. Pottery sherds proliferate the site - most of these are various shades of reddish brown to light tan. I included pictures of one piece that was somewhat different having a dark reddish brown color applied to the outside surface and black applied to the inside surface. The entire site covers an area about 400 ft by 200 ft based on distances measured on Google Earth. This seem to be a typical size for the larger habitation sites I've visited in Cave Creek Canyon.
After a quick visit to the first site I headed towards the Tonto Nat'l Forest boundary and a hill top where the archaeology report indicated a ruin with six rooms is located. This is a lesser known ruin and requires a steep off trail hillside climb to reach it. The small amount of rocks in the walls made me wonder if there had been completed rooms here. I did not see any pottery sherds although the report indicates there were sherds at the time of the report. This was not an impressive site but was a good spot for lunch with views of the Spur Cross area. From this site I headed cross country towards trail #252 passing by a high rock covered knob that has a fort type ruin on top. I didn't visit this site because I had been there before - it is listed as a fort site in the archaeology report but is not well known. While working my way through some brush below this fort I came across a rock with petroglyphs.
My next destination was the top of a knob near a fork in the trail to Black Mesa with the south fork going to Rondo Spring. Just before reaching the knob the trail descends into a deep draw. Not wanting to loose all my hard earned elevation I decided to bushwack to the ridgeline south of the knob. Lucky me - I stumbled upon a sizeable habitation ruin on this ridge line that was not listed in the archeology report. This one was interesting because it wasn't built entirely on level ground like many of the habitation sites and appeared to have walled terrace areas. Also it's a long distance from Cave Creek but Rondo spring might have been their water source. Again, lots of pottery sherds which were the first sign there were ruins nearby. An interesting find among the sherds was a highly polished and lumpy spherical black rock (maybe obsidian) about 0.75 inches in diameter. I haven't heard of obsidian being found in this area with the nearest I've heard of being somewhere roughly between Flagstaff and the Mogollon Rim. Could it have been an ornament in a pendant?
The fort on top of the knob was a disappointment - it wasn't there. I have noticed several errors in this archaeology report but this was the biggest. I doubt that they confused the habitation ruins I found down the ridge with a fort type ruin and they claimed there were no pottery sherds at the fort which was not the case for the other ruins. Perhaps there is another knob nearby with a fort and they confused the location when marking it on the topo map. It was now getting late in the afternoon and time to head back to the parking lot if I was going to get there before sundown. I had one more ruin site to visit on the way back. This one is right by one of the main trails, an old jeep road which runs right through the ruins. In fact it is obvious that some of the old ruin walls were bulldozed out of the way when the old ranch road was made. I've seen the ruins from the road before and just wanted to confirm that the listing of this site in the old archaeology report was at this site and not some other. This site covered a fairly large area scattered mostly along the south side of the road for approximately 800 yds. On the way I was treated to distant views of the 4 Peaks and Weaver's Needle framed in gaps between nearer mountains. I also saw two young and curious deer who posed long enough to get a couple long distance photos. One wandered fairly close until it was spooked by a strange nearby sound that I can best describe as the sound an arrow might make as it zips through brush. Never did figure out what made that noise.
Got back to the car in time to see another incredible AZ sunset from Cave Creek Rd on the drive home. It was a good day, confirming the site of 3 ruins in the old archaeology report and finding one new ruin site (to me and the report). |
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